May 11, 2016
For the past four months I’ve been experimenting with Snapchat. It’s a pretty fun medium: low friction enough to easily create content, but dynamic enough to share things that are educational and entertaining. Since then, I have been actively sharing startup advice on my channel and (hopefully) inspiring young entrepreneurs.
Today we are launching a new entrepreneurship experiment on my Story: a Snapchat takeover pitch competition. Select startups will be invited to make a pitch through my Snapchat channel to myself, Kevin Hale and the Y Combinator Fellowship team. The top startup will get an interview for YCF for a potential $20,000 investment.
How will this work? Companies will apply for the competition. We will select a group of finalists to take over my Snapchat channel. Each company will pitch us and my Snapfam through a series of Stories. We will give feedback on the pitches and once all of the takeovers are complete, we will ask the community to vote for their favorite startup. Since we are investing our money, we will be making the final decision on the winner, but it’s always good to know what people are thinking. Pitches will be posted online to refresh viewers’ memories before voting. We reserve the right to interview and fund more than one startup from the competition if there seem to be multiple good startups.
If you have a startup that’s looking for funding apply here. The application deadline is May 19th. Finalists will take over my Snapchat between May 23rd to 26th. Each finalist will have 1 hour on my Snapchat channel to tell us and our viewers why we should invest in you and your team.
Even if you don’t have a startup you can keep up with all the action by following on Snapchat: justinkan
Details
How it will work:
First, you need to apply by May 19th. The most promising entries will be asked to take over my Snapchat channel between May 23rd and May 26th. Each finalist will take over my Snapchat for 1 hour to pitch me and my fans.
Schedule:
Application period: May 11th — May 19th Snapchat Takeovers (Pitches): May 23rd-26th
Winner announced: June 3rd
Notes:
- Anyone can apply, but if you have actually started building your company you have a better chance.
- Before an actual investment, the winner(s) will be interviewed by the YC Fellowship team.
- If we find out that you tried to cheat, you will be eliminated… and I will probably call you out on Snapchat (imagine the embarrassment!).
- All stories will be downloaded and posted online for later use.
Snapchat Pitch Competition was originally published in Justin Kan on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.