By: Aleksandra Bulatskaya
It’s a fact that Silicon Valley is still seen as a pinnacle of startup culture around the world but due to financial hardships faced by most startups it has been difficult for them to gain access to its many recourses, until now. A new startup pitching competition has created framework for a global startup community and a few international entrepreneurs are surprising even startup veterans with their persistence and drive.
Forty-eight hours before this interview, Alberto and Oscar Alvarez decided to fly to California, from Panama City, Panama to attend the Startup Idol wrap-up party on Tuesday, May 1, at the Pure Lounge in Sunnyvale, Calif. Little did they know that by acquiring the most users via the contest they had won the “Golden Ticket” wild card entry into the finals.
“We originally thought this (Startup Idol) up as a marketing tool for my company, Agora Technologies but I soon realized that what we should be doing is helping startups build traction, gain users and succeed as business people,” said Startup Idol Founder and Agora Technologies CEO, Andrew Prell who was shocked by the mere presence of international entries and especially taken aback by the Alvarez brothers bold decision to fly out to California on a whim.
Startup pitching competitions are nothing new in Silicon Valley. It’s a familiar routine of honing the basic elevator pitch. Many such competitions require entrants to pay anywhere from $50 to $6,000 simply for presenting. For a lucky few, investment in their venture by the judges is the ultimate prize but most entrants come away with just another pitch.
Startup Idol separates itself from the traditional competitions by ensuring that each of the competitors reap some rewards. Ideally, each competitor gains 100,000 viable users at the end of the five-week competition in addition to constructive feedback on their pitch.
Although no advertising or promotion aside from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn were used for the event, Startup Idol’s splash page gained 350,000 views one month after Prell posted it.
Upon hearing of Prell’s idea, sponsorships poured-in from the startup community with WeVideo providing a video editing engine through the contestant’s remote pitches, BeInToo providing the Gamification layer and the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, Calif. giving access to developers.
Benefits from entering the competition have clearly been reaped by the Alvarez brothers whose venture, GoGetIt.com is now the fifth member of the Final Four via the Golden Ticket wildcard. “We were the only Latin American startup to enter the completion,“ said Alberto, head of Go Get It’s marketing. “We had zero users, nobody knew who we were. Now we are up to 200,000 users and growing.”
They stumbled upon Startup Idol through an Internet search. Once they realized that Startup Idol made it possible for them to pitch to Silicon Valley influencers remotely and they jumped at the chance. “This competition has made Silicon Valley accessible to people like us, who would have no access to this world otherwise,” said Oscar.
Axar Kharebov, a startup insider and CEO of InfoMeters said the global reach of the competition would be a huge asset for an exchange of fresh ideas in Silicon Valley. ”If you know the startup scene well enough after a while it becomes a routine of the same people pitching the same ideas; international competitors bring new concepts.”
Bucking the male dominated startup stereotype, this season’s strongest showing is boasted by female entrepreneurs, who made up just four out of sixty-four entries and are now three entries of the Final Four. The Final Four includes, My Tab. CheckInOn.Me, Best Buzz, The Sales Contest and GoGetIt .com as the wild card.
“We want to recreate this competition on regional level so that once people are entering, they would have already been vetted by the local community and are prepared to fight competitors who are also at the top of their game,” said Prell.
“We have a man from China willing to translate the competition to all Chinese languages and dialects, Alberto and Oscar wanting to take over Latin America in addition to two dozen other international VC’s wanting to bring this to their home countries or towns.”
The Alvarez brothers say that helping bring their experience to the Latin America’s startup community is their ultimate goal in addition to making GoGetIt.com a success. “It’s very challenging for startups in Latin America, there’s nothing like Silicon Valley there and that’s why we want to build a community with resources to show everyone that yes, you can do this!”
With involvement and passion from people like the Alvarez brothers it’s clear to see that as Agora Startup Idol prepares for the upcoming second season, the competition has already accomplished the goal of creating a valuable resource for startups from San Jose to Panama City and beyond.
For more about Agora Startup Idol visit: http://agorastartupidol.com/