Today’s roundtable was specifically designed to host the finals of the Rackspace Cloud – 1M/1m Startup Challenge.
B2Be
First, Balaji Abbabatulla from London pitched B2Be, a mobile ERP solution for small businesses in the UK. Balaji presented an excellent overview of the UK small business market, its various segments, etc. However, the business will need a much crisper positioning to differentiate against Sage, as well as other ERP solutions from the banks.
Speedy Split Tester
Next, Mukul Mehta from Cleveland, Ohio, pitched Speedy Split Tester, a web site A/B testing tool that is just about ready to launch. Mukul has already spent a year in the 1M/1M program, and presented a clear roadmap on where he sees the opportunity. Immediately, however, he needs to get 20 e-commerce companies to use the product and ensure that it works. There are some complex product challenges to handle.
Gripper
Then, Mike Wynne from New York pitched Gripper. The presentation was extremely difficult to follow, and our feedback to Mike is to immediately learn how to pitch. Gripper is some sort of an e-commerce discovery engine for music. Beyond that, we were lost.
PlayyIt
Last up, Swarna Kuruganti from New Jersey pitched PlayyIt, an app for business travelers to plan their social activities while on the road, as well as coupling it with networking. Swarna has also been in the 1M/1M premium program for a year, and presented a clear roadmap. She too is in the midst of an alpha launch, which will determine the evolution of the product.
I’m so please to announce that Balaji Abbabatulla is the winner of the Rackspace Cloud – 1M/1M Startup Challenge. He will receive $2000 per month worth of cloud hosting for one year from Rackspace
plus a one-year scholarship to the 1M/1M program. We are looking forward to working with him more closely.
As finalists of the application phase of this competition, Mukul, Mike and Swarna, will each be awarded $1000 per month worth of cloud hosting for one year from Rackspace, so really everyone who presented their businesses today is a winner. Congratulations to all!
You can listen to the recording of today’s roundtable here.
As always, I would very much like to hear about your business, so let me invite you to come and pitch at one of our free 1M/1M public roundtables. We will be holding future roundtables at 8 a.m. PDT on:
Thursday, June 6, Register Here.
Thursday, June 13, Register Here.
Thursday, June 20, Register Here.
Thursday, June 27, Register Here.
If you want a deeper relationship with me, you are very welcome to join the 1M/1M premium program. If you have any questions about the program, please, first study the website, especially What to expect from the 1M/1M premium program and the FAQs. If you have additional questions, please email me, and I would be very happy to respond. Please note that I work exclusively with 1M/1M entrepreneurs.
I also invite you to join the 1M/1M mailing list for the ease and convenience of getting updates. This way we can stay in touch, and it will help you to decide if 1M/1M is a program for you.
Sramana Mitra is the founder of the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative, a virtual incubation program that aims to help one million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant, she writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy, and is author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series and Vision India 2020. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. As an entrepreneur CEO, she ran three companies: DAIS, Intarka, and Uuma. Sramana has a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.