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Welcome to the RIS News 2016 StartUp Competition!

RIS News, the source for business intelligence and insight into transformative technology for retailers, will host a live competition for technology startups at its fall conference ENGAGE!, the retail industry’s premiere conference focused on the customer experience.

The startup competition will be judged by a panel of retail experts consisting of a retail CEO, a Wall Street analyst and a venture capitalist. The competition will take place at ENGAGE!, September 7-9 at The Ritz-Carlton in Fort Lauderdale Florida, in front of more than 100 senior-level retail industry executives.

Three retail technology startups at the competition will make 10-minute pitches before the panel of experts as well as retail executives in the audience, who will also vote using digital polling technology.  Each candidate will make their case as the best solution to push retail into its next phase of evolution. Candidates will be evaluated based on how significantly their solution can improve a retailer’s business or radically alter the industry.

Startups for the ENGAGE! competition are defined as being in the retail technology business less than three years, a stand-alone company, revenue less than $5 million per year, less than 50 employees, and having secured no more than two rounds of funding of less than $10 million.

To become a candidate for one of the four 10-minute slots at ENGAGE!, which includes full admission to the conference to network with a gathering of senior-level retailers and a chance to win prizes that include media exposure and on-site meetings that can lead to client appointments, contracts and funding, please fill out this form and hit the Done button at the end.

I am looking forward to finding out more about your solution and company and featuring you in the RIS News media portfolio.

All the best,

Joe Skorupa
Editorial Director
RIS News

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* 1. Contact information

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* 2. Which retail business function primarily benefits from your solution?
(You may select more than one if appropriate.)

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* 3. Describe your company and its solution including strategic vision. Please cite the most innovative and disruptive elements of your company/solution and progress so far with clients using, testing, piloting it in the field.

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* 4. What benefits can retailers achieve using your solution? Please focus on gains in sales, productivity, efficiency, customer engagement, satisfaction, loyalty, labor savings, speed to market, competitive advantage, etc.

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* 5. Please the targeted retail segments that your solution is best suited for. (grocery, drug store, convenience store, discounter, Tier one, small business, big chain, independent, apparel, specialty, etc.)

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* 6. Describe how old your company is, number of employees, funding status, growth rate and where you see your company in 12 months.

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* 7. Add anything not asked in the above questions that you think is important to consider.

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