One week left to submit your great business idea to 'Minnesota Cup'

Do you have the next breakthrough business idea? If you do, there's one week left to submit your idea for the 5th annual Minnesota Cup.

The Minnesota Cup is a statewide contest designed to seek out, support, celebrate and promote Minnesota's newest and most innovative business ideas.

Last month on KARE 11 First Edition, Scott Litman, co-founder of Minnesota Cup, discussed the contest with Jeff Olsen.

This year's competition offers more than $130,000 in prizes and is expanding to provide a total of six award divisions: High Tech, BioSciences, Clean & Green, Social Entrepreneurship, General and Student.

Minnesota Cup is accepting ideas now through May 22, 2009. Contest organizers are asking Minnesotans to submit their breakthrough business ideas online at www.minnesotacup.org.

The Minnesota Cup encourages entries from a wide range of business ideas. From high-tech to high-touch, biosciences to retail, agriculture to social ventures, this competition is for entrepreneurs, inventors and anybody with an innovative business idea.

Contest judges will select the top entrants, 5-10 from each division, to participate in the semi-final round of the competition, from which judges will determine the top three finalists in each division.

Each finalist will then present their ideas to a panel of executives, investors and notable entrepreneurs who will choose this year's division winners. The winner from each division will be awarded $20,000.

One of the contest's core ideas is to connect entrants with leaders in Minnesota's business and investment community. To that end, a board of notable regional investors, entrepreneurs and "C" level executives has been assembled to judge contest submissions. For a complete list of contest judges, visit Minnesota Cup Review Board.

Check out our KARE family of Web sites:
	takeKARE		Metromix
	Moms Like Me		Minnesota Bound
	Showcase Minnesota