Next week, there will be 44 companies pitching on-stage at the the second annual LAUNCH Festival.

One lucky winner will get $100,000 if they move their company to Las Vegas.

Jason Calacanis spoke to us about LAUNCH, which will be held on March 7 and 8 at the San Francisco Design centre.

Calacanis said he spent the last two weeks coaching the companies. He plans on personally investing in two to three of the companies after the event.

There will also be a demo pit, so companies who didn’t make the cut to be on-stage, can have a table and a chance to take the stage.

Some of the judges at the event will be Tony Hsieh of Zappos, David Cohen of TechStars, Dave McClure of 500 Startups, Kevin Rose of Milk, and Naval Ravikant of AngelList.

What makes LAUNCH different than other conferences is that there are no panels or fireside chats, he said. “We focus on new products being launched on-stage for the first time,” Calacanis said.

With $489,000 in prize money up for grabs, Calacanis said, it all comes down to the pitch.
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