Meet the Judges: $100k Small Business App Showdown

Update Oct 23: We have a late change in our illustrious judging panel! See below …

We’re excited to announce our panel of expert judges who have the challenging task of selecting the $100k grand prize winner from among the 10 finalists of the $100k Small Business App Showdown on Mon., Oct. 24, at 6pm at QuickBooks Connect 2016!

Drum roll please! ….

Gina Bianchini, CEO and Founder, MightyBell

Gina Bianchini (@ginab) is the co-founder of Mightybell, a platform for online communities that is currently hosts 48,000 networks. Before Mightybell, Gina and Marc Andreessen co-founded Ning, a pioneering social platform for niche networks online. Under her leadership, Ning grew to 90 million people across 300,000 active communities. Gina serves on the board of directors of Scripps Networks, and she co-founded LeanIn.Org. Gina and Mightybell have been featured in Wired, Fortune, Fast Company, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Mike Michalowicz, Author of Profit First

By age 35, Mike Michalowicz (@MikeMichalowicz) had founded and sold two multi-million dollar companies. He then became an angel investor — and proceeded to lose his entire fortune. Driven to find better ways to grow strong companies, he started over and created the “Profit First Formula,” a way to ensure profitability. He is now running his third million-dollar venture, is a popular speaker and author, and a former columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

Marnie Stretch, Accounting Alchemist

Marnie Stretch (@MarnieStretch) is an Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor in Canada and the US and a member of the Intuit Trainer/Writer Network. She’s also a Certified Consultant with The Sleeter Group and a member of the National Advisor Network. Marnie teaches QuickBooks at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). A challenging set of books makes Marnie happy – the messier the better. In addition, Marnie is a freelance broadcast media and live events professional.  By putting her two passions together, Marnie helps artists and other right-brain professionals navigate the left-brain world of accounting!

Join Us!

We hope you will join us on Monday, Oct. 24 at 6pm at QuickBooks Connect to watch and listen as the finalists pitch and demo their apps to these fine judges! The $100k Grand Prize winner will be announced on the QuickBooks Connect main stage on Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 25.