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Thanks for submitting!
Now hang tight. We’ve had a tremendous response from all over the US, Canada, UK, and India! We have officially closed the Napkin Business Challenge to further entries. Thank you for submitting! Semi-finalists will be contacted shortly. Finalists will be contacted April 20th. The Pitch Event is April 25th and is open to the public. |
The top 2 winning teams get $1000 and a meeting with Michael Moritz of Sequoia or Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson!
 Michael Moritz joined Sequoia Capital in 1986 and is currently Partner. Sequoia was one of the only two venture capital firms to back Google itself. Other investments include PayPal, Yahoo, and Apple. Previous to Sequoia, Michael worked as a reporter for Time Warner and co-founded Technologic Partners. Michael holds an M.A. in history from Christ Church, a college of the University of Oxford, and an MBA from Wharton. |
 Tim Draper is the Founder and a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. His original suggestion to use “viral marketing” in web-based email to geometrically spread an Internet product to its market was instrumental to the successes of Hotmail and YahooMail. He serves on the boards of Glam.com, Tagworld, and SocialText. Tim holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. |
Women 2.0 Napkin Business Challenge Eligibility and Rules
The business plan must represent the original work of members of the team. You can submit as many business ideas on napkins as you want. You may have a team of up to four individuals. At least half of the team must be female and at least half of the team must be under 35; else the majority shareholder must be a woman and under 35. This is a Women 2.0 and Entrepreneur27 production afterall.
We are accepting business ideas that are in concept stage or in beta launch only. The competition is for new, independent ventures in the seed, start-up, or early stage. Generally excluded are the following: buy-outs, expansions of existing companies, real estate syndications, tax shelters, franchises, licensing agreements for distribution in a different geographical area, and spin-outs from existing corporations. As if you’d be silly enough to submit that anyway.
Resources for the Women 2.0 Napkin Business Challenge
- Shanda Bahles from El Dorado Ventures talks about investing in technology
- How to change the world: The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint from Guy Kawasaki
- Entrepreneurship Education Resources (podcasts and videos from Stanford)
Promote Women 2.0 on Your Website or Blog
Promote Women 2.0 on Your Website or Blog
for the Business Challenge – Deadline March 30
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24 Comments
Hi
I would just like to know if women from India are eligible for this competition.
Would be really interested in participating.
Regards
Helen Issar
Hi Helen,
Location is not an issue. Finalists are required to participate at the Women 2.0 Napkin Business Challenge Pitch Event at CNET in San Francisco in person on April 25th, so keep that in mind.
Looking forward to hearing about your business idea!
Whay is it limited to under 35? You’re not allowed to be creative or passionate when you get older?…
Too bad, my idea is actually to protect women privacy.
Any exception?
Pl. let me know if women above 35 are allowed to participate.
Thanks.
Shelly
Del,
If your team is composed of 1/2 women under the age of 35 we can bring you in! I hope you can understand we do have a niche focus for women2.org as there are limited resources that support the unique needs of this younger demographic — hence the launch of this organization!!
Shame on you for the age restriction! What if you took time off to raise your kids, as many millions of us do, and then are starting back in after 35? Older women bring wisdom and experience to start ups, and as brilliant and wonderful as I was years ago (ha ha), I know that I myself have more to offer the world now that I have had time in business and raising a family. My desire to work for positive change in the world has grown with my years, and now I have the experience and knowledge (but not the capital) to pull off a big project that can make a big difference. By making such an age restriction, you are missing out on the opportunity to support at least one great Web 2.0 project designed to profoundly change our world for the better and specifically to help support women, children, and the planet.
I think you’re missing the entire concept – I’d have thought “Women 2.0″ would encourage participation from women of all ages, just as Web 2.0 is all about the Participatory Web, not the Exclusionary Web. Ahhh, I see that Women 2.0 is a group specifically for young women in the Silicon Valley. OK, I realize my mistake. I only have one question – what happens when the group leaders turn 36? Perhaps we could leave our definition of “young” to the individual woman, and not add ageism to sexism. Ladies, you should know that it doesn’t get any easier once you hit 36.
I think it’s wonderful you’re offering this opportunity to support women entrepeneurs with great projects, but I’m saddened and disappointed to be excluded.
hello from google…
I couldn’t agree with Alison Bradley more! At 35 I was still trying out new paths and it took till I was 40 to integrate it into a world-changing idea. I had the opportunity to meet Hillary Clinton last week and am on track to get the message to Oprah. Venture capital is great, but the community capital fund you build as you get older is what is needed to truly activate sustainable visions. I’m sure you’ll have many unique and fundable concepts sent in for this contest, however, I think you are sending a negative message to women everywhere when you tell them to get it done while you’re young because nobody will pay attention to you later.
Ladies,
Thanks for your constructive comments about our age limit. Allow me to comment on behalf of Women 2.0.
We have committed ourselves to promoting growth of *young* women in entrepreneurship because we noticed the need for support and resources for this segment. (We responded to a need in the market – like true entrepreneurs!) I am at that young age and *still* wish I understood entrepreneurship even sooner than now. Our vision is for women to embrace entrepreneurship and build it as a career path from the get-go. Entrepreneurship can be a way of life.
When assessing this need in the market, we came across a number of organizations that support experienced professionals and entrepreneurs and I would be happy to suggest the following for your reference:
Forum for Women Entrepreneurs http://www.fwe.org
Women’s Technology Cluster http://www.wtc-sf.org
eWomen Network http://www.ewomennetwork.com
Ladies Who Launch http://www.ladieswholaunch.com
These are fantastic organizations and a great fit for women who have already years wisdom and experience under their belt.
I hope this is helpful and that you will continue to support the niche mission of Women 2.0.
Can you come to the event just to observe and cheer your fellow women on?
Thx
Christie
Web 2.0 Headhuntress,
yes! you can most definitely attend the event and support the women! We are selling tickets to the event at http://napkin.eventbrite.com.
Hi.
I have a biz idea and looking to partner with bright talented women. If you have worked with databases or ecommerce products pl send me an email at ssvuu@yahoo.com. Pl. send me a few lines about yourself and what you do.
I would like to enter the contest and was looking to partner.
Thanks and have a wonderful weekend.
Shelly,
Remember you can also submit as an individual! I hope you will submit!
Great opportunity! We shared the details here:
http://empowerwomennow.com/news-women-entrepreneurs/index.php/173/
To our success & empowerment,
Ponn
So this site and the upcoming.org (http://upcoming.org/event/150336/) post has slightly different eligibility criteria. So does half the team have to be under 27, 27 “and” under, or under 35? Can there be a team of 1? I would appreciate the clarification!
Hi Cathy,
The Women 2.0 website holds the most current information about the Business Challenge. I’m afraid I’ve been remiss about updating the myriad calendar and event website postings.
The age limit is 35, and you absolutely may enter the Business Challenge as an individual if you are a woman under 35.
Hope this clarifies things! Sorry for the confusion.
This is a wonderful contest and I am very sad that, being in Boston, it doesn’t make sense to participate. (getting out to CA would burn the bulk of the award) Do you know of similar groups/resources/contests in the Boston area?
Meredith,
I don’t really know of any groups on the east coast that do the same thing that we do, I honestly, haven’t really looked. If you look on our side panel, there are a list of groups that cater to women entrepreneurs.
But, seriously, getting a group together like this, is easier than you think. I was working on E27 and met Angie at one of the events. Shai came to an E27 event as well, and we were introduced to one another, same with Wen Wen. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that a group like this can just start out with a bunch of your friends or people that you know would be interested. As long as there is a need for the group, people will come and participate. There were very few organizations in the Bay Area that catered to young women, and there were four of us that were interested in it, so that’s how we started. It’s not that difficult, you will just need to find some time and people that are interested.
If you are interested in starting something up in Boston and would like some help or ideas, please email me at sopory@gmail.com. I will also look for other groups on the east coast and post about it.
Given that you had such an overwhelming response, are you planning on having a runner up challenge for those that did not make the top 10? It seems like you probably had so many good ideas that picking just 10 may not have been enough….
Thanks!
Just curious to see if the winners have been announced. Didn’t hear anything after submission of our idea… not even a confirmation that it was received. I believe if we made it to the semi-final rounds we would’ve been notified yesterday but it doesn’t hurt to check in and ask! :)
Can men participate in this contest?
You left out a fabulous organization (nonprofit) that undeniably helps women business owners grow their businesses: the Women Presidents’ Organization (www.womenpresidentsorg.com).
And we would be happy to host something similar to this Napkin Business Challenge in Chicago 2008 where we welcome any woman at any age to participate. I can be reached at ldelaney@globtrade.com.
All the best,
Laurel Delaney
http://womenpresidentsorganizationchicago.blogsot.com
773.381.1700
Is it a determinating-factor to submit Executive Summary with photo to be selected as semi-finalists? A recruiter contacted me on behalf of interested VC and I am not prepared to submit any resume at this point. With violence threats toward certain tech females, I won’t be posting detail online unless I build a personalized app with restricted registration to screen viewers. For this matter, currently I don’t have a tech blog to showcase my technical expertise.
For everyone interested in business plan competitions, Inc. is having an interesting one with a deadline of April 15th! Check it out at http://www.inc.com/inc5000/
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