So you have an idea for a product or service that you believe could change the world & net millions. So, what do you do about it?
Most people need to fund their ideas to bring them to fruition. Unfortunately, there are thousands of people whose ideas fall by the wayside because of inexperience, lack of seed capital or, simply, misconception of the potential of a notion. Ideagist, founded by Hassan Syed, offers a community based idea validation platform for startup entrepreneurs.
Ideagist helps individuals & companies evaluate their ideas. It’s a virtual incubation platform that facilitates ideation-realization. With the help of ideagist community potential startups can change their ideas into viable business plans. Ideagist global community will assist with things like, concept practicality, connecting people with trained mentors & technologists, assisting with developing the perfect pitch for investors & even assistance with funding. Ideagist helps entrepreneurs get their ideas off the ground.
Currently, Ideagist is running a weekend, two-month program to assist in transforming innovative ideas into commercially viable products or services. The program is free to join, but it’s based on a community points system – each member can either help others & earn points or they can buy points as they advance towards their goals. Successful applicants to the program will learn valuable lessons, such as how to connect with customers, raise money & scale their businesses. Ideagist uses Lean Startup practices, which means that entrepreneurs are encouraged to bootstrap their own ideas until they have a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that has been validated by potential customers.
Entrepreneurs who complete the weekend program, can apply for Ideagist’s 12 weeks MVP-Accelerator program, which includes funding, training, mentoring, & advisory board selection. Ideagist has a track record that includes a number of successful startups that have gone on to raise suitable funding & win funding competitions.
Gaining funding via a competition is one of the best ways to validate a business product. Products gain instant recognition & loads of free advertising if they are good enough to make it to the finalist selection bench. Competitions such as SmartCompany’s, The Pitch, which is backed by AWS (Amazon Web Services), is an option for Australian startups to consider. The competition aims at inviting startups to submit a short pitch, which may gain the attention of leading VC firms & win up to $100K in prizes.
The Pitch competition is aimed at early venture startups generating under $100,000/annum in revenue, who are under two years old & offer a disruptive product or service. To enter, participants need to submit a three slide pitch deck that includes: overview of grand vision, market potential & unique insights, description of product & details of the company team behind the product & contact details. Prizes are sponsored by AWS, VentureCrowd, Startup Victoria & The Commons & five participants will get the chance to pitch to leading VCs at The Commons in Melbourne.
Preparing a stellar pitch is the sort of thing that can gain attention for an idea. Poorly formatted back stories are a killer. So if you do have an idea worth pitching in a competition then its good practice to join a virtual community such as ideagist so that your pitch, plan & product are well developed & of a quality standard.
