Travis Geiger, CXO of WagerWire, joins fellow founders Jonathan Gruber of Loserball, Desiree Dickerson of THNDR and Josh Swerdlow of ChatBet for a Reverse Pitch session at ICE Barcelona 2026, flipping the same old energy dynamic between startups and business gatekeepers.
Geiger introduces The Starties as a response to what he describes as “pay-to-play” awards that are likely to favour incumbents, sponsors and well-funded gamers. The idea is easy: startups judging startups.
By shifting recognition again to founders themselves, The Starties intention to supply early-stage firms visibility and validation with out having to courtroom the identical panels of judges or business companions.
Startup founders look past income to measure success
It’s tough for startups to chop by business noise. Utilizing shared publicity and mentorship, The Starties place the neighborhood as the answer, empowering founders who may in any other case wrestle to realize visibility.
In distinction to conventional awards, the initiative sees itself much less as a business enterprise and extra as a neighborhood platform. Success is just not measured in income however in outcomes for taking part firms. “We measure success by the success of the individuals which are part of The Starties neighborhood,” Geiger says.
Because the initiative grows, the panellists acknowledge the problem of preserving a founder-first tradition whereas welcoming bigger company sponsors.
The proposed reply lies in collective possession of values, distributed management and enlargement by collaboration-led occasions reasonably than scaling for its personal sake. “All of us have a price system that we’re not prepared to compromise,” Geiger provides.
Watch extra ICE 2026 studio highlights on the iGB YouTube channel.
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