Intel Launches Search For Innovators; Awards $100K A Month For Bright Ideas

Frank Gruber November 7, 2011 Tweet

Intel, a company that, as an innovator in the development of new technology, has propelled the computing industry forward, launched a new program, Intel Innovators, to help young innovators propel their big ideas.

Staying true to its current slogan “sponsors of tomorrow,” the Intel Innovators program searches to find and reward the brightest ideas they can find. Intel will support bright, young 18 to 24 year olds by developing a platform inside Facebook that connects young people with new technology ideas to other people who like technology ideas. Every month, the Facebook community will help decide which young entrepreneurs deserve to receive $100,000 from Intel to help bring their innovative ideas to life.

So here are the details:

• Any 18-24 year-old on Facebook can submit an Idea, and anyone on Facebook can post a Seed.
• Ideas are game-changing businesses or concepts powered by technology.
• Seeds are spontaneous thoughts or inspirations about innovation for the community to share, shape and potentially evolve into Ideas.
• Fans can interact with Ideas and Seeds using standard Facebook engagement tools (share, like, comment, answer polls, etc.). As they do, Fans earn badges and Social Capital, the program’s virtual currency.

At the beginning of each month, a panel will select the 20 best Ideas from the Idea Feed (the real-time display of new Ideas). The top 20 Ideas will then be featured in the “Pitch Room,” where Fans can “invest” their earned Social Capital in their favorite Ideas. The five Ideas with the most Social Capital at the end of the month will be deemed Finalists and move on to compete for $100,000 in the “Live Battleground.”

Each month, the Live Battleground will give each Finalist 5 minutes to present their idea to a panel consisting of prominent VCs, industry executives, technology entrepreneurs and the top Social Capitalist of the month. The Panel will determine which Innovator is awarded $50,000.

The top Social Capitalist then decides how an additional $50,000 is invested: to the winning Innovator or to one of the other 4 finalists in the Live Battleground. The Live Battleground will be streamed live on the Platform, and then archived and uploaded to Intel’s YouTube channel. The program starts again at the beginning of each month, with Fans investing in the top 20 Ideas to determine the top five Innovators and ultimately awarding another $100,000.

To kick things off, Intel unveiled a special Intel Innovators video series, which includes Daniel Ek of Spotify, Jake Nickell of Threadless, Ricky Van Veen of CollegeHumor, Leila Janah of Samasource and Hansoon Lee of Magoosh. Check out this video below with our old friend Jake Nickell from Threadless.

Editor’s Note: This article was brought to you by Intel with the launch of the Intel Innovator’s program. I am also a judge for the Intel Innovators program.