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07/10/12 | Uncategorized

International Applicants Encouarged To Apply To PITCH NYC By August 31

Deadline to apply for $25k and more prizes for PITCH NYC Startup Competition is August 31, 2012.

By Rebecca Lipon (Application & Judges Coordinator, PITCH Competition 2012)

Women 2.0 is actively accepting applications for our PITCH NYC 2012 competition, and we have received many questions from applicants.

Below I’ve answered the most common ones. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have additional questions or concerns.

Does PITCH accept international applicants?

Yes, but to win you must be present to pitch live at our conference in New York City this November 2012.

To give a bit of historical data, 13% of the companies that competed in our last round were international. We were excited that one of our finalists, Business Productivity, was founded in and operating from Dubai. Unfortunately they could not join us at the conference, so were not eligible to win.

Who are the judges?

Our judges hail from venture capital firms, incubators and accelerators. We also have some angel investors and successful entrepreneurs and mentors. See the full list of our judging team.

What exceptions are made to the technical co-founder requirement?

We are looking for companies that are fundable.

The two quick ways we determine whether or not a company is fundable are: You have a prototype, or to use Lean Startup speak, a “minimum viable product” (MVP) in customer hands and, you have the ability to iterate on your solution.

A company without a technical co-founder may be able to iterate on their solution, but it could be more difficult since the company doesn’t have the expertise in-house. We need to see that the founding team has the capacity to quickly bring a solution to market and adapt to customers.

Earlier this year, Tracy Osborn of WeddingLovely wrote How To Survive “The Trough Of Sorrow” As A Non-Technical Startup Founder”, which is an excellent case study for this question. Tracy talks about how hard she worked to recruit the partners, advertisers, customers and contractors that were necessary to build her vision.

She didn’t let her lack of coding ability keep her from building her company — she hustled. If you can demonstrate that you are building a company, we may be willing to consider your application, even without a technical co-founder – please reach out to us to discuss.

Find out more about PITCH NYC 2012 here.

Editor’s note: Got a question for our guest blogger? Leave a message in the comments below.

About the guest blogger: Rebecca Lipon is a product marketing manager at Synopsys, where she works to make sure the technology for verifying computer chips is state-of-the-art. A passionate advocate for women in technology, Rebecca mentors several San Francisco Bay Area non-profits and sits on the board of Spark SF, an organization promoting equality for women throughout the world. Rebecca is also the lead singer of the funk and soul band Sinister Dexter. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT. Follow her on Twitter at @rebeccalipon.

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland, an intern with Women 2.0, was on the StartupBus. She studies neuroscience at Mount Holyoke College, where she is trying to merge a passion for tech and the brain into a new wave of cognition-based technology

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