VerticalResponse Launches Online Search for America's Next Teen Entrepreneur

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- VerticalResponse, a leading provider of self-service marketing solutions for small businesses including email marketing, social media marketing, online surveys, event marketing and direct mail marketing, today launched its search for the country's most promising teen entrepreneurs with the "Next Teen Tycoon" online video contest.

"Many of today's transformational business icons started exhibiting their entrepreneurial side at a young age. Bill Gates started his first small business when he was sixteen," said Janine Popick, VerticalResponse CEO. "We want to find passionate students who have interesting business ideas and help them bring those ideas to life, because these teens may very well be tomorrow's business leaders."

The contest is open to teens between 13 and 18 years old who have their own business or a viable business idea. The top three contest winners will receive prizes totaling more than $10,000 in worth. They include:

Grand prize winner

• $4,000 in "seed cash" to help him/her launch or grow the business
• Trip to the 2012 TEDxTeen conference in New York, including event admission, round-trip airfare and two nights' hotel stay for the winner and one adult parent/guardian

Two second-place winners

• $2,000 in "seed cash" (each)

To enter, teens are asked to share their business or business idea in a two-minute video, which they can submit through the contest website at www.verticalresponse.com/TeenTycoon. The public can vote daily for their favorite videos during the open voting period, and the videos with the most public votes advance to become finalists.

From there, a panel of seasoned entrepreneurs and small business experts will select the three winners from the finalist pool. Judges include:

• Arel Moodie, author, co-owner of Empact and America's Top Young Speaker
• Daniel Brusilovsky, founder/CEO of Teens in Tech Labs
• Janine Popick, CEO of VerticalResponse
• John Jantsch, marketing consultant, author and founder of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network
• Nicole Marie Richardson, executive editor for special projects at Inc.com
• Ramon Ray, small business expert, author and editor of SmallBizTechnology.com
• Steve Mariotti, founder of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE)

For full contest details and to enter, visit www.verticalresponse.com/TeenTycoon.

ABOUT VERTICALRESPONSE

VerticalResponse Inc. provides a full suite of self-service marketing solutions for small businesses including email marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, direct mail marketing and online surveys. Its mission is to empower small businesses and non-profit organizations to easily and affordably create, manage and analyze their own marketing campaigns. Users can benefit from a wide variety of features including more than 700 free email marketing templates; tools to create, schedule and publish content over social media networks; and robust reporting so that they can understand overall marketing success. VerticalResponse is headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. For more information visit www.verticalresponse.com, and connect on Twitter at @VR4SmallBiz and Facebook at www.facebook.com/verticalresponse.

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.
Janine Popick
https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=92010

SOURCE VerticalResponse, Inc.