Contest: Free Branding Services for the “Next North American Startup”

Are you a startup in North America? Did you blow your whole budget on R&D?

A startup without a solid brand at launch isn’t going to succeed. It’s that simple. Lucky for you, Vancouver digital branding agency Skyrocket wants to help. They’re holding the Brand Prize contest (open to North American startups only) with the winning startup receiving a $40,000 Visual Identity and Branding System.

Why are they doing it?

According to Skyrocket Creative Director Michael Parks:

“Startups spend all their resources on R&D, often neglecting their identity and brand. Of course developing a valuable product is important, but having people who want that thing is the key to making it! By creating a brand that breathes purpose – that defines the audience relationship – we can captivate a market and truly disrupt.”

Skyrocket wants to give one worthy startup a chance they wouldn’t otherwise have, by providing full branding services for free: they want to launch that startup into the market with every possibility for success.

Are you that startup? The contest works like this:

Applications are open (at www.thebrandprize.com) until September 15: the winning startup will be announced just 15 days later on September 30.

If you’ve got a killer product and a solid business model, then there’s only one question you’ve got to answer:

Do you have what it takes to win the Brand Prize?

About Skyrocket

Skyrocket is a digital agency specializing in user-experience design and branding. Whether they’re building a complex web app, an ecommerce website, or even a simple website, everything Skyrocket does works to express a company’s brand.

Awesome Contest: Signal Wars Is Back As We Travel To CES 2013

Some of you may have been followers of our previous well known mobile tech site. If you are, you’ll remember “Signal Wars” a contest where if you get crappy cell phone signal you can win. Well we weren’t sure if we would do it again over at nibletz.com The Voice of Startups Everywhere Else, but alas we’ve teamed with Wilson Electronics to bring you Signal Wars Part Three.

This weekend we’ll be traveling across the country from Atlanta Georgia to Las Vegas Nevada for CES 2013. Along the way we’ll be looking for our loyal readers who suffer signal problems. It sucks having the latest greatest 4G (and sometimes 3G) smartphones and not getting the most out of them because you live in a crappy area for signal. Well fear not, we’ve got a contest for you.

From Friday at 5pm (Eastern Time) through Sunday at 7pm (Pacific Time) simply tweet us the following message:

“Help @wilsoncellular and @startuptechguy my #signalsucks, I’m in XXX XXXX” where xxx and xxxx = your city and state. If you live along the route 40 corridor going across the country and we see your tweet it could be your lucky day.

We’ll do a short video with you talking about your bad signal, we’ll check out your bad signal on the video and voila you’ll be the recipient of a brand new Wilson Electronics Wilson Sleek. You’ll get to choose whether you want the 3G or 4G version and you’ll see a vast improvement in your cell phone signal in the car.

Wilson Sleek signal boosters aren’t little stickers you put on your phone. The dash mounted cell phone holder connects to a signal booster and a small antenna you put on the top of your car, that actually increases your voice and data signal significantly.

We’ve traveled across the country with Wilson electronics 10 times over the last few years and every time we’ve had continuous cell phone signal except for one teeny tiny portion of Arizona.

Again it’s this easy tweet the message:

We’ll DM you or have you email us to arrange the meeting, shoot the video and if you’re selected, you’ll win. (allow 2 weeks for delivery).

Speaking of contests, startups in the startup village at this conference, have three opportunities to pitch for $100,000

Chicago Lean Startup Challenge Taking Applications For Summer Session

The Chicago Lean Startup Challenge, like other similarly named challenges across the country is based on Eric Reis’ “Lean Startup” methodology, customer development by Steve Blank and the business canvass model by Alexander Osterwalder. Ultimately the challenge is to take startups and hone them in on the most efficient way to succeed.

“Unlike business plan competitions, the Lean Startup Challenge focuses on real, meaningful results for the participants. The final presentations provided insights into the area where so many startups fail – understanding their customer!” -Nik Rokop, Director at Knapp Entrepreneurship Center IIT.

The 14 week startup program is designed to get startups on the path to success. The program, in it’s second year, will hold lean startup classes, give participants access to mentors and the community, connect startups with the tools they need and they have over $75,000 in cash and prizes.

More after the break
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