There is a spate of competitions for startups and wannabe startups that are all running currently. You should consider submitting an entry (or nominating yourself) since that doesn’t take up too much time, and can in some cases, get you some good publicity / visibility. And if you actually win, then that’s even better.
SIBM’s Endeavor 2008 Business Plan Competition
SIBM is proud to present Pitch Perfect 480 contest. This event seeks to provide an opportunity for the working professionals/start ups to gather momentum through Seed Funding.
The structure of the event is:
Registration opens and Invite Business Pitch Presentations: 10th September 2008 to 5nd October 2008
Short listing of best 12 Business Pitch Presentations: 05th November 2008
8 minute (that’s 480 seconds, hence the name of the contest) presentations by the selected teams at SIBM Campus: 15th November 2008
The top 2 teams would get an opportunity to compete for funding of Rs. 50 million.
We are pleased to inform you that Venture Capitalists like SEEDFund, NEA-IndoUS Ventures, IndiaCo Ventures Ltd. have confirmed their participation in the event.
For registration: www.sibm.edu/endeavour08 or
Contact organizing team: pitchperfect@sibm.net
IIT-Bombay’s EUREKA! Business Plan Contest
The Entrepreneurship Cell of IIT-Bombay is organizing EUREKA! The
Biggest International Business Plan Competition in Asia.
Prizes worth USD 50,000 are to be won with finalists getting a chance
to pitch in front of Mumbai Angels.
Teams will get a chance to represent India at the Intel-UC Berkeley
Innovation Challenge. Special Category this year is cleantech. Its simple to participate,
just log on to www.eureka.ecell.in
The Tata NEN startup popularity contest
Tata and NEN announce the first ever people’s choice Awards for great young companies, the TATA NEN Hottest Startups Awards launched on Aug 27!
Who’s involved?
TATA has joined with NEN to bring you the Awards, with support from Major Partners Helion, Seedfund, Mint and Wadhwani Foundation and from the entire entrepreneurial community to make this a great success.
>> Check out the great list of partners and their participation.
A better world for Startups
We’re hoping to get more than 500 Nominations, and reach over 5,00,000 people. With this, Hottest Startups will be the largest, most comprehensive Awards recognizing and supporting high-growth startups in India. Let’s help make the world a better place for startups!
Know a great startup? Nominate.
This is a great opportunity for us to showcase the startups in our community.
The startups should be 5 years or younger, headquartered in India, and poised
to shape their industries. Do you know any? Did we just describe your startup? >>Please go online and nominate.
Hot or not? You decide.
In this competition, you are one of the decision makers. As soon as a Nominee goes online, the voting opens for that company. You can vote once for every single Nominee. You can vote either online or by sms.
>>Please go online, and vote: Help your favorite nominees win!
Hottest Stuff: Voter Lucky Draw
Everyone gets a chance to win at TATA NEN Hottest Startups!
As soon as you vote, you are automatically entered into the TATA NEN Hottest Startups Voter Contests. Every week, 100 voters are randomly selected to get their fun prizes.
Contest: deadlines
Nominations and Voting open August 27. Winners are chosen through combination of Expert Reviews and voting. Voting for Phase 1 closes Nov 5, and the shortlist of 30 companies is announced Nov 6. Phase 2 begins Nov 6. The 5 Winners will be announced Dec 23.
>> Details on contest rules.
What do the TATA NEN Hottest Startup Winners get?
Winners receive a powerful combination of tailored business development support, access to funding and incubation, and lots of great publicity, including profiles in a special supplement of Mint. Business support will be provided by Knowledge Partners, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and the Startup Accelerator at Microsoft.
Innovations 2009
The IIT-Bombay Alumni Association of Pune has an annual event to celebrate innovation in India. This is usually quite good, although it is not restricted purely to infotech or even tech, so the focus is rather broad – which is a good thing or a bad thing depending upon your point of view. But in any case, it is an event that you should try to get into. For details see PuneTech’s previous post about Innovations 2009.
Do these help?
Question for you: do events like these help? If you have been a startup that went through an event like this, did you find it worth it? I’d like to hear from both, winners as well as those who did not. Please leave a comment below so the rest of the community can get an idea of how much time to spend on such activities.