“We want people to understand how we hear things. In these days of media fragmentation, email and voicemail, people mostly pay attention to the first 30 seconds of what they hear.” That’s what George Zachary of CRV says about the first CRV Entrepreneur Idol, held at Stanford Graduate School of Business. 60 MBA students gave 30-60 second pitches of a business idea to a panel of judges, including George, Bill Tai and reality.org.

Susan Wu of CRV, as well as Silicon Valley famed blogger and journalist, Matt Marshall. John Furrier talks to CRV partners about the vision of this competition, and the first Entrepreneur Idol, Ned Tozun, who won with his pitch about ForeverBright. His winning pitch (and it’s all about the delivery):

1.6 billion people don’t have access to electricity and use a kerosene lantern or candles for their lighting needs, spending up to third of their income just to be able to see at night. We believe that LED technology represents a major paradigm shift that opens up the door to an off-grid lighting alternative that is cheaper, safer and brighter than fuel-based lighting.

Susan Wu gives an in-depth overview of CRV Entrepreneur Idol, judging criteria, and breakdown of the business ideas the judges heard here. Matt Marshall’s take is here, and John’s coverage here.

Click here for transcript.

Tags: CRV, CRV Entrepreneur Idol, George Zachary, John Furrier, Ned Tozun, Silicon Valley, Stanford, Susan Wu
 
Posted in: Connected Social Media, Enterprise 2.0, Entrepreneurship with John Furrier, Technology