Get ready for U-M's 1,000 Pitches contest for student entrepreneurs

Wednesday, October 6, 2010 | Source: Xconomy

Got an idea? The Next Big Idea? Want to see those ideas that can play out into true business startups? Then pay attention to the University of Michigan's 1,000 Pitches contest, where hundreds of university students offer up business concepts in hopes of winning prizes worth $1,000 and maybe even more.

Excerpt:

A culture of entrepreneurial innovation might not be something one would expect to find in a rust belt state like Michigan, but one student group at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is trying to change that.

MPowered Entrepreneurship aims to cultivate and support student entrepreneurs in hopes that they turn their ideas into successful startups, and ideally keep those businesses—and the talent that comes with them—in the state. The group is gearing up this week for its hallmark program, 1,000 Pitches, which asks students to pitch ideas for startup companies via video, and awards $1,000 to the winning ideas.

Two University of Michigan students founded the group in 2007 after a trip to Silicon Valley where they saw people "spinning off ideas and businesses left and right," according to Ankit Mehta, a junior majoring in communications, and the president of MPowered. They came back to Michigan with the goal of creating a similar startup community in the state.

Read the rest of the story here.

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.