They all took their turns, one after the other, so young and full of promise.

The toddler companies showed off the tricks they have mastered and said what they want to be when they grow up.

Yesterday was demo day at AlphaLab.

Jim Jen, the director of AlphaLab, a technology incubator based in the South Side, acted like a piano teacher on recital day, introducing each piece, and updating those who had seen his previous students on what they were doing now.

The Resumator, a resume aggregation software company that went through AlphaLab six months ago, is seeing growth in its client base; iTwixie, a Web site for 'tween girls, was going to have exciting news soon; Chogger, a Web site to create your own comics that was in the fall class of AlphaLab in 2008, has partnered with a reality television show in Europe.

The companies from the current class yesterday had the opportunity to give their best Power Point presentations to real-life venture capitalists to show why they should fund their companies.

LeftRight Studios wants $300,000 to further develop games for the iPhone that can be pegged to advertisers.

NavPrescience is seeking $300,000 for its smart GPS system.

Vivo, the live video site, (see the previous story on them at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09197/984226-96.stm) is looking for $250,000.

And, while CloudFab already has had a round of funding and has launched its beta site, it is looking toward a public launch next year. The company has developed a program that it can use to price fabrication of a product or artifact, such as a museum fossil or (using MRI information) someone's jaw, and send out the information to computerized fabricators to make precise models.

Fooala, a company that has developed software for restaurants to use to make ordering easy, rounds out the list of companies that went through the AlphaLab incubator.

The 20-week AlphaLab program provides an office, $25,000 of investment from Innovation Works to help companies with incidentals and -- the most valuable piece of all -- guidance. Demo day was one of the last hurdles these fledgling companies will have to climb before they are sent out to make it on their own.

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