Agora Startup Idol Rules and Regulations :
Startups can be disqualified and removed from the tournament at our discretion at any time for failure to follow these rules and regulations. You do not have to follow the tips (TIP: '...'); they are suggestions to help you.
You must have released a free or trial version of a website, product, service or mobile app by March 9, 2012, to be eligible to compete. If our users cannot sign up for free online or on their mobile devices and try it out during the duration of ASI, you do not qualify.
Set up your profile on AgoraStartupIdol.com complete with your company or product logo. We need your main contact's email address and phone number to coordinate the live broadcast.
The first event will take place in English only.
(TIP: We suggest you link that profile at minimum to the public side of your Angel List (angel.co) profile, not the investor side. If you do not have an Angel List account, set one up. )
Set up your free 30-day account with clickmeeting.com with this link: http://www.clickmeeting.com/?a=agora
Use of this link is mandatory so you are aligned with Startup Idol.The 30-day account covers your practice, and then you will be on ASI's account for competition.
Explore and get comfortable with just the video conferencing windows in full screen mode so you can see how you come across on camera, have your judges set you up as the main speaker. In the live competition, we will not be broadcasting anything but the video windows and audio on Startup Idol.
Set up a video meeting with clickmeeting.com and invite 2 to 5 people to act as your 4 judges and the MC to interact with you in 10 practice sessions. The practice sessions do not have to be done at the same time or with the same people. Use them to gain experience broadcasting your image and story. Remember, you are representing your company to a live world audience and we want you to come across professionally. Practice Session: Once you know your way around the meeting application, click Record on your ClickMeeting.com top panel and preform your 2 minute elevator pitch and the 5 minute Q&A session. Stop recording at the end of your 7 minutes (7.5 min or less) so the file is not too large to upload to WeVideo.com.
(TIP: Have fun and be energetic and natural, the judges and users respond well to that.)
Download the file and store it as: "(your company name) Practice Session (# of Session)".
Repeat the Practice step 10 times at your own pace. Practice makes perfect. In the live event, once your pitch starts, there are no delays or do overs. We have to keep this on the timed schedule for all heats.
(TIP: if you cannot everything in the 2 min pitch, learn from the politicians how to use the Q&A session to get in the other info. Start answering their question, but get out what needs to be said. It's an art because you do need to answer the judges' question since they are judging you. That is why you need to practice your pitch in the format on the medium)
Set up your free account with WeVideo.com with this link so we can track you: http://bit.ly/yeKCyf
Upload all 10 practice videos to the wevideo account. We will have access to internally view those videos, but they will not be made public. It is just for verification purposes.
Edit your best video on WeVideo.com to exactly 7 minutes. Do not add in anything to what was recorded live. Upload that video to your profile to be voted on.
You agree that AgoraStartupIdol.com has all rights to that video and can use it or sections of it and stills from it in any way they see fit.
No foul language or lewd behavior that is inappropriate for broadcast TV. What is inappropriate is at our discretion and we will try to adhere to public TV guidelines for broadcast. (Not Cable TV R rated - but Public TV G rated)
Use our share buttons to get all of your contacts and all of the contacts of everyone involved with your company to come and vote on your video everyday during the qualification round (through March 31, 2012) That is how you make the starting 64. If you do not make the starting 64, do not worry, you will still get some traction just not the most traction. And you still are eligible for the "People Choice Awards".
Check your profile daily to rate your user feedback as helpful or not helpful. This will raise your profile to the ASI user community and help your chances of making the tournament. It also gives you points to be used as tie breakers throughout the entire competition.
You must also confirm valid users of your products. Users will be signing up during the event to earn points for themselves; startups are required to verify they are your users. You will get a list on your profile to check against your records. This will give you the email address of people purporting to be your users, so if they are not you can contact them to become one.
(TIP: Once you make it into the live event, update your pitch between each round with what you have learned from your feedback, what users are saying about your product, what you have changed and how many users you have gained since your last pitch. This is important for the judges to see your progress and how you handle the speed up environment and the traffic., and shows to the judges that you are able to keep up with and act on the main user demands, as well as listen and respond to your users.)
If you "Game" the system and we deem it against the spirit of the rules, you will be disqualified. No bot voting - real live people.
(TIP: Again - Have fun and be energetic!)
|
|
|
