Bill Harding of Bonanzle

I am reporting today from the WTIA's Fast Pitch Forum where 23 startup companies are pitching their businesses in eight minutes or less. Each time the clock expires, a bell rings signaling the entrepreneur to close his or her remarks. The pressure is on.

I am going to do my best to channel Simon Cowell as I listen to the pitches, offering my rating and thoughts on some as they try to impress judges such as Bruce Milne of Corum Group and Patrick Ennis of Intellectual Ventures. You can also follow along as Chris Pirillo streams the event live.

Here's a quick summary of the first four pitches, with my rating on a scale of one (total flame out) to 10 (Susan Boyle-esque).

Mpire: Online ad network. It faces tough competition, with founder Matt Hulett noting that there are 344 potential competitors who are operating some type of ad network. A judge asks the key question: What about Google? Hulett's business isn't the easiest to understand, so eight minutes is a bit tough to win over a crowd. Rating: 5

Bonanzle: An online marketplace for buyers and sellers. I love this question from one of the judges: "You list no competitors. Who are they?" That's key when you are making a pitch -- just be up front on the potential rivals. That resonates more than avoiding the competition. The old adage rings true with investors as well as journalists: No competition, no market. Rating: 4

AdReady: Self service display advertising. I know one judge who will like this pitch: Madrona's Matt McIlwain. His firm is an investor in AdReady. "Obviously, we are investors, so I am biased," said McIlwain before asking a question. Also, the pitch was led by Senior Vice President Mark Feldman, rather than CEO Aaron Finn. They have a big threat from Google as well, which introduced a competing product last October. Feldman said they are responding to that by just "staying focused." Will that really be enough? Rating: 3

Reality Gap: An online transaction system for massively multiplayer online role-playing games. CEO Michael Williams has this gig figured out, hook the audience with humor. He also wisely explained the market and touted the management, including video game pioneer Nolan Bushnell. And Williams did it with plenty of time to spare. A master stroke of pitching, especially fielding a question from Matt McIlwain who asked about competition from Madrona-backed WildTangent. "We just stole the number three guy from WildTangent, and we're working on number two," said Williams. That should wake up McIlwain. Rating: 9

Stop back here for more updates, as well as coverage of Tim Draper's keynote speech. And you can follow my short summaries on Twitter.

Update: Here's the next batch of companies, which are operating in in the productivity and platforms arena.

LiquidPlanner: Online project management service. Let's face it, project management is not sexy stuff. But CEO Charles Seybold grabbed attention with a lively presentation that included an easy-to-understand pitch as well as a good set of slides. "Did I go too fast?" asked Seybold after making the pitch. Not in my view. And Seybold did a good job of fielding questions, especially when he told the judges how LiquidPlanner is different from BaseCamp and Microsoft Project. Overall, a very solid pitch from a CEO who is known to polish his presentations. Rating: 8

Gist: An online service to manage information overload. CEO T.A. McCann is flying high after the company's recent $6.75 million venture round, and that momentum continued into this pitch. Obviously, he's on a roll. It took a little too long to get into the meat of the product, but when he did it resonated. McCann also did a good job of explaining how Gist is different from Xobni, noting that the company is trying to "re-imagine" the email inbox. Rating: 7

DataSphere: Web site creation, hosting and profit management. I must say, the presentation just flew over my head. I was simply lost. And I would have to say there were a few too many buzzwords, with not enough examples of what the product does. The company is repositioning from its days as SecondSpace, and it appears to still be figuring out the messaging. Rating: 2

Vantos: A platform to automate fraud investigations, HR procedures, disaster recovery. Short and sweet presentation, but judges had questions about the size of the market and the tough sales cycle. (Photo of VP of marketing Raju Dodhiawala below) Rating 5 

Update: Sorry folks, I got tied up with some breaking news as well as the luncheon keynote with venture capitalist Tim Draper and was unable to adequately cover every pitch. Anyway, there were some great presentations this afternoon, and Brian Westbrook says he will be posting clips to YouTube soon. (I'll let you know when I get a link).

Meanwhile, audience members voted on the top pitches. Here are the winners: AdReady, Swype and TeachStreet.