The second day of the Microsoft BizSpark competition at SXSWi was the playoff leading to the Final Four winners. Over 450 companies submitted applications for this prize of $4000, an iPad2, tickets to next year’s SXSWi, and other rewards.

Unlike the first day when presenters were limited to 2 minutes, this round allowed them 5, followed by 10 minutes of questioning from the panel.

Noted investor Mark Suster introduced the companies from the stage and got the first crack at the questions.  Each category also had 3 front-row judges who got to ask questions and cast the deciding votes.

You can read a summary of all the presenting companies and get the results here, so I will make some general observations of the day.

These finalists had presented the day before, had been well coached, and certainly had plenty of time to prepare.  In spite of that, Suster had the opportunity to make some blunt observations about presentations and presentation styles, quoted more or less verbatim:

•                “You talk too fast in a monotone, need more narrative, and should show more product.”

•                “Does anybody care about this problem?”

•                “You should try harder to fit into existing workflow habits.  And, I don’t believe your monetization strategy.”  (eventual winner)

•                “Great idea, but lose the gimmicks in your presentation.  Tell me more about the team, your methods.  This is an area I know.”

•                “My favorite presentation, you have relevant backgrounds, good style, and a strong business case.”  (not a winner)

•                “Is this just a lead gen business?”  (winner)

•                “How many people are actually using this?” (winner)

•                “There’s no trust left in Craigs List, and eBay has lost its sense of community, but you still have a chicken and egg problem.” (consolation prize for bootstrapping, this one pretty obvious)

My thoughts on the competition:

In the News Category, Storify was the only for-profit to reach the pitch-offs.  This is a very interesting play that would allow me, for example, to include in a post dynamic Twitter feeds and other social media, which I would use.  I signed up for a private beta that was offered, so we’ll see how it works.

The Innovative Web Category had stiff competition, including ATL-based Kabbage which is providing otherwise unobtainable financing for online merchants using a novel approach to credit measurement.  However, Hipmunk blew everyone else away with an early slide showing its AAA-list of investors and advisers including Ron Conway’s fund and Ashton Kucher, who was around SXSWi somewhere but never happened to sit next to me.  They are the disrupters of Kayak, which has filed for an IPO, and have a true advancement in UI, rating air trips by agony and hotel stays by ecstasy. (There’s a good straight line there for a jokester, but this is a gentile blog.)  This one is a Valley special going after a big market with a very engaging young team.

The Social Media Category was captured by PopVox with a well-conceived design to allow members of Congress to deal with the ever growing avalanche of messages from supporters, opponents and constituents with respect to bills on the floor.  The new waves of social media have created too many input channels for our public servants, and this is a problem begging for some organization.  The team (CEO Marci Harris pictured above) was especially impressive, with two women at the top and all highly credentialed in their chosen domain.

I skipped the Entertainment Category and have no comment.  I found Reid Hoffman to be more entertaining and informative during that time slot.

In case you missed my Tweet, special mention goes to the CEO of NeighborGoods, a sharing site, for her statistic that “the average power drill gets used only 12 minutes in its entire lifetime.”

Congratulations to all who made the finals.  I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from them.