IdeaWins RV tour is off and running !

Rajat Taneja — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 03:01:00 GMT

We had incredible fun today launching the Ultimate Challenge bus tour from Manhattan, NY. The launch of the tour kicked off at Hello Deli and was hosted by one of the most famous small business owners in America – Rupert Jee who many of us have come to know and admire via his frequent appearances on the late show with David Letterman. Rupert gave a heartfelt speech about ideas and the spirit of entrepreneurism. He is a big fan of Microsoft software and was extremely gracious and hospitable as he interacted with the vast numbers of budding entrepreneurs who had lined up to submit ideas in person. We were also honored that Carolyn Kepcher who was a judge on the NBC show Apprentice and Liz Lang a successful business woman with her own line of maternity clothing at Target, joined Chris Capossela, Vice President Office Marketing as co judges. What a fantastic team of judges !. I also want to express my gratitude to Rob Walsh, Commissioner of Small Business for the state of NY who attended the event to support all the small businesses who have ideas and want to start their own enterprise. But most importantly, on behalf of the entire Microsoft small business R&D and marketing team, I want to thank all the small business entrepreneurs who came in to meet us and submit their ideas in person. Everything we do is all about them and we are overwhelmed by the positive response to the launch Office Accounting 2007 and the ideawins campaign.

Ideas have been pouring in at www.ideawins.com and we continue to be inspired by the passion and spirit of the small business entrepreneurs.

The Ultimate Challenge

Rajat Taneja — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 20:41:00 GMT

This morning we announced a fantastic contest that we have been creating for months. It is called the ultimate challenge !! and is now live on http://www.ideawins.com/. The contest has been designed with the single goal of honoring the spirit of entrepreneurism that drives small businesses . We are thrilled to be able to promote the contest as part of the launch of Office Accounting Express 2007. The ultimate challenge kicks off a search for the best small business idea in the country and will award 100K in startup capital, a office/retail space in Manhattan for a year and of course software infrastructure to the winning idea. The contest will be a little like America Idol with the public having an important say in who wins. Ideas can be submitted right away on http://www.ideawins.com/. Starting right after thanksgiving we will also kick off a bus tour of approx 5 cities across the USA where contestants can submit their ideas in person and meet some of the members of the Office Accounting team. We plan to announce the four finalists in Feb and the winner in March. The public voting will kick off right after we shortlist the final four. We hope once the winner we will be able to follow their adventures for the year as they set up and start their business.

So if you have ever had an idea or want to take your business to the next level with some creative new thinking, we are eager to help you !!.

Microsoft Small Business Applications : ultimate challenge

IdeaWins RV tour is off and running !

The Ultimate Challenge