Do you have an idea for a business or product which absolutely needs to be brought to market? Are you willing to put some time into actually making that happen? The City of Lakewood’s Ideation Challenge is just for you.

Take the Ideation Challenge by submitting a single-page Business Model Canvas and single-page Validation Plan along with preparing a 3-minute “elevator pitch” — and you could win a prize package of services valued at over $1,000 to help bring it to reality.

You’ll get access that many local entrepreneurs would envy, including a 1:1 lunch meeting with successful entrepreneur and current Mayor of Lakewood, Michael Summers.

Other parts of the prize package include:

• One pass to INDUSTRY 2017, the conference for people who build, launch, and scale world class products ($695 value)
• Up to eight (8) hours of legal consultation provided by the University of Akron’s SEED Legal Clinic ($300 value)
• Custom-designed WordPress website (with up to 10 pages of content) and up to 6 months of free hosting, courtesy of The Dubis Group ($250 value)
  – Included backup and security software, but software that may require additional license fees is not included.
• A small business internet/cable package from Cox Cable (Value TBD)
• A paperback edition of Startup Seed Funding for the Rest of Us, one of the top 100 startup books on Amazon ($12.99 value)

• Interested candidates are invited (but not required) to attend the Startup U session on July 25th in order to ask questions about the Lakewood Ideation Challenge.
• Applications must be submitted via email – August 14th
• Finalists will be contacted if invited to give an elevator pitch – August 15th
• Finalists present their Elevator Pitch during the August Startup U event at The Winchester (12112 Madison Avenue) – Tuesday, August 22rd.
• Winners are announced during the September Startup Lakewood event – September 26th.

Note:  All applicants should be available, if requested, to pitch live at the August 22nd Startup U event.

To learn more, visit startuplakewood.com.