Mentor Extends "Win Your Own Small Business" Contest to Midnight February 15th

Entries Pour in to Competition, Which Will Award $10,000 to Entrepreneur with Best Small Business Idea

Norwalk, CT, January 31, 2002 — The entries are pouring in to the "Win Your Own Small Business" contest, sponsored by Mentor Media Group and Entrepreneur.com, which will award $10,000 in startup capital to the budding entrepreneur with the best business pitch.

"The interest in this contest shows that the 'American Dream' is alive and well in this country," says Dan Gallo, founder and CEO of Mentor. "We're seeing an amazing number and variety of business ideas from all over the U.S."

Breast cancer survivor Anne Warren of Boca Raton, Florida wants to offer stylish button-down nightgowns for women recuperating from mastectomies-so that they can enjoy comfort and dignity wearing something "feminine and beautiful" during their recovery period. Warren came up with the idea after her own surgery, when she had to wear unflattering men's pajamas during a time when she most needed to feel attractive.

Retired Air Force Officer Bruce C. Bennett of San Antonio, Texas has partnered with his school-age son to devise a Web-based PTA fundraising tool that helps PTAs raise money in their local communities without requiring children to go door-to-door selling items like candies, cookies and gift wrap.

Seventeen-year-old Donny Peper of Glendale, Arizona wants to start a job search engine for teenagers looking for part time employment. "With the proper funding I guarantee I could make this work and make it into a multi-million dollar company," he writes.

Then there's Gilbert Gjersvik of New York City, inventor of the "Beer Chiller," a battery-operated device that transforms cans of beer and soda from room temperature to refreshingly chilled in just two minutes.

Interest in the contest has been so strong-hundreds of entries have been received so far, with thousands of people visiting the Mentor Web site to read about it-that Mentor and Entrepreneur.com have decided to extend the original contest deadline date by two weeks, to February 15, 2002.

Entries must be submitted online by midnight on that date, and three finalists will be selected and notified a week later. 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.

Mentor Media Group (www.trymentor.com) is the developer of the Mentor&$153; 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, is one of the largest Web sites on the Internet for small to mid-sized businesses.

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.

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