The 4th Annual PITCH: Women 2.0 Startup Competition is open to early-stage ventures around the world, from high growth business ventures in web 2.0 to mobile, from enterprise web/mobile to consumer clean/biotech. Applying companies must be in beta stage and have not received significant funding. Deadline to apply to PITCH is October 1st, 2010.
This competition is in line with Steve Blank’s position that startups plan while companies model — hence, Women 2.0 is holding a business model competition rather than a business plan competition. Judging is based on not just the initial business model but what the team learned by pivoting, for example, avoiding the “beauty contest” of business plans where judges resort to choosing the best “paper exercise” plan (rather than the best business or the team that has made the most progress in figuring out product-market fit). Teams, whether they win or lose, finish the competition significantly more prepared to launch their business in the real world. Read more »
A handful of startups will be chosen to pitch live in San Francisco at the 4th Annual PITCH Night on November 4th, 2010. Previous years’ prizes included meetings with Michael Moritz (Sequoia Capital), Tim Draper (Draper Fisher Jurvetson) and Esther Dyson (investor in companies such as Flickr, del.icio.us, and 23andMe), and a host of startup-friendly services.
Quick Facts about PITCH 2010:
- The founding team must have at least one female.
- The founding team must have a technologist* on the founding team. A technologist is an engineer, scientist, mathematician, biologist, etc.
- Your venture must be in beta. This means you should have a prototype (alpha or beta version) or the product is already in the market.
- PITCH is focused on companies with high-growth potential.
Apply to PITCH: Women 2.0 Startup Competition
How to apply to the Women 2.0 PITCH Startup Competition — there are 3 parts:
Fill out the application here. Once you start an application, you may edit your application anytime prior to the closing date of October 1st, 2010. Application fee is $50 per startup.
- Mail in your business model scribbled on a paper napkin — Capture your creativity on the paper napkin with your doodles and drawings. Submit your business idea on a paper napkin no larger than 7×7 inches. Your name and contact info must be on the napkin so we can match it with your online application. Napkins must be received at 63 Bovet Road, #519, San Mateo, CA 94402 no later than October 1st, 2010. Napkins will be exhibited to the public at PITCH Night. By default, your napkin will be exhibited. If you do not wish to participate in the exhibition, state clearly on a note and attach it on the napkin.
- Film a 2-minte video pitch — Think of this as a traditional TV commercial, and the audience/viewers are your “perfect” customers. How will you pitch your product to them? The video should be uploaded along with your business plan through Angelsoft. Uploading video takes time and bandwidth, we suggest you do not wait until the deadline to submit your video pitch.
All applications will receive feedback from at least 3 members of the judging panel. Judges are investors and successful entrepreneurs who take time to review your application in detail and provide honest, constructive feedback on your venture and application. For a list of the judging panel, click here.
Finalists will be notified October 14th, 2010 and invited to present at the Women 2.0 PITCH event in San Francisco on November 4th, 2010. If you are selected as a finalist, the entire team must present at PITCH.
Investor Meetings for PITCH 2010 Winners:
Esther Dyson (Principal, EDventure Holdings)
Esther is an active investor at EDventure Holdings in a variety of startups, focusing on technology. Her portfolio of private space and air travel investments includes XCOR Aerospace, Space Adventures/Zero G (recently merged), Constellation Services, Icon Aircraft, Coastal Aviation Software and Airship Ventures. She has flown weightless on Zero-G four times, but hopes to go up again soon. On the IT side, Esther’s investments included Flickr and del.icio.us, both sold to Yahoo! and Medstory, sold to Microsoft. Currently, she sits on the boards of 23andMe, Meetup, WPP Group, Eventful, Evernote, Boxbe and Yandex, the leading Russian search company. Esther sold her business EDventure Holdings, along with its Release1.0 newsletter and PC Forum conference, to CNET Networks in 2004. Esther left CNET at the end of 2006 and (with permission) has resumed doing business under the name of EDventure Holdings. She spends most of her time exploring new space, health care and IT start-ups and technologies, writing about them and actively (and with full disclosure) investing in some of them.
Matt Murphy (Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers)
Matt manages the iFund at KPCB, a collaborative initiative with Apple focused on funding and building defining applications on the iPhone OS platform and the mobile internet. His expertise is in network communications, compute infrastructure, and mobile applications. Matt is either a Director or works closely with the management teams of Booyah!, GOGII, Pelago, Shazam, shopkick, Kodiak Networks, RGB Networks, Stoke, Aerohive Networks, and Puppet Labs. Previously, Matt was a board observer at Google (from initial investment to IPO), led KP’s investment in Autonavi (NASDAQ: AMAP ‘10), and was a Director at Ocarina Networks (acquired by Dell ‘10), Peakstream (acquired by Google ‘08), Dash Navigation (acquired by RIM ‘09). Prior to KPCB, Matt led product management at a semiconductor startup (Netboost acquired by Intel) and worked at Sun Microsystems. Matt holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Mike Maples (Managing Partner, FLOODGATE)
Mike is the managing partner of FLOODGATE, and was recently named as one of “8 Rising VC Stars” by Fortune Magazine for his investments in business and consumer technology companies. Before becoming a full-time investor, Mike was an entrepreneur and operating executive who worked in a variety of senior management roles in high-growth companies. His background spans a variety of markets including consumer technology, small business, and the enterprise, and he has led various functions in product development, marketing, business development, and corporate strategy. Mike co-founded Motive, Inc., the world’s leading broadband software company in 1997, and played key roles in its growth from raw start-up through sales of more than $75 million. Motive was one of the only successful technology IPOs in 2004, and the most successful infrastructure software IPO for the prior three years. At Motive, Mike was General Manager of Motive’s Corporate Business Unit, as well as Chief Marketing and Strategy officer. Prior to Motive, Mike was responsible for worldwide product marketing at Tivoli Systems, where he managed the company’s product portfolio from its early-stage development through its 1995 IPO and growth to a $750M line of business within the IBM Software Group. Mike began his professional career at Silicon Graphics, where he served in business development and product marketing roles. Mike holds an Engineering degree from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Naval Ravikant (Partner, AngelList)
Naval is an entrepreneur and angel investor, a co-author of Venture Hacks, and a co-maintainer of AngelList. Previously, he was a co-founder at Genoa Corp (acquired by Finisar), Epinions.com (IPO via Shopping.com), and Vast.com (largest white-label classifieds marketplace). Naval has advised Bix.com, iPivot, and XFire, among others, and invested in many companies, including Twitter, FourSquare, DocVerse (sold to Google), Mixer Labs (sold to Twitter), Jambool (Social Gold), SnapLogic, PlanCast, Stack Overflow, Heyzap, and Disqus. Naval holds B.S. in Computer Science and Economics from Dartmouth College.
