We have all been to an event where a 50/50 raffle was taking place to raise money for a particular organization or cause, but what if this same style of fund raising was applied to funding startups? Under30CEO , an online resource for young entrepreneurs, has teamed up with the developers of the BizBreak iPhone app to host the Limitless VC Contest . The winner will receive a cash prize including 50% of the app’s revenue during the period of the contest, along with mentoring from five notable entrepreneurs. Sponsor Startups can enter by submitting a short video to YouTube describing their company and their plans for spending the possible winnings. Applicants (who must be at least 18) are also required to provide feedback on the BizBreak app (boosting both sales of the app and the contest pot size), which is a gimmicky game that pokes fun at corporate bosses by pitting them in a boxing match against the user. The contest will last 60 days at which point the 8 most viewed video entries and 2 wild card entries will be placed on the contest site for a week of final round voting. The contest pot starts at $3,000 and will increase with each app sale during the 60 days. After Apple’s 30% cut, 50% of each app sale will generate just below $0.35 for pot, so entrants are encouraged to spread the word about the app. On top of cash prize, winners will receive consulting from five entrepreneurs including Andrew Warner of Mixergy.com, and crowdSPRING co-founder Ross Kimbarovsky. The other mentors include author/entrepreneurs Cameron Johnson and Mike Michalowicz, as well as Yanik Silver, founder of Maverick Business Adventures and the UG6 seminar. In the true spirit of Under30CEO, at just 19-years-old, the founder of BizBreak, Marshall Haas, barely qualifies for his own contest. BizBreak is actually Haas’ third company in the last two years, having previously founded online automotive parts retailer Velocity Source (a venture he was able to sell) and inVision Projects, an architectural design rendering company. Unlike the South by Southwest Interactive competition whose finalists we mentioned earlier this morning , this contest just got underway yesterday and applications will be accepted until midnight the night of April 16th. This is an interesting approach to both small business fund raising and to spreading the awareness of the BizBreak app. If the winnings pot is going to grow, however, its going to take a lot of endorsement from the applicants since every thousand downloads will only add roughly $350 to the pot. Discuss

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There’s a reason why vanity URLs, personalized profile pages and recommendation systems are so popular. To a customer or site visitor, there’s nothing more interesting than themselves. As the CEO of web tracking and sales conversion site Genius.com , former CMO of online meeting tool WebEx and author of Sales 2.0 for Dummies , David Thompson knows a thing or two about the customer psyche. Thompson spoke to ReadWriteWeb and explained why today’s landscape makes it the toughest in history to make a sale. And for once, it’s got nothing to do with the down economy. Sponsor He explained that in the past, sales people often made products like B2B software sound complicated in order for companies to add a perceived value and drive up prices. Says Thompson, “The web has tipped the scales in favor of the buyer. You can get on the phone with a sales rep and rather than being confused by product features, you’ve done all the research and your position as a buyer is strong. Today, a sales person has to assume transparency.” In order to close deals, sales people need to know as much as they possibly can about a potential customer. Genius.com works with companies to generate leads through web analytics, visitor profiling and contact / point-of-sales services. Some of the company’s clients include British Telecom , Ticket Leap and Jigsaw . The company builds profiles of site visitors and translates them into customer leads. Says Thompson, “While B2B and consumer-facing e-commerce are just starting to use the same type of analytics, the two are very different in that 50% of all sales are made via phone call, webinar or in-person meeting.” Thompson explains that few vendors above the $10,000 spend mark are willing to make purchases via a wholly automated system. He explains that startups targeting ad buyers, higher-end subscription sales and health-related consumers should take note. Some services simply can’t be streamlined to the point of complete automation. Thompson believes that using social tools to understand customers on a personal level is exactly how trust is established and sales are made. Rather than trying to mystify customers with product features, sales people are often required to connect on an emotional and personal level. It makes sense. Would you rather buy a product from a web form and real-time sales bot or from a sales person whose family might benefit from the commission? While it’s counter intuitive, Thompson suggests that maybe the way startups can stand out and offer customers added value is by removing some of the automation process. Services like EHarmony and Experts Exchange do a great job of streamlining with a personal touch. Meanwhile, companies like Zendesk offer startups a chance to access on-demand services from real people at affordable rates. Photo Credit: Eddy Van 3000 under the CC Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 Generic License Discuss

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According to a new study by Milan-based consultancy firm Lundquist , Apple has the best Wikipedia entry among Fortune Global 500 companies . Lundquist ranked Wikipedia pages according to the quality of the data in the infobox, page features like links and citations and the quality and availability of page sections like company history and charts. Today, 489 out of the Global 500 companies are featured on Wikipedia, though the majority of companies scored very low on Lundquist’s scale. The average score was just 11 out of a possible 25 points. Apple’s entry scored 22 points. Sponsor Top Wikipedia Pages Apple (22 pts) BT (21.5 pts) Nokia (21 pts) Royal Dutch Shell (21 pts) Ford Motor (20.5 pts) Toyota Motor (20.5 pts) BAE Systems (20 pts) Bank of America (20 pts) BP (20 pts) Dell (20 pts) Wikipedia is one of the first entry points for Internet users who are looking for more information about a company. A lot of companies score very low on Lundquist’s scale, however. Quite a few entries, for example, don’t even mention what geographic area the company serves or display any data bout the company’s board members or number of employees. According to the company’s researchers, entries for companies in the computer and IT services industry have the highest average score, while the entries for pharmaceutical and health care companies rank the lowest. According to Lundquist, Sumitomo Electric Industries and the French financial services group Crédit Industriel & Commercial have the worst Wikipedia pages of all the Global Fortune 500 companies. What Can Companies Do to Improve Their Pages? As the report’s authors point out, companies are strongly discouraged from editing their own articles on Wikipedia. There are some things, however, that these companies can do to enhance their entries. Here are three recommendations from the report, which don’t just apply to large companies: respect the rules of Wikipedia make copyright-free images available to the Wikipedia community only edit factual information like quarterly results or management changes (Wikipedia actually encourages companies to do this, though it’s probably best to explain the edit in detail) use discussion pages to interact with editors engage and help editors who are interested in the company or the company’s products monitor your company’s Wikipedia article for updates and vandalism Discuss

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The Windows Phone 7 received a lot of praise after its launch at the Mobile World Congress today for its elegant, minimalist interface. From what we’ve seen, it does look striking.

What we also find to be crystal clear: Microsoft is putting far more emphasis on the consumer market than its productivity features for the enterprise.

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Windows Mobile 7 Series is getting rave reviews. Bloggers say Microsoft really has started from scratch to get back in the game with Apple and Google. It is a brand new OS. And it’s like nothing like we have seen on the market. It is similar to the Zune HD but apparently it goes deeper than that.

According to Engadget:

“First the look and feel. The phones are really secondary here, and we want to focus on the interface. The design and layout of 7 Series’ UI (internally called Metro) is really quite original, utilizing what one of the designers (Albert Shum, formerly of Nike) calls an “authentically digital” and “chromeless” experience. What does that mean? Well we can tell you what it doesn’t mean — no shaded icons, no faux 3D or drop shadows, no busy backgrounds (no backgrounds at all), and very little visual flair besides clean typography and transition animations.”

Microsoft is playing to win in the consumer space but we wonder where the enterprise fits in.

Philippe Winthrop of Enterprise Mobility Matters says there was almost no mention of its enterprise applications:

“However, the amount of time devoted during the presentation to “Productivity” was disappointing for me. Sure, I’m not expecting to see a full blown technical demo when a company is launching a brand new platform, but I would have loved to see how an actual email (and not just the Inbox), as well as accepting a calendar entry looks.”

It’s not unusual to have a lot of questions when a company like Microsoft makes such dramatic changes in its technology strategy. Microsoft is keeping mum about all sorts of issues that are important to the enterprise. Here are a few questions that are popping up:

• Windows Phone will most likely not support Windows Mobile legacy applications. The OS is entirely different. What does that mean for the enterprise now using these applications?
• What security features does it have? Can data be wiped from it remotely?
• How will the Zune software be adapted to the enterprise? Will IT permit people to sync to their PC’s?
• How does Azure fit into the picture?
• Is this a service the CEO would use or is it really best as a consumer service?

We are very curious about how this will play out. Enterprise collaboration is becoming deeply tied into mobile platforms. The Blackberry, iPhone and Android devices all have their spots in the enterprise. The Blackberry is a messaging device. The Android and iPhone are both application and Web-centric.

Windows phones are a bit of a mystery.

Consumer and enterprise markets continue to overlap. It may just be that people find Windows Mobile 7 more to their liking. And in that case, they will find ways to use the phones for their personal and business use.

Discuss

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Our readers know ReadWriteWeb as the blog that’s ahead of the technology curve. Our sponsors know us as that, too. Once a week we introduce our sponsors to our readers and let them know a little more about who they are and what they do. You can say thanks to the companies that make ReadWriteWeb happen by tweeting them (see the link below each sponsor) or following them using our Twitter list.

Interested in being a ReadWriteWeb sponsor? Our readers are smart, tech-savvy decision makers; 40% have a graduate degree or PhD, and over 45% play a key role in information technology purchasing decisions. More than 1 million people on Twitter follow us to stay abreast of the latest Web technology trends from around the globe. To find out more about our sponsor packages, visit our advertising page or email our COO.

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Skip to info about:
Crowd Science: Demographic data |
Medill School of Journalism: Digital journalism programs |
Mashery: API management services |
Rackspace: Cloud computing experts |
Global Delight: Mac and iPhone Producs |
Sproutbox: Start-up investors |
OptionsHouse : Online Brokerage |
Aplus.net: Web hosting |
Search Engine Strategies New York: Conference in New York |
Conduit: Customized components |
MyDomain.com: Domain registrar |
Toopia: Our iPhone app developer

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Crowd Science

Crowd Science gives online publishers reports on the demographics and attitudes of their audience. We at ReadWriteWeb have signed up to this new service, because demographic data is something we’ve struggled to get in the past. It’s important for any online business to know their audience, so Crowd Science is a welcome addition to the stats armory that most of us in the Internet biz use.

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Medill School of Journalism

The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University offers programs that combine the enduring skills and values of journalism with new techniques and knowledge that are essential to thrive in a digital world. You might have a passion for creating finely crafted prose, or for telling stories using visual tools. Maybe you are invigorated by the possibilities of interactive publishing, or by videography for the small screen. Maybe you are an experienced professional looking to renew and retool your multimedia skills. You can find your niche in Medill’s graduate journalism program.

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Mashery

Mashery is a platform for Web services, allowing companies to manage their APIs using Mashery’s expertise. At the “Business of APIs” conference, Mashery CEO Oren Michels explained to the audience that while APIs are a technology, their use is a business decision. He went on to say that Mashery has helped customers such as WhitePages.com, Thumbplay, Compete.com, and Calais. Check out the white paper “Five steps to scaling your business development using Web services” to discover how you can use APIs for your business.

You can find out more about APIs and their business use at www.mashery.com.

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Rackspace

Rackspace is one of the world’s largest hosting providers, but it’s also competing in the cloud computing arena. Rackspace Cloud Hosting offers a suite of services which combines a scalable web and application hosting platform (Cloud Sites) with a cloud storage solution (Cloud Files) and on demand server instances (Cloud Servers). The addition of SliceHost a popular cloud computing and hosting provider and JungleDisk, a favorite online backup service that supports Cloud files, makes the Rackspace Cloud a powerful cloud hosting solution.

Explore Rackspace’s hosting and cloud computing solutions.

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Global Delight

Global Delight is a dedicated team of developers passionate about everything Mac, iPhone and iPad. Global Delight has churned out some of the widely recognized applications for Mac and iPhone. Voila, nominated as the Best Consumer Software in the Macworld Awards 2009, is a powerful screen capturing, image editing, organizing and sharing tool on the Mac platform. Voila enables users to quickly capture and annotate anything and everything on their screen, turning their manuals, documents, courseware and more into a visual delight. Camera Plus Pro, currently nominated as The Best App Ever 2009 under the Photography section, is a power-packed camera app for the iPhone, thrilling users worldwide with its amazing capturing, editing, managing and sharing options. It is the only iPhone camera app that offers geo-tagging, full-resolution photo editing, and multiple and simultaneous photo uploading to various sites.

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Sproutbox

SproutBox is an elite team of product developers, creatives, and business experts that invest their talent full-time in start-ups. SproutBox’s new approach to venture capital has helped launch several successful companies including: CheddarGetter, a subscription billing and analytics tool; ScheduleThing, an online scheduling and reservations app; and Squad, a web-based collaborative code editor.

To apply for start-up funding or find out more information visit sproutbox.com.

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OptionsHouse

OptionsHouse is an online broker, serving self-directed investors interested in options, stocks, and IRAs. We offer a streamlined, professional-grade trading platform and some of the lowest, most competitive rates available in the industry.

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Aplus.net

Aplus.net offers a variety of services relating to Web hosting, including shared hosting, Web design, marketing and online advertising services, search engine optimization, e-commerce solutions, and domain registration.

You can register for Aplus.net here.

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Search Engine Strategies New York

Taking control of your business’s online destiny at Search Engine Strategies New York: From Social Media to Mobile, Video and Local Search, Search Engine Strategies New York will guide you through the complexities of search marketing and take you beyond the everyday fundamentals. Discover how this seemingly innocuous art touches and affects every aspect of your business’ online existence, and how mastering it will transform both your brand and your profit margins.

Register now through Jan 15 and save $600. Enter RWW15 to save an additional 15%.

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Conduit

Conduit enables Web publishers to distribute their offerings directly and through its global network of 200,000 publishers and their 60 million users. The
Conduit platform is a powerful marketing tool that allows you to: offer the best of your site through a custom community toolbar, send desktop alerts to your users, get advanced Analytics, and more.

The Conduit platform opens a new world of content sharing. Your site visitors can add your content right to their browser by clicking on a branded 2go button that you place on your site. You can also share your content in the Conduit Marketplace, where all the publishers and users in the Conduit network can grab it.

The platform has been adopted by major brands such as Fox News, iWin, Major League Baseball, TechCrunch, and Travelocity, as well as thousands of small and medium organizations in 120 countries.

If you want to Conduit your website, go to www.conduit.com.

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MyDomain.com

MyDomain is a leading ICANN-accredited provider of domain name registration and online business solutions. For over 10 years, MyDomain has offered low-cost domain names and free domain services including complete DNS management. Today, sub-$10 domains without the constant upsells you’ll find at some competitors are the norm at MyDomain. MyDomain’s complete range of solutions include Web hosting and VPS hosting, email, SSL Certificates and more.

Toopia

Nicolas Koenig is the developer who made our beautiful iPhone app a reality. He runs an iPhone development shop from the Netherlands called Toopia. Toopia also created the Thermometer iPhone app, which enables your iPhone or iPod touch to get the current temperature based on your location. The RWW app lets you read us on the go, follow us on Twitter, share stories on Facebook and Twitter, and browse at your leasure using Read it Later and Instapaper. Download the ReadWriteWeb iPhone application here.

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The companies above pay our rents or mortgages and we appreciate it. We hope you’ll stop by their sites and see what they’ve got to offer.

Have you got a smart company that could use some more visits by the sophisticated readers of a blog like ReadWriteWeb’s? Drop us a line and let’s talk.

Thanks to all our sponsors and our readers for your support!

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