About Startup Prize
If you have questions, contact Melissa Brannan: melissa@prize.foundation.
There are Three Startup Prizes
Prize #1: Elevating Your Business
Each and every business that shows up to Startup Prize will be given the tools and insight to make their business more attractive to the market and, as a result, to investors. A tight, realistic, business plan is what earns you dollars from investors, lenders, and customers. The mentorship gained alone by Startup Prize participants is worth thousands of dollars.
Prize #2: Two Tracks, $10,000 in Cash (for each)
A handful of startups will be selected from the Qualifying Events to advance to the Final Round based on their Entrepreneur Canvas submitted via our online Portal system. There will be one track for startups requiring FDA approval, and one track for startups that don’t. Each group of startups will present their final business plans and pitch to our panel of Investor Judges behind closed doors. The winner of each track will walk away with a $10,000 cash grand prize.
Prize #3: Investment in Your Business
While there can be only one grand prize winner in each track, every entrepreneur in the program is eligible for investment by Startup Prize Investors. This is the real deal, the “Big Prize” as we call it. Winning the Big Prize requires incredibly hard work to show the investors that your idea – and more importantly, YOU – are ready for that next step.
What is Startup Prize?
Startup Prize is a unique entrepreneur education program and competition. It is one of several programs supported by the award-winning Prize Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Shreveport, LA. Established in 2014, Startup Prize was conceived to promote economic development in Northwest Louisiana by providing entrepreneurs with a springboard to accelerate their progress through the startup phase using education, networking, assessment and consultation, while pushing competitors toward opportunities for capital investment.
Originally dubbed the “Louisiana Startup Prize,” the competition began as an industry agnostic competition, attracting early stage startups from across a spectrum of disciplines from health to technology to business innovation. In 2020, Louisiana Startup Prize rebranded itself to Startup Prize: Focus on Health, with the goal being to leverage and energize health resources in Northwest Louisiana and to attract more health-focused innovation to the state of Louisiana. We recruit early stage health and medical focused startups from around the country to be part of the program and competition.
For 2024, we are continuing our Focus on Health and our effort to elevate and accelerate even more startups using our growing pool of rock star mentors and experienced investors from across the country.
How Our Program Works
At Startup Prize: Focus on Health, we pride ourselves in our mission to activate, evolve, and transform startups by connecting entrepreneurs with mentors, resources and investors that help shine a light on their respective paths to success. As opposed to other entrepreneurial competitions, Startup Prize deemphasizes the pitch and instead encourages our entrepreneurs to focus on learning and connecting with each other while also building their resource networks with our mentors, investors and fellow entrepreneurs.
To participate in the Startup Prize and to be eligible for consideration for the finals, all registrants are required to do two things: 1) attend at least one qualifying event, and 2) submit an entrepreneurial canvas.. The qualifying events are an opportunity for entrepreneurs to get direct help from subject matter experts and from one another. They are typically held over two days and include roundtable discussions, keynote speakers and panels. All roundtables are hosted by talented mentors who are experts in a variety of fields and are focused on topics that are integral when building a business, whether financial (such as creating realistic projections and valuations), legal (protecting intellectual property, navigating regulatory & compliance issues), marketing (creating a brand, customer discovery), or funding (non-dilutive funding opportunities, VC, SBIR/STTR).
The next step of the Startup Prize process is identifying the finalists. Competing entrepreneurs submit an entrepreneurial canvas– a lean canvas-based application that helps evaluators better understand the trajectory of the company and the company’s viability. We ask mentors who interact with the entrepreneurs during our qualifying events to provide feedback and impressions of the entrepreneurs, an innovative part of the process which helps deepen the relationships between mentors and entrepreneurs. Once the portals are reviewed and feedback is received, the finalists for each track are announced.
The program culminates with a final pitch event called the Startup Prize Final Final. All finalists are invited to Shreveport, Louisiana, in late August to present their concepts to an Investor Judge panel which evaluates and scores each presenting startup. The highest scoring startup in each track becomes the winner and is awarded a Grand Prize of $10,000 cash. While this is a pitch event, it’s really a final meeting between the mentors and the companies. We’ve found this event to be a galvanizing moment that leads to deeper mentorship, partnerships and in some cases, investment.
Our Mission
Startup Prize connects entrepreneurs with mentors and investors that can help grow their business from an idea or early stage status into a successful business. We also aim to match viable startups with potential investors that can give them the much-needed capital to realize their vision. Importantly, the big picture is to create a thriving entrepreneurial resource and community in Northwest Louisiana.