Verizon Contest Will Award $1 Million to Innovative Entrepreneurs

Verizon Contest Will Award $1 Million to Innovative Entrepreneurs


Verizon has a question: Are you ready for the 2015 Powerful Answers Awards?

The telecommunications company announced its third annual competition, promising to award $6 million in cash prizes to innovators, developers, and entrepreneurs who ideate solutions to some of the world’s most complex problems, as divided into three distinct categories: transportation, emergency response and the Internet of Things (IoT).

[Related: Black Enterprise Announces 50 Most Powerful Women in Corporate America]

The winners can take home a $1 million first-place prize, a $500,000 second-place prize, or one of two $250,000 third-place prizes in each of the three areas. But along with the cash, winners may also earn something else very valuable: the chance to participate in an accelerator customized to grow and drive each winner as they prepare to take their ideas to market.

Based on the BootUp Academy model, winners in last year’s competition took part in intensive workshops to learn best practices during the knowledge-exchange sessions in areas such as business planning, product development, UX/UI design, global go-to-market strategies, communications, financing, and growth hacking, according to a release from Verizon. 2014 winners also had a chance to connect with Verizon Subject Matter Expert Mentors, advisors from around the globe, investors, thought leaders, and industry experts who helped support the sustainable, meaningful companies, and these ideas may be offered to 2015’s crop of champions.

Winners from last year’s competition include Sesame Enable, a touch-free smartphone for people with disabilities; Organize, which seeks to increase the number of organ donors by combatting myths, and changing how and when people register; Eco-Fuel Africa, an organization actively creating energy and reducing environmental impact; and Vaxess Technologies, which has innovated methods for distributing vaccines in the developed and developing worlds.

There’s still plenty of time to register for the competition, but why delay? Get your application filled out by the June 18 deadline. Semifinals and finals selection rounds will follow before the winners are announced at the end of September


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