AWS Global Start-Up Challenge FAQ

Q: What is the AWS Global Start-Up Challenge?

The AWS Global Start-Up Challenge is a global contest for start-ups who are built on AWS. After a series of judging rounds, we will select Semi-Finalists, Finalists, and a Grand Prize winner in each of the following four categories:

1. Big Data & High Performance Computing
2. Gaming
3. Consumer Applications
4. Business Applications

We encourage all eligible start-ups built on AWS to enter. If your start-up doesn’t fit into one of the four categories, select “outside the box” during the entry process and we will categorize internally.

Q: Who is eligible to enter this contest?

The Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) Global Start-Up Challenge (“Contest”) is open to: (a) individuals or sole proprietors who have reached the older of 18 years old or the age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence and have the full legal capacity to participate in this Contest at time of entry; or (b) privately held businesses that have not generated more than $10 million USD (approximately 7,978,426 EUR) in gross annual revenues and no more than $10 million USD (approximately 7,978,426 EUR) in outside funding. The Contest and the Official Rules are void in Quebec and where prohibited by law, and are subject to applicable laws. Our and YouNoodle, Inc.’s (“YouNoodle”) employees, parents, affiliates and subsidiaries, and participating advertising and promotion agencies and prize suppliers/funding entities (and members of their immediate family (spouse, domestic partner, parent, child, sibling and their respective spouses, regardless of where they reside) or those living in their household, whether or not related) are not eligible. Entrants may not be a national or legal permanent resident of any of the following countries: Burma, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan or Syria. Entrants may not be members of any guild, union or other organization that may prohibit them from participating in this Contest and that would restrict, require due payment or otherwise have the right to oppose such entrant’s participation in this Contest. Prizes will be awarded in the name of the individual or business that entered. By the time of submission, entrants must have an AWS account (see https://aws-portal.amazon.com/gp/aws/developer/registration/index.html). Any individual submitting an entry on behalf of a business entity represents and warrants that he/she is authorized to submit an entry on behalf of such business entity. This Contest is a skill-based contest, and as such, the winners will not be selected randomly, but on the basis of objective judging criteria (as set forth below). PARTICIPATION EXPENSES WILL NOT BE REFUNDED. For complete details, please refer to the Official Rules.

Q: What is the judging process?

First Round: All qualified Entries will be judged by a panel of qualified judges that we select (“Amazon Judging Panel”). The Amazon Judging Panel will select 6 Semi-Finalists from each of the following 4 categories: 1. Big Data & High Performance Computing, 2. Gaming, 3. Consumer Applications, and 4. Business Applications. The Amazon Judging Panel will judge the qualified Entries using the following judging criteria: (a) implementation and integration of the Paid Services; (b) originality and creativity; (c) likelihood of long-term success and scalability; and (d) effectiveness in addressing a need in the marketplace (the “Judging Criteria”). We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to select fewer than 6 Semi-Finalists from any of the 4 categories if we do not receive a minimum of 6 eligible and qualified Entries from such category.

In mid-December 2012, the potential Semi-Finalists will be notified by e-mail or phone. In order to proceed to the Second Round, each potential Semi-Finalist must notify us of his/her willingness to proceed to the Second Round within 2 business days of notification and satisfy other eligibility requirements described in the Official Rules, and also must submit to us a video that describes the company set forth in the Semi-Finalist’s Business Proposition (the “Video”). The video must be in the English language and must not exceed 2 minutes in length. If any potential Semi-Finalist is unable to create and submit a Video, such potential Semi-Finalist must provide to us a logo of their company along with a link to their company website, as requested by us in our sole discretion.

By submitting a Video, each potential Semi-Finalist grants to Sponsor the non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display the Video throughout the world in any media. By submitting a Video, each potential Semi-Finalist represents and warrants that (a) his/her Video is his/her original creation; (b) has not been copied or derived in whole or in part from any other work; (c) his/her Video has not previously been distributed through any media channel; (d) his/her Video (including all music included in the Video and all images and people depicted in the Video) does not violate or infringe any copyright, trademark, privacy or publicity right, or other personal, proprietary or intellectual property right of any person or entity; (e) his/her Video is not defamatory, libelous, obscene, or otherwise illegal; (f) his/her Video is the sole and exclusive property of the entrant; (g) he/she has complete, worldwide distribution rights for his/her Video; (h) he/she will not distribute his/her Video through any media channel prior to the conclusion of the Contest on January 24, 2013; and (i) he/she has received the written consent of any person (or parent or legal guardian if such person is a minor) who appears in any Video.

If a potential Semi-Finalist appears in his/her Video, such potential Semi-Finalist consents, by virtue of submitting his/her Video to Sponsor, to Sponsor’s use of the potential Semi-Finalist’s name, likeness, photograph or image, including, without limitation, a recording or parts thereof, whether in writing, audio, and/or video, for any purpose, in any media, without compensation or additional consideration to potential Semi-Finalist. Sponsor shall have the right at any time during the Contest to request proof of such consent. Potential Semi-Finalists agree to indemnify and hold harmless Sponsor and their respective affiliates, and any agents, employees or representatives of any of them, for any action brought by a person whose consent Semi-Finalist did not obtain.  Videos, along with the potential Semi-Finalist’s name, city and state of residence, may be posted on any Web site owned and/or operated by Sponsor or any of their respective affiliates (“Sponsor Site”), any other Web site or other online point of presence on any platform, through which any products or services available on or through the Sponsor Site are described, syndicated, offered, merchandised or advertised, in Sponsor’s sole discretion.  Sponsor’s decision to post a Video or any portion of a Video on any Sponsor Site does not mean that the selected Video has been selected as a winning Entry.

If a potential Semi-Finalist does not timely satisfy all requirements set forth in the Official Rules, as determined by us in our sole discretion, a runner-up may be notified. The Semi-Finalists names will be announced on the Contest Website on or about December 27, 2012.

Second Round:  In late-December 2012, the Amazon Judging Panel will review and judge the Semi-Finalists’ Entries using the Judging Criteria. The Amazon Judging Panel will then select a minimum of 2 finalists (the “Finalists”) from each of the following 4 categories:  1. Big Data & High Performance Computing, 2. Gaming, 3. Consumer Applications, and 4. Business Applications. The exact number of Finalists selected will be at the Amazon Judging Panel’s discretion. The Finalists will be notified by e-mail or phone. In order to proceed to the Final Round, each potential Finalist must notify us of his/her willingness to proceed to the Final Round within 2 business days of notification and satisfy other eligibility requirements described in the Official Rules. If a potential Finalist does not timely satisfy all requirements set forth in the Official Rules, as determined by us in our sole discretion, a runner-up may be notified.

Final Round: The final round of judging will take place on or about the month of January, 2013 in San Francisco, California, the exact location to be determined by us at a later date. Each Finalist must be present in person at the Final Round and must prepare, at his/her expense, a 30-minute presentation and demo of his/her Business Proposition. The presentation and demo must be in English and will be presented to the Amazon Judging Panel. Each presentation and demo will be followed by up to 30 minutes of Q&A by the Amazon Judging Panel. The Finalists’ Entries will be judged on the Judging Criteria. Following the presentations and demos, the Finalists will each present a short pitch (up to 10 minutes) of their Business Propositions to a panel of venture capitalists who may then ask questions. Following the short pitch sessions, the venture capitalists will make their recommendations to the Amazon Judging Panel. The Amazon Judging Panel will then meet privately to conduct a final review of the Finalists’ Entries and the recommendations of the venture capitalists using the Judging Criteria. After the private Final Round Judging sessions, the Finalists will give a presentation and demonstration to an audience of start-ups, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and community members. After the Finalist presentations, a representative from the Amazon Judging Panel will announce one Grand Prize winner from each of the following 4 categories:  1. Big Data & High Performance Computing, 2. Gaming, 3. Consumer Applications, and 4. Business Applications. Finalists must be present at the Final Round to be eligible to win the Grand Prize.

Tie Breakers. In the event there are two or more identical and equally qualified Entries, as determined by us in our sole discretion, only the first one to be submitted will be considered. In the event of a tie in any round, an additional tie-breaking judge selected by us will determine the Semi-Finalist(s), Finalist(s) or Grand Prize winner(s), as applicable, using the Judging Criteria. All decisions of the Amazon Judging Panel and any tie-breaking judge are final and binding. For the purpose of the Official Rules, the Grand Prize winners, the Finalists and the Semi-Finalists may also be referred to in the Official Rules as “winners”.

Q: Can I submit more than one entry?

Yes, but no more than one entry per entrant will be selected as a Semi-Finalist. Any entry submitted by an entrant must be substantially different than any other entry submitted by that entrant.  Please note that the AWS Global Start-up Challenge is a skill-based contest, and as such, the winners will not be selected randomly, but on the basis of objective judging criteria (as set forth in our contest Official Rules).

Q: Do I need to register for Amazon Web Services in order to be eligible?

Yes, by the time of submission, entrants must have an AWS account. If you don’t have an account you can create one here at: https://aws.amazon.com/ Part of the judging criteria is the implementation and integration of paid services from Amazon Web Services in your business proposition.

Q: Where can I find my AWS Account Number?

If you have registered for an AWS account, you can find your account number on the top right hand side of your screen when you are logged in to your account. This number is 12 digits in length, e.g. 1234-5678-9012.

Q: Does my entry need to include a new idea or business?

No, you can submit an existing business as long as the business proposition entered is original and was created solely by the entrant and will not violate the rights of any third party or law, code, regulation or ordinance.

Q: What services can I use to enter the contest?

Applicable services are Amazon Glacier, Amazon CloudFront, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Dynamo DB, Amazon ElastiCache, Amazon Elastic MapReduce, Amazon Flexible Payments Service (FPS), Amazon Mechanical Turk, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

Q: If I experience technical problems using Amazon Web Services, whom should I contact?

Please post your technical questions to the AWS Developer Forums (http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/forums) where AWS staff and the community are best equipped to help you.

Q: When will Semi-Finalists be notified?

The judging process begins December 2012. We will notify the Semi-Finalists via email or phone in late December 2012.

If I am chosen as a Finalist, can I bring someone with me to the final event? If you are chosen as a Finalist, Amazon will pay airfare and accommodation for one person to attend the final event and award ceremony in San Francisco, CA, USA. However, you are welcome to bring along your business partner to help present your business proposition to the judging panel at your own cost.

Q: How do I get my $25 AWS Credit?

After the Grand Prize winners are announced, in January 2013, AWS will provide credits information via email to all eligible entrants who submit a qualified entry into the contest.

Q: If I have questions about the contest entry form or the rules, whom should I contact?

Please email your questions to awsstartups@amazon.com