????《財富》雜志（Fortune）編輯部在決定將哪些企業作為報道對象時，各位同事都會格外精挑細選。而當我們在科羅拉多州阿斯彭市舉行的年度盛事“頭腦風暴技術類公司競賽”（Brainstorm Tech competition）上評選“創業偶像”（Startup Idol）時更是鄭重其事。畢竟，最終只有一家企業能夠獲得“創業偶像”大獎。

????今年共有五家初創企業角逐這大獎。獎品包括赫曼?米勒公司（Herman Miller）出品的家具和一臺全新的聯想（Lenovo）多點觸控電腦。下面我們就來了解一下各家候選公司的情況，看看誰會成為最后的優勝者：

????Bina科技公司

????候選理由：雖然現在做一次人類基因測序只需花1,000美元，但分析原始基因數據的費用還是高達1萬美元。位于加州紅木海岸（Redwood Shores）的Bina科技公司認為，這其實是一個巨大的機遇。該公司源于斯坦福大學（Stanford University）和加州大學伯克利分校（UC Berkeley）聯手開展的一個癌癥研究項目，去年才正式創立。它推出的產品是Bina Box。Bina Box利用公司開發的硬件和軟件分解、壓縮并處理數據，然后將數據傳送到儲存并進一步處理數據的Bina云（Bina Cloud），或傳送到專為該公司定制的一個私有云中。

????評委點評：UberMedia公司的首席執行官比爾?格羅斯表示：“你們追求的目標很遠大。搶占先機是好事，但是行動太超前的話就頗具挑戰性了。先從在座的合伙人手里拉些投資吧。確保你們能撐到市場真正形成的那一天。”

????Afterschool.me公司

????候選理由：首席執行官兼創始人伊萬?費爾德曼創辦的這家企業可以被視為一個在線中心，它擁有一些社交網絡的要素，致力于幫助家長為孩子尋找課余補習項目。費爾德曼稱：“我們使培訓機構與家長的交流變得更便捷，并且給它們帶來新的利潤源。”

????評委點評：格羅斯說：“我喜歡這個產品，也會用在自己孩子身上。但是你們需要打響知名度，要通過一些獨特的角度來獲得關鍵的多數客戶，這樣才能吸引大量客戶。我也不知道具體該怎么做，但這是你們需要努力的重點。”

????Axonify公司

????候選理由：這家公司成立于2011年，主要致力于改變雇主培訓員工的方式。它位于安大略省的滑鐵盧市，所用的主要工具是一種基于云的軟件。這種軟件圍繞一種名為“間歇式重復”（spaced repetition）的行為學習技術構建。它在電腦、智能手機、銷售終端和安全終端等各種設備上提供各種短小的問題、數據片段和游戲，每天只需花90秒或更少時間即可完成。

????評委點評：社交+資本合伙公司（Social + Capital Partnership）的一般合伙人馬姆恩?海密德稱：“我確實很喜歡你們的項目。畢竟重新培訓員工要比重新招人容易得多。”

????Sift公司

????候選理由：普通電子郵件用戶每年收到的購物類郵件超過9,000封。如果這一數字屬實，那么任何時候，用戶的收件箱都有50%的空間都被這類郵件占據。這使電子郵件的使用體驗變得糟糕透頂，郵箱似乎充斥著零售商的電郵、每日特賣和訂貨確認信息，簡直泛濫成災。Sift的投資方是移動創業公司的推動者Tandem公司和一些像商務社交網站LinkedIn公司的資深副總裁迪普?尼薩這樣的天使投資人。作為一個購物類應用，Sift專為平板電腦和智能手機打造。通過從用戶的購物郵件、Facebook上顯示的偏好和發布的Tweet及其他網絡痕跡中獲取的相關信息，Sift能創造一種移動購物體驗。而那些煩人的購物郵件呢？用戶可以選擇把它們自動保存到一個獨立的文件夾里。

????評委點評：海密德的問題是：“你們如何獲取用戶并使用這種產品呢？現在市場上電子商務已經表現出疲態，所以要讓人使用另一種應用以鞏固市場份額會是一個巨大的挑戰。”

????Storycoach公司

????候選理由：Story Coach公司通過讓用戶動筆寫故事或將口述內容變成文本的方式讓他們獲得故事。其內在技術還能搜索網絡，找到相關圖片、視頻和文章，并將所有這些整合起來，打造一個富含多種媒體內容的復述故事。

????評委點評：“這個創意很有意思。但是對我來說，它似乎屬于太細分的市場領域。而且，它似乎很容易復制：其他許多大公司只要愿意，就能推出這種服務。它必須要做到脫穎而出，成為一個功能精良的產品。我絕不會在它還半生不熟時就倉促把它推向市場。”

????最后贏家是：Axonify公司。

????譯者：清遠

????Fortune's fourth-annual contest for the perfect elevator pitch.

????Here at Fortune, the staff is selective when it comes to the companies we cover. When it comes to our Startup Idol competition at the annual Brainstorm Tech competition in Aspen, Colo., it's fair to say that the stakes are even higher. After all, only one startup can win.

????This year, five startups vied for the mantle and prizes included furniture from Herman Miller and a new multi-touch computer from Lenovo. Meet the contestants, and find out which one emerged the victor:

????Bina Technologies

????The pitch: Though the human genome can now be sequenced for as little as $1,000, analyzing that raw genetic data can still cost upwards of $10,000. The Redwood Shores, California-based Bina Technologies, sees that as an opportunity. The company, founded last year, began as a cancer research project at Stanford University and UC Berkeley, and produced the Bina Box, which pairs company-developed hardware and software to crunch, compress and process data, then either transmits it to the Bina Cloud, which stores and processes the data, or a private cloud constructed for the company.

????Judge's comment: "I think you're going after something that's incredible," said UberMedia CEO Bill Gross. "It's good to be early, but to be way too early is challenging. Get some money out of these partners. Make sure you're alive when the market really booms."

????Afterschool.me

????The pitch: Think of CEO and founder Evan Fieldman's venture as an online hub with social networking elements focused on helping parents find after-school programming for their kids. "We're faciliating conversations with parents and introducing new revenue streams beyond registration," says COE and founder Evan Fieldman.

????Judge's comment: "I loved the product and would use it for my own kids," said Gross. "But you need awareness, some angle to get critical mass but also so people can turn to you. I don't have the idea, but that's where you need to focus."

????Axonify

????The pitch: Founded in 2011, the company aims to transform the way employers train workers. The Waterloo, Ontario-based startup uses cloud-based software built around a behavioral-learning technique called "spaced repetition" that serves up trivia-style questions, bits of data, and games on different devices -- computers, smartphones, point-of-sale, and security terminals -- and take 90 seconds a day or less to complete.

????Judge's comment: "I really like what it is you do," said Mamoon Hamid, General Partner, The Social + Capital Partnership. "It's easier to retrain than to rehire."

????Sift

????The pitch: The average email user receives over 9,000 shopping messages a year, which, if true, can account for 50% of their inbox at any given time. That can make for an awfully clumsy email experience, one seemingly overrun by retailer emails, daily deals, and order confirmations. Backed by mobile startup accelerator Tandem and angel investors like LinkedIn Senior Vice President Deep Nishar, Sift is a shopping app for the tablet and smartphone set that creates a mobile shopping experienced based around a user's preferences and history from shopping emails, Facebook preferences, and Tweets, among other things. As for those pesky shopping emails? Users have the option of having them automatically moved into a separate folder.

????Judge's comment: How do you acquire users and use a product like this?" asked Hamid. "There's an e-commerce fatigue in the market today and trying to get someone to use another app to consolidate will be a challenge."

????Storycoach

????The pitch: Story Coach lets users capture stories either by letting them write them out or translating their spoken word to text. Under-the-hood tech also scours the Internet for items like relevant photos, videos, and articles, and weaves them in to create a media-rich retelling of the story.

????Judge's comment: "Interesting idea, but it seems a little bit niche to me and it seems pretty replicable that a lot of other bigger companies could put out if they wanted to. It really has to come out and be a really elegant product to use. I wouldn't put it out halfway done.

????And the winner was: Axonify.