Comments on: Startup Competitions – How Do They Help?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 06:27:43 +0000

@bala_tangylabs: A brief message with reason for not being selected for the next round might not be too much to ask. Will pass this on for sure.

By: Bala_Tangylabs

Bala_Tangylabs — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 06:25:32 +0000

I agree. But perhaps the bottom line reason of not proceeding in the contest could be nice. For instance in a contest that we entered recently, we were communicated that our company was out of scope of the contest. It was nice to receive that communication.But in two other cases, a mail that I sent to the organizers was responded with a blunt one line email stating, "Companies that qualified for the next round have been informed/ will be informed". More than the message, the way it was handled, left an after tasteWell, it is not an issue of very high significance, but it is something that is not likely to increase the enthusiasm for participating the next time.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 06:08:32 +0000

Thanks @sadigahameds@bala_tangylabs: Good points. I will share this with a few of the organizers I know personally. I hope other organizers also take note of this. For a typical competition, if there are 10 finalists and 100 applicants. If the process is 100 to 20 semi-finalist to 10 finalists, then I would think at least the semi-finalists should get actionable feedback. Asking the organizers to provide feedback to all 100 might be adding a little too much overhead and will probably end up compromising the quality of feedback. What do you think?

By: Bala_Tangylabs

Bala_Tangylabs — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 06:06:14 +0000

Correction … leading to not so positive -experiences- …

By: Bala_Tangylabs

Bala_Tangylabs — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 06:04:45 +0000

Anand, most of the reasons you have stated for participating in Startup events are very valid. Yet the problem that I’ve observed is the opaqueness with which they happen, leading to not so positive responsesThe issue that I’ve faced as a startup entering these contests, is communication. For companies that don’t qualify to the second round of these, which is significant proportion of applicants, there is no value add. Besides, there is no communication of failure, leave alone the reasons behind it. I would like to see1. All companies that are participating get something in return of the time they invested and the time the organizers invested in evaluation them2. Tweaking the communication a little so that a company that didn’t qualify to the next round doesn’t regret participating

By: sadiqahameds

sadiqahameds — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 06:02:25 +0000

Hi Anand,Guess you have hit the nail on its head, picking and choosing is something we ignore.- Sadiq