The Process
The Competition: Join, Proceed, Win.
Actually, it doesn’t always come down to winning, when the kind of experience, and exposure you get is priceless. Sometimes, the ones who don’t win, end up learning a lot more.
The list of previous year’s judges can be accessed here: http://startup.org.sg/about/judges
All these judges are indeed very successful in their own fields. Receiving feedback from such qualified judges helps the participants understand the depth in their idea. Not only the idea, but the whole opportunity of networking with leading professionals and entrepreneurs is something not to be missed.
A common misconception is that the whole process is very complex. Well, the rest of this page clearly shows, how easy it is, to gain an invaluable experience.
Preliminary Stages
Participants will have to prepare a 3 page executive summary and submit to the competition portal by the 4th of February 2012, 2359 hrs.
The results will be announced in February 2012, where 35 teams from the open category and 10 teams from the Youth category will proceed to the semi-finals. The judging criteria for the executive summary and how to write an Executive Summary can be viewed here.
Biz-Clinic
The semi-finalists get an exclusive opportunity to attend the Biz Clinic sessions on 17th and 18th March 2012. Biz Clinic is basically is a set of workshops along with certain interactive sessions that help the semi-finalists to gain insights and groom their entrepreneurial skill sets.
Semi-Finals
Participants will then have to submit a full business plan from the skills acquired in the Biz Clinic and submit it to the portal by 27th of March 2012, 2359 hrs.
Semi-Finalists will then have their pitching session on 2nd April, through which, the winners will proceed to the finals.
Mentoring Sessions
1st Mentoring session takes place in mid April 2012, where expert entrepreneurs and industry gurus mentor the finalists. The mentors not only help the finalists in refining their plans, but also provide experienced tips on pitching skills required to win the finals
The 2nd Mentoring Session is in May 2012, which is the final grooming for all the finalists.
Finals
The finals are on the 19th of May 2012. Here, the finalists get their chance to present their idea in front of highly qualified professionals, and an opportunity to get a funding of $20,000 to implement their project!
