The application for the competition, as well as executive summaries, will be due on October 8, 2010.  There will be three rounds of judging: first round, semifinals, and finals.  In first round, each team is allowed fifteen minutes to make their pitch.  Around five applications make it through the first round, and will be eligible for coaching and mentoring.

During the semifinal round, each team will be required to make presentations to the judges again, but after coaching and mentoring by WPIVP members who are experienced professionals.  When three finalists have been chosen, those teams are required to present their complete business plans, and a winner is chosen.  Here are the full instructions on participation.

This is a great way to make your company’s name known, get constructive criticism on your plans, and to see how your team stacks up against the competition. It may even lead to relationships on venture funding.  The past winners all had innovative and cool ideas; maybe your company will be the next to claim the winner’s crown.

Over the summer, there’s been lots of news on the Connecticut incubator and coworking front; Ctech has expanded to two new incubator spaces, the Grove opened in New Haven. And in the month of September, The Bourse opens in New Haven.

Located at 839 Chapel Street, the Bourse aims to provide a creativity-boosting, unique work space to individuals and small teams.  Like most coworking facilities, the Bourse provides wi-fi, utilities, coffee and other office basics.  As Robert Orr tells us in the interview, he sees it as a place for a diverse set of people to share and exchange ideas.

A website to be launched will provide more details and pricing.  For more information pre-opening, email robert.orr@robertorr.com.

The Bourse Entry

The Bourse Salon

An interesting look into the CTech group of incubators on John Voket’s For The People show, straight from the two “owners” of the initiative, Longo and Moret. Also some very interesting statistics that we haven’t yet substantiated, but look directionally correct. For example, on the improvement of success rate.

“They say that [about] 75 to 80% of businesses that operate out of an incubator are still surviving after five years and as we all know [with] start ups…there’s been [a tremendously high failure rate],” says Charlie Moret during the interview. Moret also discusses some of the new facilities made available through the Jobs Bill.

Charlie also mentions Continuity Engine (still located at CTech New Haven) and Independent Software (a CTech New Haven graduate) during the interview as examples of the benefits of the incubator approach.

Gad Selig from UB was interviewed in the second half of the program – he highlighted some of the benefits to the university in terms of student employment and experiential education. “One of the other benefits of the incubator is…to create jobs not only for students, but for others in the community,” Selig comments.

Independent’s Entrepreneur Profiles celebrates the people out there changing the world every day. We ask each entrepreneur eight questions to give us a little insight into their vision of the future, and their take on building a company.

This month, we feature Milena Arciszewski, founder of Pando Projects, a non-profit organization, set to launch early next year.  Pando Project’s goal is to support grassroots initiatives to address problems in communities across the US.

1. What does your company/nonprofit do?

Milena Arciszewski, Pando Projects

I’m starting a nonprofit that empowers people to run grassroots projects to fix problems in their communities.  We offer online workspaces where people can promote their projects, raise money, attract and manage volunteers, organize events, and share their experiences. We’re kind of like Kickstarter, but we only support grassroots initiatives that can be executed in under 1 year for under $5K, and we offer all the tools and support that people need to develop their idea into a meaningful community project.  We’re hoping to someday support thousands of innovative, bottom-up projects across the United States.

2. When did you start your company/nonprofit?

I’m in the process of starting PandoProjects – we still haven’t launched.  If you’d like to join our team, check out www.pandoprojects.org; we would love to have you!  Our Pilot Phase should begin in January 2011.

3. What are your funding sources?

Once the organization is running, we will charge people $25 to join our program and launch their grassroots project.  Also, when people visit the site to donate money to fund projects, they will be asked to donate an additional 10% to Pando.  In the meantime, we are collecting donations from individuals and corporations.  When we have 501(c)3 status, we’ll also apply for grants.

4. What have the top 3 challenges have been in your start-up process?

To run this organization, I need to be a strong, confident, mesmerizing, charismatic inspiring woman.  My biggest challenge with launching Pando has been the process of becoming that person.  In my past, I tended to be shy and awkward – so I have to work really hard to transform myself into a stronger person that others can believe in.

I think all other challenges are irrelevant.  I find that when I’m feeling happy and strong, everything simply falls into place.

5. Define “entrepreneur”

An entrepreneur is someone that identifies a need and steps up to fill it.

6. Read any good books lately?

I just re-read “Eat Pray Love” in anticipation of the movie release.  But my favorite books are “Atlas Shrugged,” “Love in the Time of Cholera” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.”

7. What is your advice for an entrepreneur starting out?

Don’t wait for everything to be perfect.  Just… start.  Things will come together if you really believe in your vision.

8. What’s your favorite entrepreneurship quote?

The classic is from Margaret Meade: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

I just got $1,000 of additional funding, dude!

What’s that 800 number again?  Sure, it may be plastic, but Amex, Visa, Mastercard…

they’re all playing in the venture funding space, aren’t they?

Independent offers free templates to startups to help them on their way. Click here to learn more.

The conference intends to “provide a platform for the worldwide twitter community to: listen, connect, share and engage with each other, while collectively exploring the effects of the emerging real-time internet on business.”

Structured like an unconference (but still $140), the event features talks like “How I Became An Entrepreneur” (given by a thirteen year old, which is tres chic these days, y’all) and “Real Time Education.”

For more information, have a look at the event website.

Part of the session will be focused on use of the Constant Contact tool, but the first part of the session will focus on the business case for email in the social media marketing, covering “powerful and cost-effective tools and why [they are] vital in today’s marketing world.”

Tuesday, August 31, 2010, 9am – 12pm
Where: Omni New Haven
155 Temple Street
New Haven, CT

As the organizers put it – “How interactive are you with your customers, clients, members and constituents? If you are a busy professional, business owner or individual looking to increase the sales, participation, awareness and impact of your business, organization or group this workshop is for you!”

The focus of the article is healthcare innovation centers, and features the work of the Mayo Clinic, Siemens Health Care, Medtronic, and YourNurseIsOn.com.

Porter is a Georgia-based research consultancy which, “helps its clients become high performance businesses within their industries by delivering actionable market intelligence and research insight.”

If so, then respond (click here) to our call for speakers for the fall meeting of the Connecticut Technology Council (in collaboration with CTech and the EDC – New Haven).