With many of the largest business plan competitions, the race for the innovators is to first place for the largest cash prizes, or for the publicity and validation of winning.  Our focus – and that of our 100 mentors, cash and in-kind sponsors, and volunteers – is different.  Our focus is on commercialization and acceleration.  The faster you can meet and work with the right top people, the more assistance you can get in navigating the unique paths within select customers, the shorter your time to implementation and commercial launch.

 

With a mixture of cash and in-kind commercialization assistance for the winners in our programs (over $200,000 in value to four winners in the case of GAMIC) – we and our mentors and our in-cash and in-kind sponsors can help shorten your path to business launch and revenue generation. 

 

Typical early commercialization services would include:

• Dedicated mentors to review and help hone competition pitches and plans

• Technology-specific business development consulting

• Intellectual Property consulting

• Market Research

• Connection to SmartZone and Incubator hosting, business planning support, etc.

 

Business acceleration services would include:

• Coaching on making investor presentations

• Public Relations and customer presentations consulting

• Direct Marketing support

• Production readiness enhancement, through a dedicated Rapid Commercialization Assistance team

• Match-making introductions to key industry executives

 

As we increase our sponsor support and cash prizes over time, our emphasis will remain on more robust commercialization and rapid business acceleration support – helping to drive the most promising start-ups and their technologies to market launch faster, and with fewer missteps and delays.