I was a jury in the Get in the Ring event in Netherlands. I was quite impressed with the organization and also the platform that it gave Founders and Startups. I am really happy to see that event is going to be hosted in Iceland this coming November. Thanks to Peter de Witte, and Islandsstofa, NMI and a number of other organizations to take the initiative to bring more attention to Startups.  Peter has connections to Netherlands and Iceland. I would highly encourage all startup founders to apply. It is a great way to get noticed and also to meet people who are looking to find you. Get in the Ring and other initiatives like Deloitte’s Fast50 and Rising Star competition that is being organized in Iceland for the first time enables people who act as Cheerleaders for Startups and Entrepreneurship is a welcome change that I see happening in Iceland and Europe in general. This is a good thing. We need more people in the entire stack of our community cheerleading and encouraging Startup Founders and Entrepreneurs. Here is a description of the event:

About Get in the Ring

We believe that startups need fans if they’re going to be successful. Fans can support these startups with their knowledge, network, funding, and time.

Get in the Ring offers promising startups a podium to create fans all over the world. This podium exists of a global competition, “the Olympics for Startups” and an online/mobile platform through which fans from all over the world can connect with these startups.  The uniqueness of this concept lies in the features of the podium which are: personal, understandable, fun, engaging and competitive.

In only three year’s time Get in the Ring grew from a local event to a global competition in 64 countries, connecting more than 3.000 start-ups to fans.

Millions of fans

In 2015 Get in the Ring will continue to grow. The goal for Get in the Ring in 2020 is to connect 100.000 startups, from 150 countries, with 100.000.000 fans.

Get in the ring 2015 Introduction is here and if you are a student and want to take on the Get in the ring Chairman‘s role, you can read the introduction here. I highly encourage students to take on the leadership role to build a network and meet interesting people. You do that only by volunteering and organizing events like this. Startup Iceland started as a grassroots initiative, so no one knows where these things will lead.