Here’s a really interesting, and still timely, startup pitch competition for the half of the world that’s eligible. The Women 2.0 Startup Competition happens this coming spring. You still have until early April to get the business plan done, and a couple of weeks past that for the 7″x7″ summary on a napkin and the two-minute video. The contest is open to any startup that has at least one woman on the management team, from anywhere in the world.
To get you interested, here’s what the site says about last year’s winner:
Team Koollage won the 2008 Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition, scoring a private meeting with Esther Dyson and business services worth over $15,0000. Team Gaiagy walked away with the People’s Choice Award, as voted by the audience with their cell phones. TechCrunch covered Pitch 2008 here.
I really like the way this one is organized, particularly what you need to submit an entry:
- A business plan summary. It’s based on a small set of questions, fits almost onto a single page and is a reasonable summary, in my opinion. Particularly since it’s used by judges to weed through the entrants.
- Submit your business idea on a paper napkin no larger than 7×7 inches. Your name and contact info must be on the napkin so we can match it with your online application. Napkins will be exhibited to the public at Pitch Night.
- A two-minute video pitch.
That, to my mind, is a good-looking combination of media to get a business idea across.
The process leads up to a pitch night on May 7 in the Silicon Valley. Winners get a meeting with Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, plus a collection of startup-friendly services. Seems like a cool competition to me. I’m glad to be posting about this early enough to give you a chance to actually get your act together in time to enter.
Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.
