The Syracuse chapter of a global startup competition will go into its second year with fewer teams.
Organizers say Startup Labs Syracuse will take three teams for 2014 instead of the five that went through the first round. The startup Participants get $20,000 in seed money and compete for a $200,000 grand prize.
Mitchell Patterson, who runs Startup Labs and other venture for the Tech Garden in Syracuse, says cutting the number of teams will allow the mentors to give the teams more attention.
"The real idea was to concentrate, take the cream of the crop companies, continue to give them that early stage seed funding, continue to give them those two big prizes at the end, but allow them to get full access (to mentors)," he said.
Ithaca-based Rosie won the first competition. Rosie allows people to order groceries online through their website and a mobile app and track their purchases. It went live at Nojaim’s grocery store in Syracuse this week.
Round two’s winner will be announced in April. Applications are due Dec. 31. Patterson says he’s hopeful they’ll receive more applications from ‘physical’ companies versus mobile applications.
