Next week nine of the entrants who made the final shortlist will pitch their business ideas to the Judging panel on the Cable Car. This is the final phase of the 2008 Cable Car Challenge business plan competition which this year received nearly 200 entries.

The final nine shortlisted entrants each have only seven minutes, on the cable car’s climb to the top of the hill, to convince the judges that they should be the $50,000 major prize winner.

Business ideas selected by the judges for the final stage were extremely diverse and ranged from the utilisation of technologies such as GPS and mobile internet through to more traditional businesses such as clothing manufacture and beverages.

Over the past two months shortlisted entrants have received high value business coaching and specialist advice from competition partners such as Deloitte, Bank of New Zealand, Escalator, Ellis Verboeket and Terry, Foundation for Research Science and Technology, Rogen SI, The Business Centre and Grow Wellington.

After receiving all this, nine businesses have been selected to pitch their ideas to some of the Wellington region’s most successful entrepreneurs. Most of the Judges from last year have returned including Sam Morgan of TradeMe fame, Rod Drury from Xero, Dion Mortenson from Movac and venture capitalist Mark Dossor. Sarah Gibbs of Trilogy has joined the panel this year along with Mark Blumsky who will chair the judging panel.

The winners will be announced on Thursday night at a function hosted by Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast on behalf of the major sponsor Wellington City Council. The shortlist include:

BIMcache
BONZ
Instinct Entertainment
Knowhere.co.nz
Life Inc
Skinny malinky
ToBe
Unite and Prosper
Valuecruncher