After eight hours of driving and an intense eight minutes of presentation in front of the Five Ventures judging panel on Wednesday, AccesStream has been selected to return to Charlotte, NC on April 10^th, 2008, for the Five Ventures final competition.

Five Ventures is a competition named for the five categories into which startup competitors are classified. For the record, those categories are:

• Biotechnology
• Information Technology (our category)
• Advanced Manufacturing
• Green Technology
• Retail/Service

Entrants compete for a share of cash (estimated to be around $100k for this year's competition) and donated services from Five Ventures' sponsors. The money and services are certainly welcome, but perhaps the most beneficial aspect of the competition is that competitors must sharpen their pitching skills and clarify their message to go the distance. All companies reaching the finals have been vetted by a multi-disciplinary panel of judges and the winners in each category will have bragging rights, some cash and in-kind services, and exposure to a new audience of potential investors.

We are very excited at the opportunity to compete against the other early-stage startups that are a part of the Five Ventures competition, and are very encouraged by the validation we have already received from the organizers and judges of Five Ventures. Though we do not know what will happen on April 10^th, we can highly recommend this competition to other entrepreneurs in the Southeast as a great way to harden your business plan, to get advice, and of course to get more exposure.