.ME to Hold Startup Competition Together With Spark.me; Winner Will Exhibit in TechCrunch’s Startup alley

The .ME Registry today announced that it is holding the Spark.me Startup Competition together with Spark.me, a regional conference to be held at the Hotel Splendid in Budva, Montenegro from September 26-27, 2013.

The winner will get to exhibit in the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Alley, which will be held in April/May 2014 in New York City.

We have a long history of involvement with TechCrunch and it is a great pleasure for us to help startup from our region get exposure in New York.
– Natasa Djukanovic, Director of Marketing, The .ME Registry.

The Spark.me Startup competition will be judged based on innovation, diversity, the power of the idea, the startup’s growth potential and the implementation strategy.

The preselection process will be held until September 12, when 10 best StartUp teams will be invited to present at the SparkMe conference.

On September 26, 2013, all selected teams will give five-minute presentations of their projects to a panel of judges. Finalists will present for an additional 5 minutes on September 27, 2013 and the winner will be announced on the final day of the conference.

The winner will receive 2 round-trip tickets to NYC, Hotel accommodation for three days (2 people), a Start-Up Alley booth at TechCrunch Disrupt 2014 and two tickets for the three-day TechCrunch Disrupt conference.

All startups founded after April 2012 with less than $2.5 million in funding are eligible to apply, regardless of where they are registered.

Applications need to be submitted by September 10, 2013 at 23:59:59 UTC . Only existing functional projects will be taken into consideration (in alpha or beta phase).

All startup founders participating in the competition will also have access to advisers, mentors, workshops and a network of investors.

“We are very interested in the startup community and are so excited about all of the development and innovation in the region. We have a long history of involvement with TechCrunch and it is a great pleasure for us to help startup from our region get exposure in New York,” said Natasa Djukanovic, Director of Marketing, The .ME Registry.

Earlier this year, .ME released five exclusive and premium domain names, named Around.ME, Hire.ME, Fund.ME, Find.ME and For.ME, available for acquisition by applicants with clever ideas for online business.