The global tech spotlight will fall on Berlin this autumn when the TechCrunch Disrupt bandwagon rolls into town – and the centrepiece of the event will be the Startup Battlefield contest, giving early stage companies a chance to present their product in front of a live online worldwide audience and stake a claim for the €40,000 first prize (and, of course, the coveted Disrupt Cup).
Applications are open now, but remember: participating startups must have been live for no more than three months, and they must launch to the public and media for the first time on the Disrupt stage.
It’s the perfect opportunity to gain huge amounts of exposure both to potential investors and to the media, not to mention end users – if you can fight your way to the final, that is. TechCrunch editors will select 15 companies from the hundreds of applicants to pitch to the big-name team of judges. From there, five will progress to a finals round to produce an overall winner.
The entire competition will be webcast live, while 2,000 people from across the globe will be at Disrupt in person at the Arena Berlin venue in Kreuzberg. It will mark the conference’s first trip to Europe, having previously visited San Francisco, New York and Beijing.
The preliminary hackathon takes place from October 26-27, with the main event – including the Battlefield – from October 28-29.
You can apply for the contest until Monday, June 24 at 11.59pm EST – i.e. 8.59am CEST on Tuesday, June 25. Slides and a video are strongly recommended; you can check out more information here.
If you want to find out what it takes to win the Battlefield, you can check out some of the previous winners, including Enigma, YourMechanic and UberConference.