There’s a new startup competition in town, announced today, called The Lean Startup Challenge. The six-week contest is aimed at early stage startups, and is being hosted and in partnership with MassChallenge – the world’s largest startup competition where 125 startups compete for $1 million in prize money. Like MassChallenge, the Lean Startup Challenge is a non-profit organized by those in Boston passionate about entrepreneurship. Up for grabs to the winner is $1,000.
The focus of this challenge is on startups that will use the lean startup methodology to build their products. This methodology hinges on doing customer development in tandem with product development. Many believe that the methodology is the best and most efficient way to launch and build a startup, given its focus on keeping resource requirements (like time and capital) low.
The six-week Lean Startup Challenge will run in July and August. Entrance is free for entrepreneurs. And what makes the contest unique is that entrants focus and compete on one thing: growth, instead of how sophisticated or “good” your business idea is. The competition organizers explain,
“Entering teams will launch or enter a site, make critical assumptions about its key business metrics, and focus on validating and changing assumptions that drive their business through the use of tools provided by local partner organizations – Performable.com and Localytics.com. The winner will be the team that shows the biggest improvement in both operating metrics and customer development by the end of the contest.”
Both existing and brand new startups can enter. And you don’t necessarily have to have a web product or mobile app to enter – all you need is a website. You’ll be judged on how well you can improve that site and bring in new customers over the course of the six week period.
“What’s different about the Lean Startup Challenge is that we ask teams to put all their effort into growing their business, and doing it the right way by improving their product and winning customers. Over the course of six weeks, teams will demonstrate traction for their startups, making them great candidates to enter business plan competitions like MassChallenge, incubators like Techstars, or seek angel funding,” explained Michael Mullins, Executive Director of the Lean Startup Challenge.
The kickoff weekend is being held July 15th and 16th. During that weekend entrants will enjoy a series of presentation on the Lean Startup methodology. As for MassChallenge’s role:
“We’re proud to host the Lean Startup Challenge, which we see as a welcome addition to the entrepreneurial community in Boston,” said Akhil Nigram, Founder and President of MassChallenge. “It’s going to be a great opportunity for any startup, including MassChallenge teams, to learn lean startups and demonstrate that they can grow their business. Our goal at MassChallenge is to identify the very best startups and accelerate their growth and we see this as a welcome addition to help companies iterate quickly on both the product and customer side and gain real traction in the marketplace.”
Behind the contest are Michael Mullins (Startup Leadership Program alum), Parul Singh (MIT Sloan ’12) and Sidd Goyal (co-founder CTO of AssuredLabor). Advisors include David Cancel and Dharmesh Shah.
Interested in learning more? Click on through to visit their website. Already sold? Go straight to the sign up form.
