Silicon Valley’s Plug and Play Tech Center has opened its Startup Camp program to San Diego-based seed-stage companies under a new initiative organized by StartupCircle and Alex Roudi, a San Diego real estate investor.
San Diego companies that qualify for the Startup Camp program also would be eligible for $25,000 in startup funding, according to Gabriela Dow of StartupCircle. The deadline for applications, available online, is Jan. 30, she added.
“The $25,000 is the attention getter, but it’s really about getting companies into the program,” Dow told me in a phone call this afternoon.
San Diego startups would spend roughly three months in San Diego, followed by 10 weeks in the Plug and Play Startup Camp in Silicon Valley. The program features a combination of structured workshops, speaker series, mentorship sessions, and coaching. Companies that complete the Startup Camp also would get an opportunity to make a presentation to venture investors at a “Demo Day” event, Dow said.
In an extended interview in another Xconomy post today, Plug and Play CEO Saeed Amidi told my colleague Wade Roush that he’s been looking for ways to move beyond the confines of Plug and Play’s main headquarters in Sunnyvale, CA, where most of the organization’s 300 startups are encamped.
Dow says the San Diego StartupCamp would operate much like the accelerator program that Plug and Play established recently in Calgary. About 80 Canadian companies applied, and a local panel of judges winnowed that to 14 finalists. Only four startup were admitted to the program. Every company accepted into the Startup Camp program is eligible to receive $25,000 in funding.
While the selection process is intended to be rigorous, Dow said there is no limit to the number of startups that can be admitted and funded. More information is available online here.
In San Diego, the selection competition and program will be administered by Roudi, the chairman and CEO of Interwest Capital, and StartupCircle, an organization that brings together entrepreneurs, investors, and others.