World Startup Expo Calls For Nominations In Individual Awards Category

Asia’s largest startup congregation, World Startup Expo 2016 (WSE) has invited applications from individual entrepreneurs to nominate themselves for the WSE awards. The initiative aims to celebrate the finest and the most-disruptive startups in India.

A brainchild of Cocoon Ventures, WSE is a unique three-day platform for startups, technology providers, investors, mentors, HNIs, incubators, accelerators, associations, and policy makers. It features a three-day exhibition, a two-day conference session, an awards evening, and a hackathon.

WSE Awards will honour innovative products, startups, and entrepreneurs in more than 20 categories including both at an organisation- and individual-level.

There are five award categories for individuals – namely Investor of the Year, Founder of the Year, Youth Founder of the Year, Female Founder of the Year, and Most Versatile Founder of the Year.

Any individual may nominate himself/herself in relevant categories. Each nomination must be submitted on a separate form.The startup applications will be judged by Pooja Sareen, Chief Content Officer & co-founder at Inc42; Padmaja Ruparel, co-founder & President at Indian Angel Network (IAN) and Sumit Chakraberty, Editor at Tech in Asia.

The judges are basically looking for:

The basics: This includes the company name, contact details, launch date and a 100-150 word elevator pitch.

About the business: A chance to tell what makes the nominated business a winning entry for the category or categories for which they are applying in 1500 words.

How the business makes money: Avoiding industry or technical jargon, explain in the simplest terms how the business model works?

What is unique about the business: What differentiates the nominated business from competitors? Is it through changed industry practices, produced innovative products or services or found a new route to market?

Evidence of success: To add about evidence of achievement in excess of targets and key milestones for the business.

Demonstration of sustainability: How the business will be able to raise enough money to continue in business long enough to get to that sustainable point?

Why the business should win: This should be specifically related to the category or categories they are entering.

To be eligible to apply, startups must fulfill all the following conditions:

• Applicant/entrepreneur must be an Indian national, resident in India, and above 18 years of age on August 14, 2016.
• The startup should be registered in India no earlier than January 1,2011. Startups registered before January 1, 2011 are not eligible.
• The startup should have raised a minimum of $15K (INR 10 Lakhs) as external capital or have a minimum revenue of $15K (INR 10 Lakhs) in 2014-15. This condition is waived off only for one award category – Bootstrap Champ.

Once applicants fulfill the above criteria, they may apply to one or more of the award categories.

This year’s award ceremony will take place during World Startup Expo 2016, which is to be held in Bengaluru on November 23, 2016. The event will begin from November 21, 2016.

The application closes on October 21, 2016. Interested entrepreneurs can fill the online form here.