Apply for HeatSpring’s Online Solar Startup Alley* Competition – Deadline: December 12th

*Startups include small businesses and new ventures with revenues of less than $1 million. 

I’m really excited to announce our online solar startup competition.

We created the competition because we noticed within our 6-week Solar Startup Accelerator that the single largest obstacle for companies in the solar supply chain launching new products and services is getting in front of customers. We think that our competition can help new companies get direct access to potential customers. We know this because those customers are our readers.

I’d suggest that this competition is at least as good, if not better, than most startup competitions that happen at in-person conferences. Why? It’s cheaper, doesn’t require travel, and competing companies will schedule more sales calls with potential clients who have a strong intention to buy.

The competition starts today, the first submission deadline is on December 12th, and the the winner will be announced on January 30th.

If you’re a new business that is small but is looking to grow quickly (a.k.a a startup) and want direct access to our readers to sell them your product, you should submit your company to our competition.

Let me explain a little more about why this competition is awesome, how it works, the deadlines and who our readers are.

Why is the HeatSpring startup competition better than normal competitions? Votes = Sales calls with an intent to purchase

Normal competitions are based on grading and feedback by judges, which—let’s be honest—don’t provide very useful feedback. Do you know what really matters to a small company? Sales. And access to customers who have an intent to purchase is the most important part of building a sales funnel and starting to generate sales.

That’s why, for our competition, a “vote” will be counted when a HeatSpring reader schedules a demo or sales call with one of the competing teams. This will be much more useful for both our readers and the participating companies. It will also be a much stronger indication of whose pitch was better, if they are solving a real problem, and if they have a good solution.

The Startup Competition Deadlines

1. Today. Use the form below to submit your company’s information.
2. December 12th. We’ll pick the 10 best for the next round based on the criteria below.
3. Completed by January 10th. Each of these 10 will create slightly longer applications with a video pitch and a little bit more about their company.
4. We’ll post the 10 finalists and let the voting begin. The voting will end on January 30th.

Screening Process for For the First Application

1. Clear product. You need to be extremely clear about what your product does.
2. You address a real problem. Clearly communicate the problem you’re solving.
3. Why your product is awesome. Tell me why it’s awesome.
4. Less than $1 million in total sales.
5. Your product is useful to our target audience. See below about our target audience.

Who Our Readers Are? Who you’ll be selling to

HeatSpring Magazine has roughly 38,000 readers. Our readers are professionals who are actively engaged in marketing, selling, designing, and installing high performance building and clean energy systems, products, and equipment.

They include contractors, engineers, architects, sales people, project managers, owners, executives, lawyers, accountants, and policy makers. Their projects range from residential to commercial- and utility-scale.

Even if you don’t win the competition or get select to the second round, you will get exposure, traffic, and interest from our readers.

Prize for the Winner

These are benefits that the winner will get in addition to valuable sales calls.

1. Access to our Solar Startup Accelerator course. Value: $1,595.
2. One live lecture on your product plus dedicated emails to get your attendees. Value: $5,000.

You can see examples of our live lectures here. They typically get 50-200 attendees for the live portion. We post the recording to passively generate interested customers in the future. This includes a live presentation to everyone who attends as well as a number of dedicated emails that we’ll send in order to fill the lecture with our readers.

Our Goal with the Competition

1. Get 100 votes (sales calls) for the entire competition. This means for the 10 finalists, our goal is that everyone will get at least a few valuable sales calls.
2. Introduce our readers to new solutions that could help their businesses.
3. Provide new companies direct access to potential customers.

Next Steps

In order to be considered for the competition, please fill out this form by Friday, December 12th.