Amazon Web Services (AWS) performs an annual search and contest for the next hot start-up that is leveraging Amazon resources to build its infrastructure and business. The grand prize is $100,000 in cash and AWS credits and a potential investment offer from Amazon.
After flying seven fnalists to Seattle for the penultimate round, the winner was announced on Friday: Yieldex, a company providing forecasting for online advertising inventory, was selected based on the originality of their idea, marketplace need, and their implementation of AWS.
Yieldex forecasts online advertising inventory and optimizes advertising campaign allocation placement for online publishers. Yieldex has built its DynamicIQ™ platform on top of Amazon Web Services, using the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) to address online publishers’ growing need for accurate forecasting of overlapping inventory, optimal campaign allocation and revenue operations. Yieldex tools help publishers maximize advertising revenue from their premium inventory with in-depth proposal analysis, scenario planning, and their proprietary yield index.
The Start-Up Challenge began on September 3rd with a call for entries. Hundreds of applications were reviewed and seven finalists were chosen. For the Final Round, AWS flew finalists to Amazon headquarters in Seattle to present their ideas to a judging panel of representatives from Amazon.com. To complete the competition, finalists participated in “Fast Pitch” sessions, where they each had 10 minutes to present their ideas to representatives from venture capital firms. Participating venture capital firms included BlueRun Ventures, CMEA Ventures, Greylock Partners, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Madrona Venture Group. At the end of the day, the judges selected the winner, who was announced at an event with 200 members of the start-up community. [24×7]
Green Tech? Go Solar With Seatte’s CoolerPlanet
Homeowners who dream of their electric meter spinning backward may seek solar panels to slash bills and carbon emissions. But where to start?
Cooler Planet’s solar maps cover territory from coast to coast. Google Maps mashups from the Seattle environmental marketing firm chart solar rebates, existing installations, costs and savings, and installers around the country. You, too, can discover how photovoltaic panels atop a three-flat in Chicago, where only federal incentives are available, could halve the $300 monthly electric bill and pay for themselves after 28 years. [24×7]
