Shopify has launched its annual Build-A-Business competition, offering $200,000 to winners, with Australian entrepreneurs expected to fare well following last year\u2019s stellar performance.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Based in Canada, Shopify is an eCommerce platform that allows individuals to create online stores.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The platform was founded in 2006 by Tobias L\u00fctke and Cody Fauser \u2013 two snowboarding enthusiasts who wanted to create a better way to sell their snowboards online.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It currently hosts more than 25,000 retailers including Gatorade, Amnesty International, General Electric, Tata Group, Tesla Motors, LMFAO, Foo Fighters, Evisu Jeans, and CrossFit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Last year, Shopify kicked off its Build-A-Business contest, offering $100,000 to a new online business launched on Shopify that posted the highest grossing sales in an eight-month period.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Winners were selected based on the revenue of their two best months during the competition.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Australian entrepreneurs Rob Ward and Chris Peters were among the winners, receiving a bevy of prizes including $25,000 in cash and a trip to New York to meet marketing guru Seth Godin.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Based in Melbourne, Ward and Peters are the brains behind the Opena Case \u2013 an iPhone case that doubles as a bottle opener \u2013 and also designed an iPhone mount known as Quad Lock.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ward and Peters used crowdfunding website Kickstarter to finance the Opena Case, before choosing the Shopify platform to sell their products.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe chose the platform because it\u2019s customisable, scaleable, can process orders from all over the world and it\u2019s easy to plug in third-party logistics,\u201d Ward told StartupSmart<\/i>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shopify has now launched its third annual Build-A-Business competition. To participate, entrepreneurs must open an online store and start selling products online using Shopify.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At the end of the competition, the four stores that sell the most over a two-month period will each receive a $50,000 investment for a 5% equity stake from one of the competition mentors.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This seed funding will value each company at $1 million. The mentors are Tim Ferriss, Daymond John, Tina Roth Eisenberg, and The Lean Startup<\/i> author Eric Ries.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The competition runs until February 28, 2013, with each of the mentors providing advice and guidance along the way.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In addition to the $50,000 investment, the four competition winners will also receive a trip for two to New York to meet the mentors, and $20,000 of Google AdWords credit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOur first two competitions were extremely successful. In total, 4,438 new businesses were created, selling over $15 million worth of products,\u201d L\u00fctke said in a statement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cLast competition, a large amount of our category winners were from Australia\u2026 Australian stores accounted for 8% of participants, but made up an impressive 38% of the leaderboard.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis year, we are especially excited to see what Australian entrepreneurs bring to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to Ferriss, the competition is intended as a \u201cbenevolent and encouraging kick in the ass\u201d, suggesting it isn\u2019t for the faint-hearted.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis stuff isn\u2019t rocket science, but it does require stepping outside your comfort zone for a bit to realise this isn\u2019t that hard. It\u2019s just unfamiliar,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf you do it now, a lot of people will be in the same boat and you\u2019ll take the trip together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shopify has launched its annual Build-A-Business competition, offering $200,000 to winners, with Australian entrepreneurs expected to fare well following last<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,13,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43291"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}