[Posted on November 16, 2007 - 4:42 PM]
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DiggBusiness plan competitions and pitch contests were once fairly rare, and insignificant, events. No longer. As the costs of starting and running a profitable technology business decline, such contests can provide a source of dealflow for investors.
The competitions are generally hosted by universities, but networking groups also stage them to showcase their members or highlight the innovation emerging from a particular geographic region. Several angels and early-stage venture capitalists I've spoken with have met entrepreneurs through business
plan competitions. Meanwhile, they help entrepreneurs such as GrubHub CEO Matt Maloney, who raised $1.1 million this week from Origin Ventures, get startups off the ground.Prizes for these competitions can range from zero up to $100,000. At the middle-to-high end, that can pay the bills while an entrepreneur builds out a service. At the low end, such as the $25,000 won by online delivery service and menu repository GrubHub, the money is secondary to getting entrepreneurs face time with potential advisers and investors.
"We had been running it out of our bedroom with not much revenue, but enough to pay salaries," Maloney says. "Winning the competition made us realize we could build a real business out of this."
Maloney says the venture money he raised will last about nine months and help GrubHub expand to four more cities. At that point he'll decide if the company, which was profitable prior to its expansion, needs more money. - Stacey Higginbotham
See Nov. 13 post from Tech Confidential
Nov. 13 post from alarm:clock
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Comments
From: Matson Breakey,
The Deal Opportunities are huge in the world of business today. Capital is readily available. There is a growing movement away from the true business plan to a more understandable and flexible truncated planning process. Some are using the simple strategic business planning process, identifying the vision, objectives and strategies before developing the plan that investors feel obligated in seeing. Planning systems like QuickPlanner Plus are the source of the new Deal economy. Good Planning! www.quickplannerplus.com
Posted on:
November 18, 2007 10:15 PM
Thats pretty interesting. Seems like there are a lot of companies and organizations helping others get their own business off the ground... If your a aspiring female entrepreneur you should check out this contest that Mirassou Winery is holding. They will award one budding business woman $50,000 and a whole staff of highly professional consultants to help get to the business kick started. Check out http://www.mirassou.com/women_in_business/dreams.asp I work with Mirassou and I figured I'd give others a heads up about this chance.. Doesn't it sound good?