“There are hundreds of startups every year who try to gain attention at South by Southwest,” said Matt Marshall, VentureBeat CEO. “This competition and platform will allow startups to promote themselves to a larger audience and rise above the noise of the
Austin, TX (PRWEB) March 09, 2013
The editors of VentureBeat, a media company that covers disruptive technology and explains why it matters in our lives, have announced WinSXSW.com, a tech startup pitch contest which will be held at SXSW. Powered by micro-content sharing platform Fandrop, WinSXSW.com will allow startups to pitch their companies in “30 seconds or less,” then let fans vote for their favorite startups in several different categories. The contest will run for the duration of SXSW Interactive, from March 8 to March 15. Voters will be able to see the most trending startups in a real-time dashboard.
“There are hundreds of startups every year who try to gain attention at South by Southwest,” said Matt Marshall, VentureBeat CEO. “This competition and platform will allow startups to promote themselves to a larger audience and rise above the noise of the conference.”
How It Works:
Entrepreneurs pitch their startup on camera to the official WinSXSW.com team.
After the video of their pitch is posted, startups can promote their link on Fandrop to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and G+. Those with the most votes and “shares” will win. Fandrop also provides analytics for startups entered in the competition. At WinSXSW.com, voters will be able to see a startup’s interview answers, timed under a stopwatch at 30-second intervals.
“The format of the competition and the platform will allow all of the best startups to get their fair share of attention from those at the conference and for those sitting at home who are curious about who is getting the most buzz at South By,” said Ken Zi Wang, Fandrop Co-Founder & CEO. “Watching the entrepreneur interview under a stopwatch will be also be fun and ensure that voters won’t have to sit through long videos.”
Enter Now:
Startups will compete in more than ten categories, including Best Mobile, Best Consumer, Best Bootstrapped, Best Overall, Investors’ Pick, and VentureBeat Pick, along with daily winners. The $100K+ prize package includes cash, app packages, and meetings with more than 20 investors/venture capitalists. The competition runs from the start of SXSW Interactive on March 8th and ends on March 15th. Fans can vote starting March 9th. Daily winners will be announced at: http://www.venturebeat.com/tag/sxsw. Other category winners will be announced on March 20th.
To enter, visit: http://register.winsxsw.com/
Participating Investors:
Gil Penchina, Keith Teare, Ed Roman, Sam Shank, Raj Singh, Trevor Owens, Kip McClanahan (Silverton Partners), Salil Deshpande (Bay Partners), Ajay Agarwal (Bain Capital Venture), Sahil Gupta (Bain Capital Venture), Brian Ascher (Venrock), Richard Kerby (Venrock), Josh Elman (Greylock), Scott Raney (Redpoint Ventures), Arif Janmohamed (Lightspeed Venture), Rafal Bator (Enterprise Investors Venture Fund), Richard Mordini (Javelin Venture), Bill Boebel (Capital Factory), Eric Chin (Crosslink Capital), Bill Tai (Charles River Venture), Ullas Naik (Streamlined Ventures), Stephanie Palmeri (SoftTech VC), Kirsten Green (Forerunner Ventures), Gaurav Tewari (SAP Ventures), Bruce Taragin (Blumberg Capital), James Conlon (Bullpen Capital), Kevin Webb (Webb Investment Network)
More judges are being added to the list.
Sponsors and Partners:
Carbon Five, Clarity, NephoScale, inDinero, First Republic Bank, Luxr, Hackers and Founders, RocketSpace, Sauce, SeoMoz, Startup Weekend, Unbounce, Precog, Spark59
http://register.winsxsw.com/sponsors/
About VentureBeat
Founded in 2006, VentureBeat has emerged as one of the “best blogs on the web” according to The New York Times, offering 5 million readers per month (Source: comScore) unparalleled insight into the most relevant emerging technologies, trends, companies, and the business opportunities they create. Led by Matt Marshall and a team of experienced journalists, the company has grown into the leading source for breaking news and in-depth reporting on a range of technology trends—from social to mobile, to cloud technology, clean technology and gaming. The company also brings the community together several times per year with its own executive-level conferences including: Mobile Summit, MobileBeat, CloudBeat, and GamesBeat. For more information, visit: http://www.venturebeat.com.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Bill Lessard
PRwithBrains for VentureBeat
wlessard(at)prwithbrains(dot)com
914.476.6089 - office
914.330.3501 - cell
Kevin Leu
Fandrop
Kevin(at)Fandrop(dot)com
858-361-4407
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