Inspired by Shark Tank and keen to pitch your startup idea? Optus in partnership with Channel 10 is hosting a pitching competition with $10,000 cash up for grabs along with mentoring sessions with the Optus’ Venture Capital team, Shoes of Prey founder Jodie Fox and Shark Tank judge Janine Allis.
Startup founders can submit their idea to the Your Shark Tank competition and the best five will be selected to travel to Sydney to pitch. All five finalists will receive an Optus BYO $60 mobile plan free for a year, and unlimited Optus broadband at the fastest available speed for the home or office.
Two winners will be selected to receive $10,000 cash each, in addition to the mentoring sessions, a Samsung Note Edge Smartphone and a Samsung Tab S10.5 Tablet.
When launching Shoes of Prey, Fox says she was lucky enough to have a group of friends with experience in the industry who were able to offer advice and support. But she knows others aren’t in the same situation and is happy to be in a position to be able to pass on some of her knowledge. In her mentoring session she’ll be touching on a range of topics, including what founders need to ask themselves when starting out, right through to how to pitch their idea to investors.
“It’s a matter of taking one step at a time. Is anyone else doing this? What would it look like? How would it work? And testing each question, one little thing at a time,” she says.
“Would you use this, is it interesting to you.”
Fox says because entrepreneurs are so focused on their own projects, they can lose their vision in the detail.
“We’re close to what we’re doing that we tend to abbreviate our thinking in a way that makes it inaccessible to others,” she says.
“So I’ll be really challenging them to think about what sort of business they want to build, is this market big enough for your idea? What are the milestones you are going to target? What sort of team are you going to recruit? And I’m going to talk to them about passion.
“Because at the end of the day investors are looking for two things: One is passion and the second is a quality team.”
To enter Optus’ Your Shark Tank competition, click here.
Kye began his career at a Fairfax daily on the North-West Coast of Tasmania. He has since taken his belongings, and keen interest in technology, to Melbourne. He has a bachelor of Arts majoring in Political Science from the University of Tasmania and a Graduate Diploma in Journalism from RMIT University.
