Thousands of Dollars Up For Grabs In Exchange For Business Ideas

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by Kirk Hawkins
Bio | Email | Follow: @kirkhawkins

Story Created: Oct 7, 2012 at 6:13 PM EDT

Story Updated: Oct 7, 2012 at 10:14 PM EDT

CHARLOTTE, N.C.-- This looks perfect" said DealCloud president Ben Harrison. Harrison is in charge of a financial tech company in Uptown Charlotte. He built it from scratch two years ago.
"It's a lot of fun but I'd say there's high highs and low lows," he said.

Harrison's company emerged victorious from multiple business idea competitions that
he says made a huge difference. "Getting their stamp of approval is just as big as the check," said Harrison.

Entrepreneurship experts say young companies accounted for nearly all of the net job growth over the last 25 years. That's why the World Economic Forum's local branch, called the Charlotte Global Shapers, plans to invest 15 thousand dollars in 6 startups.

"We think supporting entrepreneurship in Charlotte is really a building  block to help build some of those companies that actually create jobs," said Chip Johnson of the Charlotte Global Shapers.

The Charlotte Global Shapers said 18 to 29 year olds are more likely to work for startups
than older companies. A good solution, they say, to the youth unemployment rate now hovering around 12 percent nationwide.

Ben Harrison's company, DealCloud, has more than five thousand users around the world. He manages engineers, and a sales and marketing staff. Harrison is hoping it's just the beginning.

"We're not quite a billion users like Facebook but we're working hard to try to be something like that I guess," he said.

The deadline for applications for the Shape Charlotte Business Idea Competition is
wednesday at midnight.

For More Information: http://charlotteshapers.org/shape-charlotte/

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