10 International Startup Scholarships

[ The Tonchidot team demos its Domo app at LAUNCH '11. ]

The LAUNCH Festival is doing so well we want to get more folks involved from outside the USA.

Great ideas and startups can come from anywhere today, and we're particularly interested in bringing more startups from Israel, Korea, Japan, China and South America (and of course beyond!) to the LAUNCH Festival DEMO Pit in San Francisco March 7 & 8.

LAUNCH will pick up the entire cost (except your travel) to ensure we have a truly international event. Yes, we'll even pay for your booth (table, chairs, electricity, wifi and space).

You just have to get your team there.

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DOUBLE Boom! LAUNCH Hits $369k in Prizes Thanks to MailChimp's $100k!

2011/12 Creative Mornings with Ben Chestnut from CreativeMornings/Atlanta on Vimeo.

Ben Chestnut, the founder of the wildly successful MailChimp, has agreed to invest $100k in one of the 10 winning companies at the LAUNCH Festival on March 7th and 8th.

Total prize money is now, gulp, $369k.

This prize will work similarly to the Charles River Ventures $100k prize we announced yesterday: Ben will pick one of the 10 award winners at the LAUNCH Festival and either give them a convertible note without a discount or cap (similar to the notes provided to Y Combinator companies), or simply invest in their next round.

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Boom! LAUNCH Hits $269k in Prizes Thanks to Charles River Ventures

The LAUNCH Festival taking place March 7 & 8 has now made history: over a quarter of a million dollars in prizes!

Charles River Ventures is putting up a $100k investment in one of the 10 award winners at the LAUNCH Festival, bringing the total prize money to over a quarter of a million ($269k to be exact).

The investment will be in the form of a convertible note without a discount or cap (similar to the notes provided to Y Combinator companies), and be for a whopping $100k. Most importantly it comes with my good friend George Zachary as an advisor (he's aces).  

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Whoa, LAUNCH Prize Money Hits $169k!

[ The Room 77 team accepts the "Best in Show" award at LAUNCH '11 from LAUNCH founder Jason Calacanis (left) and Adeo Ressi of the Founder Institute (third from left). Photo (cc) Kenneth Yeung - www.snapfoc.us ]

The LAUNCH Festival is just over 30 days away and it's on fire!

Venture51, a seed- and early-stage venture fund that loves design-driven technical teams, has agreed to invest $51k in the winner of the "Best in Show" award in LAUNCH's 1.0 competition.*

LAUNCH is taking place on March 7th and 8th in San Francisco if you've been hiding under a rock. Right before SXSW.

This generous investment brings the total value of prizes at the LAUNCH Festival to a record $169k, as TechStars previously agreed -- for the first time in their history -- to accept one of the LAUNCH companies into their program.

[ More after the jump. ]

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Watch TWiST with Jawbone Founder and CEO Hosain Rahman Today at 1pm PT

Today on This Week in Startups, Jason Calacanis sat down with Jawbone founder and CEO Hosain Rahman. 

Jawbone manufactures premium Bluetooth headsets, wireless portable speakers, like the popular JAMBOX that launched in August 2011, and other products that support the mobile lifestyle. Back in December, Jawbone raised $40M, bringing the company's total to $210M raised. Investors seem to be most excited about...

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