Justin Kan Launches Snapchat Pitch Competition for Start-Ups

It’s a great day for entrepreneurs and Snapchat users! Justin Kan, the Internet entrepreneur, and investor is hosting a funding competition called “Snapchat Pitch Competition” for start-ups on the video-focused social network. Known for pioneering live video streaming with his brainchild Justin.tv, Justin Kan has been associated with many renowned brands in the industry. Although Justin.tv shut down at its founder’s decision to focus more on his other company Twitch — a popular live streaming video platform — Kan has not let go of his love for connecting with the audience through video streaming.

What is the Snapchat Pitch Competition?

Kan is currently working with Y Combinator, the American seed accelerator, as a partner and spokesperson. Known as the “world’s most powerful start-up incubator”, Y Combinator has groomed a number of big brands such as Dropbox, Airbnb, Reddit and so on. The company is now planning to invest $20,000 in tech start-up companies that are still in their early stages, but have the potential to grow. To give the YC Fellowship selection process a real Gen-Y twist, Kan has introduced the Snapchat competition where aspiring entrepreneurs can present their pitch via a 10-second video.

Although this isn’t the first time venture capitalists have sought to social media websites to connect with entrepreneurs, Kan has taken this trend up a notch. When talking about why he thought Snapchat to be the ideal platform for this competition, Kan stated on his blog “It’s a pretty fun medium: low friction enough to easily create content, but dynamic enough to share things that are educational and entertaining.” The 32-year-old entrepreneur is seeking younger entrepreneurs who are highly active on Snapchat.

A survey conducted in February 2016 find that that 23 percent of Snapchat users in the United States were aged between 13 and 17 years and 37% were between the age of 18 to 34 while only 2% were over 55. Finding talented young entrepreneurs is much easier on Snapchat compared to the other social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. So, he surely hopes to get a innovative pitches.snap

How will it work?

The entrepreneurship experiment will take place on Kan’s Snapchat Story. Selected startups will get the chance to make their pitch to Kan, YC Fellowship team, and Kevin Hale through Kan’s official channel. The winner will get an interview with YCF for the potential investment of a whopping $20,000! In order to participate in the competition, companies and entrepreneurs will first have to apply. A group of finalists will be chosen and will be given the chance to take over Kan’s Snapchat channel. Each of the applicants will get a chance to pitch through Stories.

 

justin kan snapchat

Kan and team will then give feedbacks on the stories. Once all the takeovers have been completed, a voting process will start to pick out the community’s favorite startup pitch. Although the final decision on the winner will be taken by Kan and YCF team, they would still like to know what their Snapchat community is thinking. If they come across more than one great startup, all the selected companies will get an interview and the chance to win the funding. Start-up businesses that are looking for funding, and are interested in participating in this competition can apply now.

 

Applications will be accepted until 19th May, and finalists will be chosen to take over Kan’s channel from 23rd May to 26th May. Each of the finalists will get an hour to tell Kan, the YCF team, and the viewers why they deserve to get the funding. The winner of the competition will be announced on 3RD June. You can find more information on the Snapchat Pitch Competition here.

Stay tuned for more news and updates!

Survey source: http://www.statista.com/statistics/326452/snapchat-age-group-usa/


                    
More from Anne Howard - Editor
Ramsomware Attacks: How To Protect Your Business
Two weeks ago over 100 countries and thousands of computers were victimized...
Read More
0 replies on “Justin Kan Launches Snapchat Pitch Competition for Start-Ups”