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    Meet the Drapers Season 5 comes to an end, time to apply for season 6

    Synopsis

    To make the world a better place and have ideas that can solve global challenges, don't sit around, apply for the next season of ‘Meet the Drapers’ and make your big ideas a reality.

    Copy of 9J5A6518 (1)ET Spotlight
    The iconic startup reality show ‘Meet the Drapers’ recently concluded its 5th season with two startups - CancerFree Biotech and Its Skinny being declared the first place winners. For the first time in the show’s history two startups received the grand prize of $1 million investment from billionaire investor, Tim Draper. This is one of the largest investments to be ever made in the history of reality television. AssetVault and KA Imaging, the 2nd and 3rd place winners at Meet the Drapers also won an investment of $500,000 and $250,000 respectively from Tim Draper.

    Thousands of startups from around the world (USA, India, Canada, Brazil, Taiwan, Portugal) competed to be a part of ‘Meet the Drapers’ Season 5 which was produced and directed by Sarika Batra, in partnership with Brand Capital International, ET NOW, Dave Martinez Ventures and Nirvana Digital. Brand Capital, the investment arm of the Times Group, has been leveraging brand-led growth and value creation via unique and pioneering investment models and programmes like this one.

    In its hunt to find and fund the next billion-dollar startup idea, ‘Meet the Drapers’ went global for the first time ever in Season 5 where 36 of the best startups got the chance to present and pitch their ideas to the Draper family and millions of viewers at home. This year, viewers could also root for their favourite startups and help fast track their journey to the finale.

    Over the course of 9 weeks, Tim Draper, Founder, Draper Associates along with his other fellow judges, Bill Draper, Founder, DRK Foundation and Polly Draper - Actress, Producer and Director, closely analysed the potential of each contestant. In the search for the next big idea, the show presented us with innovative ideas, head-to-head competition and eliminations as the top entrepreneurs moved on to the semi-finals.

    "Season 5 showcases some of the brightest young entrepreneurs we've ever seen from around the globe and I hope that Meet The Drapers will continue to inspire and teach people to build and grow their own companies," said Tim Draper, founding partner of Draper Associates and host of Meet the Drapers.

    Special guest judges were also brought in for every episode of Season 5. Some of the prominent names included, Sabeer Bhatia, founder of Hotmail, Eva De Mol, the founder of early-stage Europe-based VC fund CapitalT, Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and Curriki, Peter Diamandis, Founder at XPRIZE, and Andrew Tang, Partner at Draper Associates, among others.

    The startups that were selected for the grand finale included: Its Skinny - a company focused on creating ketogenic and naturally gluten-free pasta alternatives, KA Imaging - an innovative X-ray imaging technology that provides solutions to medical, veterinary, and non-destructive test industrial markets, Never Ending - a premier amateur animation and storytelling platform, CancerFree BioTech - a startup that personalizes treatment for cancer patients, AssetVault - a blockchain-based solution to protect physical and digital assets, Pyxai - an AI-based platform that identifies and pre-ranks talent based on the soft skills most applicable to an organization’s culture and open job positions and Mildcares - a company focused on solving unaddressed, menstrual, intimate and toilet hygiene issues faced by 400 million women in India with their innovative silicon-based, cost-effective menstrual cup.

    Mildcares and AssestVault are both Indian companies. Mildcares reported that their sales increased from $7,000 a month to $20,000 a month due to the exposure from Meet the Drapers. Asset Vault said that due Meet the Drapers being streamed on two Indian TV channels, they received 2000 wills.

    Some of the other innovative ideas from India that were featured on ‘Meet the Drapers’ include Beatoven.ai, an AI product that creates unique mood-based music for videos and podcasts, JumpToPC, a low-cost hardware kit and free mobile application that wirelessly pairs your smartphone and TV to create a personal computer and Hotnot, a fashion based social media platform where users can dictate fashion trends and save their favourite items.

    So, if you have a mission to make the world a better place and have ideas that can solve global challenges, don't sit around, apply for the next season of ‘Meet the Drapers’ and make your big ideas a reality.

    To register for Season 6 of ‘Meet the Drapers’ and to know more about the show, https://www.meetthedrapers.com/
    ( Originally published on Nov 28, 2022 )
    (This article is generated and published by ET Spotlight team. You can get in touch with them on etspotlight@timesinternet.in)
    The Economic Times

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