Amazon AWS Announces Start-Up Challenge
Amazon who has clearly established itself as the Web Services Operating System has made another interesting announcement today. Amazon is launching a start-up contest with awards up to $100,000 in cash and Amazon credits. Not only that, the winner will receive an offer from Amazon to invest in their start-up. The key is that the start-ups must utilize Amazon’s web services for their offering. This includes S3, EC2, payment service etc.
Here is how it will work (from contest site):
To enter, developers, entrepreneurs, and start-ups begin by completing an online application by October 28, 2007. The Amazon judges’ panel will review all applications and choose five finalists, based on originality and creativity of the idea, likelihood of long-term success, how well it addresses a need in the marketplace, and implementation of pay-as-you-use Amazon Web Services.
Finalists will be announced in November and Amazon will produce a video of each finalist to post on aws.amazon.com where the community can vote for their favorite start-up.
For the Final Round, AWS will fly the finalists to Amazon Headquarters in Seattle to present their idea to the judges’ panel. That evening, the finalists will pitch their business to VCs, mingle with industry leaders and Amazon executives, and be featured at the AWS Start-Up Challenge Awards Dinner, where the grand prize winner will be announced.
This is a very interesting move by Amazon. Who knows they may end up setting up a fund for start-up utilizing AWS, very similar to the fund dedicated to Facebook apps.
So if you are an entrepreneur or a start-up already dabbling with AWS, go check it out.
