Sean Branagan, Director of the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, has two passions: entrepreneurship and basketball. Can there be anything better than a startup pitch competition that combines both of them?
In March of 2012, Branagan started Student Startup Madness (SSM), an exciting entrepreneurial competition for college students to have their digital media startups discovered. The program invites startup teams owned at least 30% by students to submit their venture into a pitch competition that for some will lead to the finals at SXSW to be held in the spring. Being a basketball enthusiast Branagan accepted the suggestion of another enthusiast and VC friend to call their competing rounds -bracketology for startups.-
It works like this: teams submit their startup pitch via an online application, which is now approaching two hundred entries in just three plus years. Then, mirroring the widely popular March college basketball playoff system, a panel of judges narrows the field to 64. From there, the field is narrowed again to 32. Then the -Entrepreneurial 8,- as termed by Branagan, are announced, which consist of the best and brightest digital media ventures. One member of those eight teams receives a free pass to SXSW to compete in the finals where a panel of notable judges selects the winner.
-I began going to SXSW in 2004 and watched it grow myself, so I knew it was the happening place to be,- said Branagan. -I took a team of students from Syracuse down in 2010 and 2011 but noticed that there was nowhere for students to pitch their venture.-
For that reason, Branagan decided to create the Student Startup Madness competition with the hope that they create a place for student entrepreneurs to be seen at SXSW. Although the competition provides no economic value to Branagan or Syracuse, SSM aligns directly with Syracuses goals and ideals for college students getting involved with startups, so the project is well worth it.
-This will be our third year that our finals competition will be featured in the main venue of the SXSW Startup Village,- said Branagan.
In 2012, their first year, the competition was held a few blocks down the street outside of the main pavilion. But due in large part to the response they received, the past two years SXSW has invited them to the main venue. This has provided SSM a bigger platform leading to growing participation and increased coverage as well. The latter was what Branagan originally had hoped would occur.
At the competition, each team is given a seven-minute pitch, where they try to convince judges of the relevance of their startup. Teams can rest assured knowing that each judge is someone very important in the digital media venture community.
-Although this years judges havent been announced yet, past competitions have featured Jim McKelvey, co-founder of Square, Brian Cohen, first investor in Pinterest, and Peter Magnusson, head of engineering at Snapchat,- said Branagan.
These judges will choose the winner based on the four Venture Capital metrics:
Strength of idea, strength of management team, size of market and any market traction such as customers, users, downloads, beta users, etc. In the end, just as in the popularly known college basketball March Madness, only one team will win. However, every team in the Entrepreneurial 8 will come out with crucial experience for pitching their startup and broad exposure to the investment community, which will be very helpful to their startup as they move down the road.
Branagan and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University have combined the competitiveness of Student March Madness with the excitement of being part of a startup– which is what SXSW is all about. This years SSM should be no different. To find out more about the competition, visit www.studentstartupmadness.com.
