Announcing the Coffee & Power Challenge

At Coffee & Power, we know first-hand how challenging it can be to start a business. You started with a great new business idea and have done some work to make it a reality, but now you’re stuck. Maybe you’ve been too busy with your day job and need another expert hand on the project. Perhaps you need a marketing guru to sift through the social media jungle for you. Or possibly you need someone to create a simple web site or a professional logo to ready your business for the world.

Coffee & Power is excited to help take your fledgling business to the next level. We’re calling it the Coffee & Power Challenge and we’re accepting submissions of your original business concept now. The winner will get the help they need using Coffee & Power missions, and we’ll foot the bill!

There are over 2000 mobile workers on Coffee & Power eager to polish your idea to a sparkling gleam. Take a minute and submit your big idea. We’re especially looking for those who have already put in some elbow grease and want to step it up a notch.  We’ll bootstrap the best one with up to $500 worth of Coffee & Power missions. As a bonus, if you’re in or around San Francisco, we’ll give you free unlimited use of the C&P Workclub for you and a partner for up to one month ($400 value) while you kick off your project.

How to Enter

To submit your plan for consideration, just fill out the Entry Submission Form.  Be sure you include a detailed budget of how you’ll use Coffee & Power to get your business going, showing what missions you would post at what price.  Submit your entry no later than October 10, 2011. From these submissions, we’ll be selecting a round of finalists to proceed to a voting round and the winning finalist with the most votes will win (read the fine print for more info).

The Specifics

• Share your Plan – Be sure to explain exactly what you want to do if you win the $500. Be specific! Do you want a polished, functioning website? Do you want product samples? Do you want market research? Do you want advice and mentorship?
• Show your Work – Please include other attachments that supplement your plan to persuade others that your idea is worth their vote. Be specific and feel free to attach mock-ups, videos, photos, whatever it takes.
• Picking the Finalists and the Winner – On Oct. 11, we’ll announce the finalists who will be eligible for voting and notify all contestants via email. We will then post a poll to our blog so you can help us select a winner.
• Announcing the Winner – We’ll tally up the votes on or around Oct. 18. Then we’ll contact the winner via email, post an announcement to the blog and start funding missions immediately!

Rules & Regulations

• The Coffee & Power Challenge is open for submissions until Oct. 10, 2011.
• Challenge is only open to Residents of the United States, aged 18 and older as of Oct. 3, 2011.
• C&P will select and announce finalists from among all submissions on or about Oct. 11, 2011.
• Voting for finalists will be open Oct. 11-17, 2011 via the C&P blog.
• The plan with the most votes will win, we will announce the winner on or around Oct. 18, 2011.
• Coffee & Power will pay for the winner’s initial missions relating to the business, up to C$500. C$ cannot be exchanged for US$.
• Read the fine print.