October 31st is the deadline for the “world’s largest startup competition”
spanning 16 countries and five continents.
Startups have many challenges on the path to growth, but there are few things as challenging as acquiring new customers. It’s one thing to build an effective and scaleable product or service; getting it in the hands of a customer is another challenge entirely.
For B2B entrepreneurs, the window is closing on one of the best opportunities to make the customer acquisition challenge far more manageable.
Billed as “the world’s largest startup competition,” Comet Competition spans 16 countries and five continents. Organizers Ingram Micro Cloud and Microsoft for Startups invite B2B innovators from around the world to showcase their early-stage startup, especially those working in cybersecurity, IoT, fintech, infrastructure management, and manufacturing tech.
Finalists in each city win $100,000 and a chance to compete in Cloud Summit 2020 in Miami from May 12 – 14. The overall winner at Cloud Summit will take home $1 million in go-to-market funding. In total, Comet Competition will award more than $5 million to the startups competing, with runners-up in each location also receiving $50,000 in go-to-market funding.
But for last year’s overall winner, Arun Buduri, President and co-founder of Pixm, the value of Comet Competition goes beyond the cash haul. “I like to say Comet [Competition] was nuclear fuel for our business,” said Buduri. “Between getting our team of three in front of thousands of potential customers while bringing our customer acquisition cost down to nearly zero, we couldn’t have asked for a better partner than Ingram Micro.”
In the wake of its success at last year’s Comet Competition, Pixm now works with clients like Google, Wells Fargo, PayPal, and more, who rely on its next-generation computer vision anti-phishing software.
For Ingram Micro Cloud, the reward comes in bringing great B2B concepts to the market on timelines that might have been impossible. “It’s especially exciting to advise global startups at the beginning of their journeys,” said Michael Kenney, Ingram Micro Cloud’s head of strategy and business development, “and watch them achieve significant business milestones faster and more broadly than they ever anticipated.”
October 31st is the deadline for Comet Competition. B2B entrepreneurs can submit applications here.