Small Teams Big Impact: Down Under – Rackspace Hosting launches startup competition

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rs.jpgRackspace has launched an Australian startup pitching competition – Small Teams Big Impact: Down Under – to find a small startup team making the biggest impact. Deadline closes Friday, July 26.

Small startup teams (10 or less people) will pitch to a star-studded guest panel for the inaugural Small Teams Big Impact grand prize: a round-trip to San Francisco to visit the world famous Silicon Valley, meet with investors, and profile their product to the world. The winning entrepreneur will be interviewed in Robert Scoble’s studio, talking about their startup in front of his huge global audience: 335,000 Twitter followers, and 500,000 Facebook fans.

Startups at any stage of development (whether at the formation of the idea, in development, or already making an impact), can apply.

 

Rackspace has long been a partner to successful startups – coming from startup roots itself in 1998. Since its early days, Rackspace has been committed to helping entrepreneurs drive the next generation of innovation, backed by its cloud hosting and Fanatical Support. Rackspace Australia has supported startup incubators for years, with cloud hosting benefits through Pollenizer, PushStart, Startmate, and Innovyz.

 

Rackspace recently brought online its fully blown public cloud offering, powered by OpenStack, to Australian businesses from its Sydney datacentre. This completed the full Rackspace Hybrid Cloud offering for local customers.

 

The Rackspace Cloud is perfect for startups. It offers them affordable, scalable, and flexible hosting, helping them focus on what they do best – building disruptive technology.

 

10 shortlisted finalists will all present at a grand final event to investors, media, the startup community, and a star-studded judging panel at Fishburners Sydney on August 6th:

   

• Robert Scoble, Startup Liaison Officer, Rackspace; blogger, technical evangelist, and author

• Mick Liubinskas, co-founder, Pollenizer

• Kim Heras, founder PushStart

• Ruslan Kogan, founder Kogan

• Chris Ridd, country manager, Xero

Says Angus Dorney, director and general manager, Rackspace Australia: “At Rackspace, we love helping startups. We’re in a particularly exciting spot in Australia, having just brought the full Hybrid Cloud offering to our Sydney datacentre.

 

“With Sydney and Melbourne ranking 12th and 18th cities globally for startup activity, and Adelaide, Brisbane, and other cities hot on their heels, we’re seeing a surge in activity in local entrepreneurship.

 

“A recent PwC report found that startups alone could contribute $109 billion and 540,000 jobs to the Australian economy by 2033.

 

“We’re looking forward to seeing the best of the best, and holding a great final event for the whole community to enjoy.”

 

Says Robert Scoble, startup liaison, Rackspace: “I get to travel around the world all the time to see some of the most exciting startups in the world. However, I’ve never had the pleasure of coming to Australia.

 

“I can’t wait to see what all the Aussie entrepreneurs have in store for the Small Teams Big Impact competition, both at the final event when I visit Sydney, and when they visit our shores for a recording session in our studio.

 

“We’ll be judging startups based on the scope of their innovation, the highest potential to change or disrupt an industry, and having the greatest impact to the largest number of people or businesses.”