A VC in Vacationland

I often get asked where an entrepreneur can compete for seed money, or just practice for venture capital pitches.  The granddaddy of these competitions is the annual MIT 100K Entrepreneurship Competition. 

The founders of one of my portfolio companies, Sean Willems and John Ruark, won the 2000 MIT competition and went on to found Optiant, raising nearly $30 million in the process from leading VC's such as Battery Ventures. Even though the competitions themselves have relatively small rewards for winners, they sure can lead to excellent sources of capital.

And they do provide a great training ground, not only for honing your pitch but also for seeing how others are positioning their innovations. Every entrepreneur will need to raise money for their startup, perhaps numerous times in the early years.  Making sure that you can tell a good story about your company is a critical success factor, one you will use again and again, in front of investors, potential customers and new hires.

You can Google local venture competitions on the web.  Every region of the country has, at minimum, angel meetings where you can pitch your deal numerous times per year as well as various competitions like the MIT 100K.