Investing in mobile content technology companies is challenging, but a handful of startups in this market got a wakeup call.

At Tuesday’s VCDemo, startups got five minutes to pitch their company to a panel of three VCs: Cynthia Ringo, a managing director at Van Venture Partners; Motorola Ventures managing director Hashul Sanghi; and Qualcomm Ventures director of North America operations Nagraj Kashyap. The panelists were then asked whether they would fund the company. It was a tough sell.

For example, the presentation of Andy Kleitsch, founder and CEO of Billing Revolution, was panned for failing to explain why the mobile billing service is different from other available services. All three VCs gave it a thumbs down. Similarly, FoneMine Inc. founder and CEO Jagadish Bandhole, who tried to explain the allure of his mobile application services startup, was shot down in flames. Ringo commented: “I’m very confused about what you are doing and who you are targetting.”

“I wouldn’t fund this,” Kashyap added. “I don’t know how you’d scale this into a venture-backed company.”

One key gripe — a lack of clarity surrounding startups’ business models — might have been a function of the brief amount of time allotted to each presenter, but some were able to score points with investors.

Maybe it took awhile for the VC judges to warm up, but the last startup to present got the best reception. Zing Systems Inc. makes a handheld device that looks like a combination of cell phone and iPod and enables devices to connect to, download, manage and exchange entertainment content via Wi-Fi or other wireless protocols without requiring a PC.

While they said they still weren’t 100% clear on the business model outlined by Zing founder and CEO Tim Bucher, the network agnostic platform and the compelling demonstration he gave got kudos, and each VC said he or she would agree to a meeting with Zing execs. —Olaf de Senerpont Domis

Tags: vc, venture+capital, web 2.0, wireless