Did you know of these three hidden resources for startups looking to grow their business?
- The Illinois Corporate Startup Challenge, managed by the ISTC, matches startups with innovative technologies to the corporations that are looking for specific solutions. 18 startups have developed partnership with Allstate, John Deere, Molex Inc., Motorola Mobility and Walgreens. This is an ongoing program so they are always looking for more startups!
- The Chicago Innovation Exchange at the University of Chicago in Hyde Park has $20 million funding for startups. And it's looking for startups outside of the University, too!
- Kimberly-Clark's Chicago-based Digital Innovation Lab runs a Startup Pitch competition to find entrepreneurial partners for its iconic brands like Kleenex, Huggies, Viva, Kotex.
- And breaking news, Chicago Mercantile Exchange is building programs with Howard Tullmand to increase support of entrepreneurial solutions! Details still to be released.
City/State government and corporations are taking note of Chicago's startup innovation. And there's good reason. Corporations have learned that they can leapfrog even their own innovation process by tapping into entrepreneurs. If you don't believe me, see my prior BIC post on this.
Even as corporate demand for startup innovation increases, there is still a gap in match-making. The reasons include:
- Startups don't know who to talk to at a big corporate brand
- Startups mistakenly pitch the same thing to brands as they do VC's
- Startups miss opportunities to network with city & corporate influencers
[ibimage==39585==Original==none==self==ibimage_align-right]To help solve this, Phil Nevels, Executive Director of ChicagoNEXT at World Business Chicago, will be providing tips and valuable information on hidden resources he knows about as the lead for startup development at WBC. (Three of the hidden resources above came from him.) Come hear his keynote address at our Brands+Startups Challenge, 8/21 at TechNexus. He will share many more ideas and resources for funding and potential customers.
Then you will see our final 7 startups in the "Knockout Round3" of Brands+Startups compete to make it to the Finale in September during Mobile University Week. The winner there will win the $25,000 grand prize - determined by popular text vote!
