
Enter the MassChallenge competition - vineet
http://www.startupamericapartnership.org/blog/enter-masschallenge-competition
======
lux
I see there's a $199 entry fee. In the music industry there's some controversy
over pay-for-opportunity style services (Sonicbids for example, although they
say they're phasing that out). For a business this isn't a huge amount, but
it's enough to make me stop and think. Maybe there's a better use of my money
when I'm bootstrapping already. I guess it helps eliminate those who don't
think they have a chance...

How do others here feel about it?

~~~
PMHacker
With endorsements entry fee can be waved, we paid nothing to enter last year
because of endorsements. If you think you have a good idea write to me at ib
[at] taskpoint.com and I will give you diamond endorsements 8 points and $50
off application fee.

~~~
nikcub
this all sounds ridiculously convoluted

~~~
JohnHarthorne
It should be easier. Agreed. We have not yet mastered the operations side of
MassChallenge (and I lose significant sleep over it).

But it really isn't that hard, and there is explicit logic in every step. If
you are even remotely serious as an entrepreneur, you should be able to get 4
diamond endorsements with a handful of emails/phone calls - each of them with
an expert in your industry who has an opportunity to publicly support you
without spending a dime. That process encourages startups to network/pitch and
is intended to create or strengthen bonds with helpful resources. These
resources are not isolated to MA by the way.

Likewise, if you are even remotely serious about your startup, you should be
able to get your friends/network to rate your company profile 5 stars very
easily. This encourages you to promote your startup and seek support from your
community. Easy stuff. No cost. Something you should be doing anyway.

Keep in mind, the endorsements and team ratings are worth only 10% of the
judging score each. We had teams enter and win last year with zero endorsement
points and zero ratings. (I don't recommend that as a strategy, but it's
possible).

The application form itself is very basic: 10 questions, with short character
limits. All standard stuff.

~~~
nikcub
a comment here was offering 'diamond' to whoever emailed him, which should be
a big hint to you just how much these endorsements are worth.

~~~
PMHacker
The matter of fact I endorsed only 1 team so far at platinum lvl out of 6 who
emailed me

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jaredstenquist
I'm a founder of a (now) VC backed Boston startup who participated in
MassChallenge. My team though it would be worth the time to pitch and get some
no-strings cash in the bank. Even paying for our $5k/month office would have
been awesome.

We made it to the first round (got enough votes online and whatnot). The tough
part is you can get stuck with judges completely out of your industry that are
clueless. Our judges were 2 lawyers and someone with a similar idea to ours
ten years ago who thought his was superior. We didn't make it to the second
round. I hope this year they make some changes based on everyone's feedback.

A couple friends of mine won $50K from this competition. Important to note
that it's not $1M awarded to one person/team, it's split however the
judges/board like.

~~~
WarPaul
As a semi-finalist last year, I too had a similar experience with the judging,
however after getting feedback from those that completed the surveys,
MassChallenge hired software entrepreneur Karl Buttner, who also served as a
mentor last year, as Chief Mentorship Officer. He's helping to combat cases
like ours, and improve the judging/mentorship experience. I think he's even
somewhere on this comment thread...

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jayzee
_We don’t think it’s fair to take equity from early-stage startups. Our goal
is to help the world’s most promising entrepreneurs win, not to profit off
their hard work. Period._

What? Phrasing is very naive.

Everybody wants something. They want people to _help the world’s most
promising entrepreneurs win_ in Boston. Taking money adds constraints.
Insisting on a move to Boston adds constraints.

~~~
vineet
MassChallenge does not require you moving to Boston - only for certain parts
of the competition. They believe that if they can connect you to the right
network (in Boston) you will want to stay.

~~~
kbuttner
Nobody is required to move. To get value out of the program, we expect at
least one founder to spend significant time in the accelerator during the
summer. We aim to make it as frictionless as possible for startups to enter
and win.

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pauldisneyiv
After viewing the MassChallenge site and perusing the complex application
process, I am reminded why I'm not excited about applying anywhere outside of
Y Combinator.

I don't care about the money I care about the experience.

Will I learn anything from these people? From the other startups that are
accepted? Outside some seed money, what is the upside?

 __*EDIT

My initial thoughts may have been harsh - and perhaps I'm being a hipster -
but I don't get the feeling that this is something truly special/cool. I
believe there are talented business people involved, but for me it doesn't
appear to be a life-changing event as much as a cash prize.

That being said there is obviously a lot of support from those involved - they
represent the bulk of the dialog here.

~~~
JohnHarthorne
Mentors and speakers last year included the founders of billion dollar
companies (Desh Deshpande - Sycamore/Cascade/A123, Josh Boger - Vertex
Pharmaceuticals), billion pageview websites (Alexis Ohanian - Reddit), and
successful entrepreneurs from all fields, including consumer web (Jeff Taylor
- Monster.com), B2B software (Dharhmesh Shah - Hubspot), energy (Tim Healy -
EnerNoc) and life sciences (Ken Bate - Archemix).

What makes you think you can't learn from these people?

Last year's finalists raised well over $30M in outside funding in the 7 months
following day 1 of the accelerator program ... with 100+ startups on one
floor, there is a lot of opportunity to learn (and teach).

~~~
bmelton
I don't think his assertion was that he couldn't, but that he didn't know who
would be there.

The first part of your post was very informative, but I downvoted you for the
snark. If it wasn't intended the way I read it, please accept my apologies.

~~~
JohnHarthorne
No worries. I was intentionally a bit snarky and deserved the downvote.

I have essentially poured my entire heart and soul into launching and running
MassChallenge and I believe deeply in our mission and philosophy, so I took a
little umbrage to the phrase "these people" -- they are, after all, my people
and they are enabling something deeply important to me and many others.

I do believe that what we do is transformative and outstanding. But I also
recognize that it isn't for everyone. Even if you don't end up entering, I
encourage you all to come visit us at least once this Summer. I am sure you
will find value in the experience and I promise to personally give you a tour
and answer any questions you may have.

~~~
bmelton
It's a brilliant mission, which I of course stand behind. The seed funds and
accelerator programs which do mentoring are of incalculable value -- to offer
them with no equity as recompense is as noble as it gets, though I don't think
an equity stake is 'molestation'.

I'm ignorant to much of it, so I'm glad to see the discussion here where I can
learn more. The website really is quite hard to follow for those just wanting
to learn more.

------
fvds
Don't worry about the registration fee. It serves to eliminate people who are
not serious about participating/developing their startup plans. You should
register (with $199), and if you are serious about your plans you'll have
many, many opportunities to get your full $199 back from MassChallenge. They
make it easy to get reimbursed (e.g. give an informal pitch in one of the
early pitch practice sessions, etc.). Last year we got our registration fee
back very quickly (we could have gotten back even several times that). Olivier
Boss, Energesis Pharmaceuticals (a MassChallenge 2010 award winner)

~~~
rhizome
It's still creepy.

~~~
JohnHarthorne
Is it as creepy as taking 6% equity from a company that is still young and
strategically weak?

To me that is molestation.

~~~
pg
I wouldn't be surprised to see this sort of comment from a random troll on HN,
but I'm surprised to see it from one of the organizers of the program.

It suggests that as well as having rather bad judgment, you don't understand
the math of equity. A "free" alternative is no bargain if you end up net worse
off.

<http://paulgraham.com/equity.html>

~~~
JohnHarthorne
But if we offer a free alternative with equivalent benefits, then 6% is way
overpriced. And that's what we do.

Paul omits a discussion of opportunity cost. Sure, buying a coke for 50 cents
is great ... but getting it for free is much better.

Remember that at 6.4% improvement, you end up _even_ with ycombinator. At 6.4%
improvement with MassChallenge, you end up 6.4% ahead.

~~~
staunch
Do yourself a favor: wait until you have a track record and reputation that's
at least 5% the quality of YC's before you start bragging about how much
better you are.

~~~
JohnHarthorne
This isn't about me. I don't do this. MassChallenge is a community supported
by literally thousands of volunteers foregoing value capture to support value
creation.

After year 1, we asked our finalists this survey question:

How likely are you on a scale of 0-10 to recommend MassChallenge to another
startup?

79% answered either 9 or 10. (Just about 60% answered 10). One person answered
6 -- the lowest score.

For perspective, that means that our finalists are slightly more enthusiastic
about MassChallenge than Apple customers are about Apple Computer ... see here
for more details and other metrics:

<http://www.masschallenge.org/2010_metrics>

Again, please visit some time. I'm sure you will understand why we are so
excited about MassChallenge if you do.

~~~
mctavjb9
I'd be curious to know what the results of this survey question were from
companies that made it to the first round but were not selected for the
incubation phase. I had the entry fee waived through endorsements last year,
but had an experience during the pitch round similar to others who have
commented here-- judges who had nothing resembling a clue. I've heard this
story over and over and have no intention of participating this year.

~~~
WarPaul
Again, I'll reference my aforementioned post above:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2388691>

I guarantee that the judging has been drastically improved from last year.
It's still too bad that you feel the way you do. I wish you continued success
in your venture.

------
jayzee
I have a few questions and their website is spare on details:

1\. What is the typical size of the check? I paused the video
(<http://www.masschallenge.org/>) at the end to note that most checks were
$50k and one was $100k. Are there smaller/larger amounts?

2\. Getting votes and endorsements: They want startups to get votes from
general people to improve their chances of getting selected. This is a bad
idea. _It is crowd-sourcing herd mentality._ I think that is a waste of time
for the startup. I saw a post (<http://www.masschallenge.org/blog/how-make-it-
masschallenge-...>) about the things a company did to get those points and I
would rather spend that time on the business. So if we get a 0 on each of
those is there a chance that we will get through?

Thanks. I think that what they are doing is fantastic barring [2].

~~~
drewvolpe
I was in last year's class. I don't believe the endorsement points matter that
much in the application. I spent almost no time on them and we got in. I think
they're really more of an excuse to engage with people you otherwise wouldn't.
If you have a good idea and traction, you'll get in with 0 points.

------
rosenjon
I think that these two programs offer starkly different things. A focus on the
money alone is very short sighted.

ycombinator has established itself as the "Harvard" of tech startup
incubators. MassChallenge is... well... MassChallenge.

As an analogy, when I was deciding between business schools, I had the
opportunity to take a scholarship to a lesser MBA program. Or I could pay full
price and go to a much higher ranked program. The difference was minimum
$50-60k of my own money.

I chose to go to the higher ranked program, because of the network that I
would be able to build and the long term reputation that came with attending
that program. Part of me wishes this wasn't the case; that one's success in
life is purely based on their talents and how far they are able to propel
themselves on their own steam, regardless of their affiliation with
universities or other organizations. Unfortunately, that's not the real world.
People care about which organizations you are affiliated with, regardless of
whether the education at one is truly better than another. In truth, if you're
motivated, you can probably get an equally good education at a community
college as you can at an Ivy League school. However, the network you build at
these different institutions is vastly different, and I would argue can't be
replicated between the two.

ycombinator has a track record of producing successful tech startups. This
leads to high demand, and the ability to set its own terms. Likening that to
"molestation" is not only insulting to the program, but also to all the people
who applied to the program (like me). It implies that we don't know what we're
doing, and that we are suckers for giving away equity to Y Combinator. I would
counter that, contrary to this assertion, I am fully aware of the equity stake
that is taken, and believe that it is worth having the Y Combinator
organization on my side, as well as the cache with future investors that comes
from having participated in the program. I will admit that this decision was
not taken lightly, however, and I talked with many founders and funders in the
startup world before deciding to apply.

------
bostonstarup
Everyone should breathe for a moment.

According to the Angel Capital Association, 60% of their members charge ~$400
to pitch. Also, no one complains about the $18,000 for 3 minutes at Demo.
That's a pretty hefty fee, but many get value out of that event. The
entrepreneur HAS to be the one to make that value judgement for themselves.

The MassChallenge team and others like them are providing a great service and
it's up to the entrepreneur to figure out if their making the right decision,
not some self appointed guru.

I have a hard time understanding those self appointed guru's who claim to have
the interest of the poor struggling entrepreneur at heart. Entrepreneur's are
a pretty tough lot. If an entrepreneur can't make the right decision about who
they should work with, they will likely fail anyway.

After all, being a CEO is about making the right decisions. If you can't do
that, it's better to find out early.

------
DesmondPieri
I have endorsed two companies each of which I've worked with for over a year
as part of the Boston University Kindle Mentoring program. One of the founders
told me this morning that -- in his "networking" to get more endorsements --
he's met some "movers and shakers" in Boston who will be a big help for his
business. This is exactly the intended result when the MassChallenge Team
added the "endorsement" step to the process. If nothing else, MassChallenge is
well thought out. And last year it was well executed by a hoard of people
volunteering their time and energy.

------
SueFarina
I'm participating as an entrant this year and think it's a fantastic program
for start-ups! Great to see it in Massachusetts, too.

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contextref
It's one of many opportunities around Boston, but compared to TechStars and
others who "graduate" a dozen or two at most, this program actively
accelerates 100+ companies who get to that phase. I've applied and am looking
forward to the great learning and networking experience.

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Nikkki
In general, I think the more incubators, the better it is for the whole start-
up eco-system. Talk is cheap. Thus, there is no need to quarrel online. Let
the success of MassChallenge and Y-Combinator start-ups speak for themselves
which program is the best.

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Jiminez
Mass Challenge? Is that like some kinda "Guess the Weight" competition?

~~~
WarPaul
Also "Mass" as in "the world's largest" (play on words I guess). Funny though,
maybe someone should start a LeanChallenge based on Eric Ries' methodology.

