Are you a young, ambitious and innovative entrepreneur toying with a mobile or web business idea? You can enter a record 48 hours pitch and competition session and stand the chance to win 25.000 Euros. Yes, you have read it right. So hurry, the deadline is 12th July 2011.
The competition which is organized by HumanIPO a startup platform which brings together small investors with entrepreneurs and startups through social networking, hopes to offer mentorship and access to financing for technology start ups.
The IPO 48 competition is back and it is promising to turn an idea into business in just 48 hours. The boot-camp-style initiative will be held at Nairobi’s innovation hub from Friday evening, August 12th, through to Sunday, August 14th. During the competition participants will have to convince other innovative developers to join their venture and jointly build prototypes.
Sounds fun to you? Be ready: during the 48 hours participants build their prototypes and present their business idea before a judging panel, commenting on its importance to the society and the viability of their project to reach global markets.
This is the second time the IPO48 competition is being held in Kenya. According to David Owino a co-founder of the Human IPO, the idea of IPO48 is to
Turn a business idea into a tangible, bankable business within 48 hours.”
Not an easy challenge, but it is worth the try. Participants and the eventual winner of the IPO 48 will get the opportunity to network with successful entrepreneurs, mentors and potential investors. They will also receive media coverage and publicity, quite a powerful way to launch your venture and give it all chances to succeed.
Interested participants can apply by filling out a personal form on IPO48.com. You can then create a start-up on the IPO48 platform and wait for approval. Interested participants who do not want to pitch a start up idea can join other teams. Selected teams will have access to mentors online who will coach them on ways of improving their start-up pitch.
Participants are expected to identify a problem and whom it affects and thereafter offer solutions using mobile and web technologies. The solutions should be unique and be commercially viable. During the pitch session you will also be expected to identify your target market and the industry your start-up falls in.
During last year’s edition Akirachix , a tech start up that has developed an information service dubbed M-Farm that enables farmers to receive real time information on market prices via their mobile phones emerged as the winning idea.
The IPO48 is a wholesome experience. The fact that it encourages teamwork and blending in of different capacities of the team members made it worthwhile.” said Linda Kwamboka , one of last year’s participants.
It’s your turn, show what you have to offer and enjoy the challenge! To all of you who enter, good luck!
Rezwan Khan
September 13, 2011
Effective step to boost up the technology innovation.