Global Search for Start-Ups in Travel Ends 31 July 2009

Start-Up businesses, or Start-Up wannabes with great ideas are being encouraged to enter the WIT Start-Up Pitch, a competition that will see their ideas presented to a panel of experienced investors.

Have you an idea for a start up in travel or hospitality? Have you written a business plan? Do you lack funds for the plan? If so, the WIT Start-Up Pitch could well be the ideal competition for you.

Open to contestants from anywhere in the world, The WIT Start-Up Pitch is aimed at unearthing and discovering good ideas in the online travel space in Asia Pacific. The competition is for start-up companies with less than three years of operations who strive to move their business to the next level.

The 2009 Start-Up Pitch will be held in two parts. Three finalists will be chosen to pitch their ideas to a panel of investor judges during the Web In Travel conference, alongside ITB Asia on October 20th.

The winner of the competition will have the opportunity to work with investment advisors, Stream Global, to build a winning investment pitch.

As a bonus, winners will be given assistance by Stream Global to position themselves to receive a Singapore government grant worth Sin$50,000 in the Interactive Digital Media space should they wish to avail of it.

Four runner-ups will have the opportunity to share their ideas at the "Pitch & Feedback" session during the WIT Ideas Lab on October 22nd and have their business plan work-shopped by a panel of investors with audience participation encouraged.

The panel of judges include: Lim Kim Hai, Executive Chairman of Regional Express Airlines, Australia, Dennis Melka, of East Pacific Capital and Bill Liu, chairman of Stream Global, an investment and consultancy company in the ICT and Digital Media space. More judges are expected to be added to the panel in the coming months.

The competition closes on 31 July 2009. Submissions should be sent to The Producer, WIT - Web In Travel.

The submission must follow the template outlined below and be kept within a maximum of two A4 pages.

1. Executive summary

2. Description of the business, core / products / services

3. Key customers and users

4. Business and revenue model, strategy for profitability

5. Market and opportunity analysis

6. Competitive analysis - why is it better than what exists today, how is it unique?

7. Finally, three reasons why they should invest in the idea.

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