Palo Alto vs. Small Business Trends in Startup America Partnership Challenge
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In a friendly competition aimed at helping recruit start-ups and entrepreneurs to the Startup America Partnership initiative, Palo Alto Software’s Bplans.com and Anita Campbell’s Small Business Trends go head to head.
Eugene, Oregon March 12, 2012
Startup America’s recent “Master Challenge” was one of the most successful to date. In the “Sign up Your Startup Challenge,” Tim “Bplans” Berry (founder of Bplans.com and Palo Alto Software) took on Anita “Trends” Campbell (of SmallBizTrends.com) to see who could recruit the most companies in a one-week period. Tim and the crew at Bplans won the friendly competition, but the real winners were the 54 entrepreneurs who became members of Startup America.
“We’re proud to be a Startup America partner and appreciate the opportunity to offer free tools and support to entrepreneurs through this important initiative,” commented Sabrina Parsons, Palo Alto Software CEO. “Our team enthusiastically took on the Master Challenge and we very creatively promoted the effort.”
Anita Campbell added, “It was gratifying to spread the word about the benefits of Startup America. Like Bplans, our mission is all about supporting startups and small businesses — so the Challenge aligned perfectly with that mission for both sides. It was a fun event, and working with the great people at Palo Alto Software like Tim Berry makes it all the more rewarding.”
The Master Challenge continues through March 31st, 2012, with a goal of recruiting 100,000 startups. Each week, two different groups will compete. Winners are tracked on the Master Challenge Leaderboard, where Bplans.com and Small Business Trends now rank among the Top 10 and Top 15 influencers, respectively. Combined, the two organizations rank sixth.
Startups can continue to support Bplans.com and Palo Alto Software or Anita Campbell and Small Business trends and benefit from all the resources Startup America has to offer through the end of the Master Challenge at http://www.s.co/master-challenge/bplans-smallbiz.
About Palo Alto Software, Inc.
Palo Alto Software, Inc. develops tools and provides content resources for small businesses and entrepreneurs. The company’s flagship product, Business Plan Pro, is the best-selling business-planning software in the U.S. retail market, according to NPD Intelect. The company’s new SaaS application, LivePlan, is the most complete online business planning and small business management tool on the market. The company’s content site, Bplans.com, ranks as the highest-trafficked business planning web site, with over 1 million unique visits a month. Palo Alto Software was founded in 1988 and is privately-owned corporation based in Eugene, Oregon. For more information about Palo Alto Software products, visit http://www.paloalto.com.
About Small Business Trends
Small Business Trends (http://www.smallbiztrends.com) is an award-winning online publication containing news, tips, resources and advice. Along with its sister sites, it serves over 4,000,000 small business owners, stakeholders and entrepreneurs annually. Small Business Trends is also the founder of the Small Business Book Awards (now in its 4th year) and the Small Business Influencer Awards.
About the Startup America Master Challenge
The Startup America Partnership’s mission is to help America’s top young companies grow and create jobs. Startup America has assembled hundreds of partners and leaders from across the United States to deliver knowledge, services, talent, customer relationships and access to capital to Startup America Firms. The Startup America Master Challenge is a campaign to engage the most influential leaders to identify and recruit the best young companies across the country to join the Startup America Partnership. For more information visit http://www.s.co/
