We just got an email from ATG, announcing the launch of their “ATG e-Commerce Ingenuity - Business Plan Competition“.
….this competition is a unique opportunity to turn your innovative (dare we say, ingenious) business concepts and plans into reality. Through this competition, ATG will connect budding entrepreneurs with leaders in e-commerce, and provide valuable feedback from visionaries who have shaped and continue to guide the e-commerce industry.
Your business plan will be evaluated by a panel of leading industry experts. The winning plan will gain $50,000 in capital to invest in realizing your business concept.
Before I start, just to declare where I work ATG is one of our main clients, and I deal with them day in day out. But they didn’t ask me to write this or promote this.
Sounds rather awesome to me. The $50k is pretty much small fry in the big heady world of VC funded web 2.0 startup projects. Which means that most of those won’t, or can’t enter into this competition (start-ups with more tha $100k of funding are ineligible to enter). This positions the competition straight at the little man, the one man freelancer, the small company startup, the weekend warrior.
Which I think is great.
I definitively have a few ideas bouncing around that I think I can put down in a compelling way over a few weekends that might form a solid submission.
I would highly recommend anyone who has an innovative, future thinking idea for the ecommerce world that they look at this as a possible competition to enter.
You have until 5:00 pm ET on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 to get your submission down in the following format…
Overview: Describe the proposed initiative, target market, and value proposition. Market opportunity: Identify your target market, size, and specific pain points you address, providing analyst figures where possible. The solution: Explain how your plan addresses the market need better than today’s alternatives. Marketing strategy: Describe how you intend to reach your target market. Company: Describe your company background, financings to date, products shipped, development status, revenue rate, customers. Barriers to competition: Describe any proprietary technologies or other barriers to competition you have. Competition: Describe your competition, and competitive advantages. Investment plan: Explain how you will use this money should you win, and what additional investment you will need to become self-sustaining.
Best of luck to everyone who tries out for this.