SAN DIEGO, March 12, 2015 – As part of Startup Takeover, a competition of innovative startups hosted by Holonis, Inc. during SXSW, one participant, Diggen, will give three fast-talking entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch a top Silicon Valley Investor in the first-ever “Tweet to Founder Hotseat” competition.
Open to anyone that will be in Austin during SXSW, this competition challenges entrepreneurs to pitch their business in 140 characters or less. The top three pitch tweets, as selected by the competition organizers, will receive a suite of prizes and be invited to pitch their businesses to Adeo Ressi (Founder & CEO of the Founder Institute and Expansive Ventures) during the competition finale at the Holonis booth, #935, on March 16 at 4:30 p.m. CDT.
To qualify, participants must pitch their startup in one tweet using the hashtags #Hotseat #Diggen #Holonis, by 10:00 a.m. CDT, Monday, March 16. In addition to pitching Ressi, the three selected companies will receive several prizes, including:
- A free day pass to SXSW if they are not yet attending to pitch
- A free “Startup MBA” e-course from the Founder Institute ($399 value)
- Up to three free tickets to the Founder Showcase event in Silicon Valley ($600 value)
- The best overall pitch, as selected by Ressi during the finale, will receive a free scholarship to any Founder Institute chapter across the globe ($1499 value).
“As a graduate of the Los Angeles chapter of Founder Institute I’ve experienced firsthand the challenges that startups face”, says Fabrice Gould CEO and founder of Diggen. “As a mentor of the San Diego Chapter, I’ve helped other entrepreneurs navigate those same challenges. I’m excited to support the entrepreneurs attending SXSW by creating this unique event.”
As a nine-time entrepreneur turned investor, Adeo Ressi is a global advocate for startups and venture capital. During the finale on March 16, the three selected companies will each have the opportunity to pitch Ressi for one minute, followed by a three-minute question and answer session.
“Diggen is a very promising Founder Institute graduate, and they have teamed up with Holonis to support entrepreneurs at SXSW that maybe could not afford a large presence,” says Ressi. “I always tell entrepreneurs that if they can’t pitch their idea in one sentence, they don’t understand it well enough. This competition make it even more challenging and limits startup pitches to a tweet! I can’t wait to see what people come up with.”
Throughout the Startup Takeover, companies like Diggen will use the Holonis platform to build, manage and optimize their online presence, engagements and branding. Each company participating in the Startup Takeover competition will be allotted 10 minutes to take over the Holonis booth at SXSW to present, pitch and showcase their startup.
“We are pleased to host the first-ever ‘Tweet to Founder Hotseat’ with Diggen and Founders Institute during our Startup Takeover event,” says Richard B. Hollis, CEO and founder of Holonis. “Holonis is about collaboration and empowerment introducing a new modernized marketplace that levels the playing field for all companies to succeed in the digital economy with a comprehensive set of integrated software tools. With Adeo Ressi’s involvement and advocacy for start up businesses, this contest promises to be an exciting, interactive event.”
About Holonis, Inc.
Holonis, founded in March of 2009, is an integrated online marketplace designed to address the convergence of multimedia and commerce. Its mission is to reboot the digital economy by empowering businesses to manage their online presence through a platform of seamlessly integrated tools, including content publishing, search, e-commerce, social media, email marketing, customer engagement and analytics. The Holonis platform integrates the fragmented components of the Internet into a complete operating system, based on the principles of a Holon, defined as an entity that is simultaneously a part and a whole.
To learn more about Holonis, visit www.Holonis.com or check out these videos:
About the Founder Institute
The Founder Institute is the world’s largest entrepreneur training and startup launch program, helping aspiring founders across the globe build enduring technology companies. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 50 countries, the Founder Institute has helped launch over 1,563 companies in 5 years. The company’s mission is to “Globalize Silicon Valley” and build sustainable startup ecosystems that will create one million new jobs worldwide. You can follow Founder Institute on Twitter @Founding.
About Diggen, Inc.
Diggen is a marketing technology company based in San Diego, California. Their middleware is the connection point between a variety of consumer data sources and popular marketing tools. As a data agnostic platform, Diggen bridges the gap between consumer data and marketing tools for all businesses that would like to understand their consumer base and target them on an individual level. Whatever the source of consumer data, Diggen’s horizontal integration eliminates the technical and cost challenges and enables marketers to understand their audience, create more relevant, impactful marketing campaigns and personalize their websites and mobile apps. Diggen is your one stop shop for consumer data.
To learn more about Diggen, visit www.Diggen.com.
