In preparation for a military parade, the Chinese government had limited traffic and factory output for weeks, in order to clear Beijing’s infamous smog—as a result the event got underway with a one-day training camp, under an unusually blue sky. Coaching and info sessions, mixed with games and a cooking competition (yes, these are traditional Chinese dumplings in the picture below) made for a fun warm-up for the big day.

The jury comprised 20 judges from a variety of VC firms and technology companies including household names like Menlo, JVP, Garage, and EMC. Each contestant got six minutes to pitch and five minutes for Q&A. We were one of only a few enterprise software startups in a very strong field of mostly consumer-oriented companies. As you can imagine, presenting the highly technical and complex subject of data virtualization in only six minutes is a pretty tough challenge—competing with polished consumer plays and business model innovations is even tougher.

And yet, we made it: We took home the Grand Prize of USD 200,000—the top 5 finishers shared USD one million—and we ranked highest among all enterprise software startups! In short, GIA was a great validation of our vision, or as one VC put it “great company, great presentation, and a great need for this product.”