12/12/2001

Mentor and Entrepreneur.com
To Award $10,000 In Start-up Capital
To Entrepreneur With Best
Small Business Idea



Companies announce launch of
"Win Your Own Small Business" Contest



Norwalk, CT, December 12, 2001 — You think you've got a great idea for a business? Will $10,000 help make it happen? You convince us… we'll give you the money.

The "Win Your Own Small Business" contest, sponsored by Mentor Media Group and Entrepreneur.com, will award $10,000 in startup capital to the budding entrepreneur with the best business pitch. In addition, the Grand Prize winner will be profiled in a future issue of Entrepreneur magazine. All you need to do is convince the judges that your business dream is a cause worth funding. If you can do it better than anyone else, you'll be able to take your small business idea from the basement to the boardroom.

Mentor Media Group (www.trymentor.com) is the developer of the Mentor™ line of communications, learning and support applications currently used by more than six million individuals in corporations worldwide. Entrepreneur.com (www.entrepreneur.com), the award-winning Web site of Entrepreneur magazine, features more than 70,000 pages of content, and is one of the largest Web sites on the Internet for small to mid-sized businesses.

The "Win Your Own Small Business" contest is open to anyone thinking of starting a new business, or who has started one since October 1, 2001. Competitors must write an essay describing themselves, their business or business idea, and why the prize money should capitalize their vision.

The industry-leading content developer in multimedia communications, learning and support applications, Mentor products are used by Fortune 100 companies worldwide, including IBM, GE Capital, DuPont, Verizon and DaimlerChrysler. Mentor has recently begun offering its products to the small business consumer through retailers such as Circuit City, CompUSA, Amazon.com, J&R Computer World, Fry's Electronics, and MicroCenter outlets across the country.

"The entrepreneurial spirit has always driven us here at Mentor, and enabled us to achieve great success," says Dan Gallo, founder and CEO of Mentor. "Now we have a chance to help nurture the growth of another great idea."

Entries must be submitted online by midnight, February 1, 2002, and three finalists will be selected and notified by February 8, 2002. Each of the finalists will— either in person or via videoconference— pitch their story to a panel of judges from Mentor Media Group and Entrerpeneur.com in a thirty-minute presentation and discussion. The Grand Prize winner will be selected based upon the most compelling and well thought-out business concept and presentation, and along with receiving the $10,000 prize, he or she will be profiled in a future issue of Entrepreneur magazine. The two runners-up will receive a full suite of Mentor products and a one-year subscription to Entrepreneur magazine.

Chuck Fuller, VP of Development for Entrepreneur Media, Inc., adds, "At Entrepreneur Media, we strive to provide small businesses with the strategies and guidance they need to make it in today's competitive business environment. Teaming up with Mentor on the 'Win Your Own Small Business' contest makes perfect sense, because Mentor represents what can happen when a great business concept is carried out effectively."

To enter the "Win Your Own Small Business" Contest, visit either www.trymentor.com or www.entrepreneur.com.

About Mentor Media Group

Mentor Media Group is a leading business communications company offering custom and off-the-shelf e-learning products. With over six million user licenses sold, its flagship solution, Mentor™ helps companies get more out of their new technology by making users successful as soon as the systems are deployed. Now available to individual users as well as businesses, a Mentor can be added to any software to motivate and instruct users and give them instant, multimedia demonstrations of how to perform its functions. Mentors are appropriate for a wide range of products and services offered by software developers, hardware manufactures, Internet Service Providers, device manufacturers, and developers of e-Business systems or exchanges.

Mentor delivers just-in-time, sight-and-sound multimedia Communication, Learning, and Support via local networks, CDs, local hard drives, or streamed over the Internet. Mentors are available in multiple languages for Lotus products such as Notes, Sametime, QuickPlace, and TeamRoom; for popular Microsoft products such as Windows 2000, Windows Me, Outlook 2000, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Internet Explorer; as well as for Netscape Navigator and custom applications. Mentor has become a learning standard at Fortune 500 companies like IBM, DuPont, Verizon, DaimlerChrysler, GE Capital, Duke Energy, Colgate-Palmolive, and many smaller companies. Mentor can be experienced online at www.trymentor.com.

About Entrepreneur.com

Originally launched in 1996, Entrepreneur.com is one of the largest and most admired Web sites serving the small to mid-sized business community. Providing business owners with practical information; expert answers from recognized business consultants; and a wide range of services designed to solve the unique challenges entrepreneurs face on a daily basis. Such information can be found within the channels: Start-ups, Home Biz, Franchise, Money, Marketing, Management, e-Biz, Tech and The Magazine. Weekly, bi-weekly and monthly newsletters sent directly to the inboxes of entrepreneurs supply them with a variety of research, information and knowledge through Growing a Business, Starting a Business, Sales and Marketing, e-Business and more. The vast storehouse of magazine editorial, as well as content developed by Entrepreneur.com's own staff of editors and network of contributors, offers visitors easily accessible solutions for starting, running or growing a successful business.

###

Back to Press Releases


 


Press Releases
Press Kits
Announcements & Events