PUBLIC MARKS from solrac with tags ibm & entrepreneur

Startups fail often because they create a product or service that no one really wants in mass. To mitigate Startup failure you can test your Idea at Kickstarter - A cool place to not only test interest in your idea, but also a great place tp obtain croudsourced funding for your Startup. A good idea, communicated well on KickStarter can spread fast and wide, and the large Kickstarter community can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.

We are almost there in terms of confirming the mentors for SmartCamp Bangalore. We are delighted to present details of the mentors. This is an amazing collection of talent from the investor, corporate and most importantly entrepreneur communities.

Our first SmartCamp of 2011 will be in Bangalore, India in April. With a population of over 1 billion plus, and home to some of the biggest tech companies in world, it comes as no surprise that international investors have been actively enagaged with the local communitities for many years. We believe that our mentor network is a real goldmine and the best reason to apply for SmartCamp.

Announcing: The IBM Global Entrepreneur SmartCamp competitions for 2011. We are looking for entrepreneurs with global ambition and want to find ways to connect them to mentors, capital, and markets on a completely international basis. Here are the 9 cities which are a mixture of emerging markets and developed hubs. We have been overpowered by the excitement and support to help build these ecosystems.

The trip started in a very cold Kansas City before escaping a massive snow storm to make it to sunny Silicon Valley, before returning east to NYC and finally London. Way too many insights to list here however the one major takeaway from the trip was the level of excitement and energy around startups seems to be exploding.