MassChallenge Competition

Bio:

MassChallenge is a $1M global startup competition and accelerator designed to catalyze the launch and success of high-growth, high-impact new businesses. MassChallenge is a non-profit organization and does not take any equity from startups or place any restrictions on winners. President Obama honored MassChallenge in January of 2011 as one of the nation's best organizations for supporting high-growth entrepreneurs, and MassChallenge was the youngest inaugural member of the Startup America Partnership.

• Title: MassChallenge is a $1M global startup competition and accelerator
• Location: Everywhere
• Contact: masschallenge.org, @masschallenge

What do you get:

• over 100 MassChallenge finalist teams will receive access to intensive training
• mentoring
• PR and networking support from experts
• plus they can all make use of the 22,000 sq ft of free office space in our inspirational facility on the waterfront in the Boston Innovation District

What makes MassChallenge different?:
MassChallenge is unusual for an accelerator program. We are a non-profit founded with the vision of building a more creative and inspired society. We have no limited partners, VCs, or anyone else to whom we need to give returns. This allows us to take absolutely nothing from the startups.

Being a non-profit with a clear mission to help the world has also made it much easier for us to get amazing people involved. In our first year, our mentors and speakers included the founders of billion dollar companies Desh Deshpande (Sycamore Networks), Josh Boger (Vertex Pharmaceuticals), billion pageview websites Alexis Ohanian (Reddit), Senators John Kerry, and successful entrepreneurs from all fields, from consumer web like Jeff Taylor (Monster.com) or Paul English (Kayak.com) to B2B Dharmesh Shah (Hubspot) to energy Tim Healy (EnerNOC) to life sciences Ken Bate (Archemix). These extraordinary people get involved because they share our passion and our vision.

Results: in the 7 months since last year's accelerator began, MassChallenge finalists have raised well over $30M in outside funding and have hired more than 300 new team members.

Deadline: April 11th

Wanna learn more? MassChallenge is coming to NYC on April 6th at 6pm at the Hatchery. Last year 2 NYC companies won the competition and received grants of $50K & $100K. Drinks and appetizers will be served. This event is free! http://masschallengeinnyc.eventbrite.com/