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contests
Why Build a Business When You Can Win One
Aug 22nd
Best Essay Wins a Fully-Loaded Drive Through Coffee Stand! Americans drink 400 million cups of coffee today, making the United States the leading consumer of coffee in the world. Obviously, despite this recession, the coffee industry is still doing well. You can be a part of this big, steady industry by participating in this essay
Startup Open looking for Promising Ventures
Jun 2nd
Entrepreneur competition seeking applicants once again Did you have a “startup moment” anytime since November 22, 2010? If so, then consider registering for Startup Open, a competition that rewards promising startups during Global Entrepreneur Week in November. Just what is a “startup moment”? It can be many things: when a business is incorporated; doors open
Shelby.tv creates customized video channels
Apr 18th
Millions of videos are watched online every day, and some of them were probably recommended to you by a friend or family member. Aggregate all those video links together with Shelby.tv, which creates a customized video channel based on all these recommendations. Your favorite recommendations can even be liked, or tweeted through Shelby.tv. Although it’s still in its alpha stages, Shelby.tv already sees high user engagement, with an average of 15 minutes per user per day.
Essentially, it turns your computer into a personalized television. No more commercials! (Cross fingers)
Shelby.tv was one of 11 startups to be selected to participate in TechStars NYC, a three-month mentorship investment program that takes place in four cities (the other three are Seattle, Boulder, and Boston). These companies get up to $18,000 in seed funding, three months of intensive top-notch mentorship, and the chance to pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists at the end of the program.
TechStars is currently accepting applications, so if you’re a startup in need of funding and mentorship, and are based in one of those four cities, then apply today!
Win $500 in services for your startup
Mar 30th
Elance, an online marketplace for freelancers, freelance agencies, and businesses to negotiate independent contracts, is sponsoring a contest for startups to win $500 in services and professional help. Known as the Startup Cloud Contest, services up for grabs include logo design, website development, market research, social media, or legal advice. The contest is also part of a new feature of Elance called Startup Cloud, designed to provide entrepreneurial advice and other small business advice.
Folks can enter the contest anytime between March 28, 2011 and June 28, 2011. Include any links to videos, assets, etc. to provide additional details about your company or startup idea. Only one entry allowed per contestant, and contestants must be an Elance member in order to enter (it’s free to become a member). Three winners will be chosen over the course of three months. One winner with the most compelling story will be selected and announced by Elance on April 30, 2011, May 31, 2011 and June 30, 2011, receiving the $500 credit for Elance services towards upcoming projects.
A recent study by Kauffman Foundation found that entrepreneurs are building startups at the highest rate in 15 years, and they are choosing to go into business alone instead of hiring employees. According to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, a leading indicator of new business creation in the United States, 0.34% of American adults created a business per month in 2010, for a total of 565,000 new businesses. That rate remained consistent with 2009 and represents the highest level of entrepreneurship over the past decade and a half.
Not only is this time of the Great Recession a great time to hire, but it’s also a fruitful time for folks to create their own jobs by starting their own businesses. Don’t miss out on this opportunity for services to start and to grow your startup.
New startup competition will award over $75,000 in resources
Mar 25th
Calling all new startups! If you’re still looking for the resources to make your business venture a reality, then you may want to enter Contegix’s Start-Up, Boot-Up™ program. Just send in the details of your startup by April 10, 2011 and the selection committee will select the one with the most promise for commercial success, or positive social change, and award the tools to turn that vision into reality.
Contegix is a managed hosting provider based in St. Louis, MO. The company offers high-level managed hosting solutions for enterprise applications and infrastructure. The name “Contegix” stems from the Latin word “contego” which means “to shield or to protect”, the basis for the company’s philosophy is to take every precaution possible, from redundant power to intelligently routed network to our management principles, ensuring that your Internet presence is shielded from downtime.
A completed application can also be mailed to: Heidi E. Dubrouillet, Contegix, 900 Walnut Street, Suite 110, Saint Louis, MO 63102.
The prizes of this contest include:
- Free Office Space In St. Louis
- Contegix-Managed Web & Managed Database Server, Upgrades & Unmanaged Development Tools
- Flite Diamond-Level Mobile Subscription & A Meeting With Their CEO & CTO
- CustomWare TrainingRocket High-Impact Professional Training Application On Cloud-Based Platform
- Atlassian Bitbucket Account, Or 10-User JIRA Studio Account Or 100-User Version JIRA, An Espresso Machine & 10 T-Shirts
- Zimbra Email & Collaboration Solution Delivered As A VMWare Virtual Appliance
- BrowserMob Load Testing & Monitoring Plan
- 2 Free Passes To Strange Loop 2011
PepsiCo Issues Open Call for Innovation Incubator Program
Jun 16th
Hey, lets accept it, we are getting out of bad times and going into good times. Great innovation booms at such junctures and Pepsi wants to nurture this. After their “refresh the world” campaign Pepsi is setting up an innovation incubator program “Pepsico10″ to incubate new ideas. The program will connect 10 entrepreneurial groups with mentors, investment and eventually – success. Head to pepsico10.com to get in line for this gold rush. BUT, there’s one catch. Your ideas will be used to make Pepsico better. Still interested? Full PR after the break.
Volkswagen Invites Users to Help Create the Infotainment Systems of the Future
Jun 3rd
Volkswagen is inviting designers, programmers, developers and interested users to help develop applications for the Infotainment systems of the future as part of the Open Innovation Contest, “App My Ride”. With this contest, Volkswagen has become the first car manufacturer to use the idea of open innovation for the further development of its products. In
Have you got Britain’s oldest boiler? Npower Energy will buy it for $6500
May 23rd
Since the UK Government’s boiler scrappage scheme launched in January, npower hometeam has overseen the removal of hundreds of ancient boilers across the length and breadth of the country. With record numbers of Brits taking advantage of the scheme, which offers consumers £400 off a new, energy efficient boiler when replacing one which is G-Rated, hometeam
“MoonBots” Challenges Parent-Child Teams to Conduct Google Lunar X PRIZE Missions with LEGO Robots
Apr 26th
he X PRIZE Foundation, Google Inc., LEGO Systems, National Instruments, and Wired’s GeekDad will announce “MoonBots: A Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Challenge” today at the FIRST WORLD Championships. The new contest will challenge small teams comprised of children and adults to design, program, and construct robots that perform simulated lunar missions similar to those required to win the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, a private race to the Moon designed to enable commercial exploration of space while engaging the global public. To further this purpose, the X PRIZE Foundation and Google have now joined forces with three other well known technology companies to offer a competition that will stimulate learning of robotics and team building while exciting students and their families about their potential roles in the new Moon race.
“The Google Lunar X PRIZE is helping to open a new era of lunar exploration that will involve much broader participation than the first Moon race,” said William Pomerantz, Senior Director for Space Prizes at the X PRIZE Foundation. “We want students and their parents to understand that they can tackle difficult engineering problems and generate important new ideas regardless of their age or their background—and that they can have fun doing so. This contest is quite accessible for even very young children, but still demands creativity, intelligence, and hard work. It’s a perfect starting point for the next generation of rocket scientists!”
Ideabing gift certificate giveaway
Apr 2nd
We will make this really easy for you. Ideabing is giving away a $5 Gift certificate to EVERY person signing up for our daily newsletter. No exceptions. Sign up here: http://eepurl.com/i5e8 Sign up with a valid email address – that’s where the gift certificate will be delivered. Please allow 4-8 weeks for delivery of gift certificates. Context ends 24
