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Welcome to the The
Lowdown from
DN Journal - your source for notable news
and information from all corners of the global domain name
industry!
The Lowdown
is compiled by DN Journal
Editor & Publisher Ron Jackson. |
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Idea
to .Store Contest Winners Ready
to Open Online Businesses
with Cash and Mentoring Earned in
Radix Event
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In
late October
we told
you about a new
contest from Radix's .store
domain registry, sponsored by Shopify,
that gave entrepreneurs who
dreamed of operating their own
business online a chance to get
the cash and professional
advice they needed to make
their dreams come true. Entrants
in the Idea to .Store
contest were invited to share
their ideas for an online store,
and nearly 5,000 people
signed up. That contest has now
closed with the winners walking
away with cash prizes of up to $30,000
along with exclusive Q&A
and mentoring from the judges. The
grand prize winner will also be
featured on David Meltzer’s
2 Minute Drill;
aired on Bloomberg TV and Amazon
Prime.
The
winner and runner-up, Indira
Andrewin and Erika Warner
respectively, were both given the
chance to pitch their ideas to a
highly accomplished panel of
judges along with four other
finalists. Judges for the contest
included Seth
Godin, Entrepreneur,
Best-selling Author, &
Speaker; Natalie Ellis, CEO
& Co-founder, BossBabe;
Danielle Canty, President
& Co-founder, BossBabe;
John
Lee Dumas (JLD),
Founder & Host, Entrepreneurs
on Fire podcast; and Neha
Naik, Senior Director
of Channel Partnerships at Radix.
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Judge
Danielle Canty said, “I absolutely loved the contest. I think it's really
allowed so many people to take that first step in their
business." Finalist Luanettee Colebrooke said, “There
were so many women (and aspiring entrepreneurs in general) that .Store
Domains encouraged. I just want to thank .Store Domains so much for being a
place where our voices can be heard and validated.”
It
was good to see the contest turned out to be a model of gender and race
diversity across participants, just as you would hope given that women
are responsible for more than half of online microbusinesses started
in the U.S. since the onset of the pandemic. According to the 2021 Microbusiness
National Survey by GoDaddy,
women-owned microbusinesses comprised 57% of new micro-businesses, up
from 48% before March 2020. The help the winners and finalists received
also went where it was needed most. The statistics shows microbusiness
owners struggle the most with digital marketing (63%), access to capital
(36%) and technical help in getting online (28%).
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Suman
Das
Sr. Director, Brand Operations at Radix |
Suman
Das, Sr Director, Brand Operations at Radix, said, “Through
this contest, .Store Domains intended to make it easier for to-be
entrepreneurs to put out their idea; the very first step in
building a business. The prizes were planned in such a way that it
sets the winners up for a good run with their ventures. The seed
money, guidance from the judges around marketing and scaling, and
the visibility that the contest has provided to the winners will go
a long way in turning their ideas to stores, and hopefully
successful ones at that.” This was .Store’s first such campaign
but almost certainly not the last. Suman Das noted, “We plan to
continue taking more such initiatives to encourage aspiring
business owners to embark on their entrepreneurial journey.”
Since
the beginning of 2021, Radix has put out multiple end-customer
campaigns that have focused on providing a platform for new ideas to
come forth. From .Tech’s StartIn.Tech
and Pitch.Tech,
to .Online Business
Academy and .Store’s IdeaTo.Store
- all of which were designed to enable the formation of new
businesses. |
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(Posted
December 13, 2021)
*****
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