Startups in search of a much-needed cash injection don't have to arrange "chance meetings" with the local financial hotshot or hunt down VC firms at industry conferences anymore--as companies like
ideablob and LaunchBox are using the Internet to recruit hungry entrepreneurs.
Take Aaron Fleishman, a 23-year-old chemical engineering major at Penn State. Fleishman just won
$10,000 in a startup competition hosted by ideablob.com--funds he will use to develop a prototype cell phone-based system to help victims in disaster situations and refugee camps.
Each month,
Spring House, Penn.-based ideablob gives away $10,000 to a worthy entrepreneur--one that is chosen by the site's community of more than 25,000 unique monthly visitors, as per Compete. Entrants submit
their business ideas and the community gives feedback and advice and ultimately votes on their favorite. Two finalists go head-to-head during the last 10 days of the month, and then ideablob members
choose a winner. Fleishman is the fifth winner of the competition, as the site launched roughly five months ago.
According to Ami Kassar, chief innovation officer at Advanta, it's a great forum
for entrepreneurs to test their ideas, gain visibility, support, and of course, possibly snag seed money. Advanta is the parent company of ideablob--although the small business credit-card issuer does
not collect contest entrants' information for mailings or otherwise advertise to them.
And while Kassar acknowledged that the Advanta brand was gaining some recognition through the project, he
said that the real focus was about making ideablob "something of great utility. The innovation and ideas that come from small businesses fuel our economy," he said. "So we need to fuel them."
Meanwhile, LaunchBox08 is a global competition for digital startups in which they can earn seed funding of up to $30,000 and participate in a 12-week business-building program. The competition is
backed by Washington, D.C.-based investment firm LaunchBox Digital and The Washington Post Company.
The contest runs through mid-March, and applicants submit their business proposals via the
launchboxdigital.com Web site. After about a month of deliberation, the LaunchBox Digital advisory board (which includes Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive CEO and publisher Caroline H. Little) will
select up to 10 winners, and they'll get started in the business training program in May.
According to Sean Greene, cofounder of LaunchBox Digital, the company established the contest to help
foster East Coast-based innovation in the digital space, and develop a support structure for startups in the area akin to the one in California's Silicon Valley. "The discussion about LaunchBox08
started last summer," Greene said. "We thought that were was a great opportunity to create this kind of model here on the East Coast."