Start-up Challenge: everybody deserves a second chance…

Update: Vote Now!

Yesterday we emailed 43 startups that they were selected to give a 5 minute demo/presentation for The Next Web Rising Sun Startup Rally. The jury had selected these 43 companies out of almost 200 companies who applied. It is very difficult to pick 43 start-ups from 200 submissions and the jury spend a lot of time checking out all the information presented to them to make an informed decision.

Of course a lot of startups were disappointed that they didn’t make the cut. I can imagine the frustration these people feel as I’ve been rejected in many Startup rallies as well. I received many emails, calls, IMs and tweets asking for ‘5 minutes of my time’ and a second chance. This and the fact that many startups are really cool got me thinking on how we could give them a second chance…

I think the jury did an excellent job and have invested a lot of time to rate all companies (thank you Barend, Adeo and Stewart) and we stick with the choices we made. But we still decided to adopt the idols (Pop Star) model and let the people, our audience, help us pick 3 of the 24 companies we will  see on stage at The Next Web.

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We have room for 24 start-ups presentations on stage. 20 start-ups will be selected by our jury, 1 start-up will be selected during the conference (from attending start-ups with a booth) and 3 start-ups will be chosen by the audience by votes.

So here is your second chance to present your startup at The Next Web Conference. If you want to take advantage of this opportunity, read this closely.

How you can join
– Record a 90 second pitch why you should be presenting at The Next Web (not a second longer).
– Upload it to youtube with the tag ‘tnw09demo’
– Leave a comment here with the url to your movie

We have developed a voting mechanism and post all videos here on Thursday and let our audience vote on them. The top 3 startups with the most votes will be invited

Who can join?
Any startup can join, if you’ve submitted your company for the Rising Sun Startup rally or not. As long as you enter your movie before Wednesday 14:00 CET.