Rackspace Australia announces startup contest

Rackspace will send one Australian startup to San Francisco to meet with Silicon Valley investors, the cloud provider announced.

The winner of a Rackspace startup competition next month will also be interviewed in the United States by American blogger Robert Scoble, the company said.

The competition is open to startups “at any stage of development”, composed of 10 or fewer people, Rackspace said. Startups can apply until 26 July on the Rackspace Australia website.

Rackspace will choose 10 finalists to pitch at the Fishburners co-working space in Sydney on 6 August. The judging panel will include Scoble, as well as Pollenizer co-founder Mick Liubinskas, PushStart founder Kim Heras, Kogan founder Ruslan Kogan and Xero country manager, Chris Ridd.

Rackspace was a startup itself when it opened business in 1998. In Australia, Rackspace has provided cloud hosting to several startup incubators including Pollenizer, PushStart, Startmate and Innovyz.

“I can’t wait to see what all the Aussie entrepreneurs have in store for the Small Teams Big Impact competition, both at the final event when I visit Sydney, and when they visit our shores for a recording session in our studio,” said Scoble.

“We’ll be judging startups based on the scope of their innovation, the highest potential to change or disrupt an industry, and having the greatest impact to the largest number of people or businesses.”

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