1M/1M And Rackspace Announce Startup Challenge To Give Cloud Ventures A Lift

One Million by One Million (1M/1M) and Rackspace, the Open Cloud Company, today announced the Rackspace Cloud – 1M/1M Startup Challenge. This competition is designed to give a boost to entrepreneurs growing, developing, and launching cloud-based startups. Through an application process, five cloud startups will be judged finalists and they will present their businesses during an online pitch competition on Thursday, May 30th. Four of the finalists will be awarded $1000 per month worth of cloud hosting for one year from Rackspace. The winner will be awarded $2000 per month worth of cloud hosting for one year PLUS a one-year scholarship to the 1M/1M program. Founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sramana Mitra, 1M/1M will provide extensive incubation support to help the winning startup rise to its potential.

One Million by One Million (1M/1M) is a global virtual incubator that provides budding entrepreneurs methodologies, video lectures, strategy consulting through public and private online roundtables, and introductions to media, customers, channel partners and investors, including pre-seed, seed, angel, VC, bank and alternative financing. The 1M/1M program is all about coaching entrepreneurs on funding, business strategy and execution. The program’s mission is to help a million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars and beyond in annual revenue, thereby creating a trillion dollars in global GDP and 10 million jobs.

Rackspace® Hosting (NYSE: RAX) is the open cloud company, delivering open technologies and powering more than 205,000 customers worldwide. Rackspace provides its renowned Fanatical Support® across a broad portfolio of IT products, including Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Hosting and Dedicated Hosting. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company, is featured on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For and is included on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Rackspace was positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2011 Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting.” Rackspace is headquartered in San Antonio with offices and data centers around the world.

The deadline to submit contest applications is Friday, May 17, 2013.  Applicants must have a concept or existing business providing a cloud-based product or service. To apply, please submit your answers to the application questions found here by email to Maureen Kelly at maureen@1mby1m.com.

By May 23, Rackspace and 1M/1M will announce the five finalists chosen to present their company pitches, with guidance from 1M/1M, during a public online 1M/1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs, at 8:00 a.m. PDT, on May 30, 2013: register to attend here. The winner and finalists will be profiled on the 1M/1M blog and elsewhere following the roundtable contest.

Best of luck to all!