On this coming Monday, March 7th, MassChallenge – the world’s largest global startup competition and accelerator program – will officially open the application process for 2011. MassChallenge will hold a launch celebration at their office in the Innovation District at One Marina Park on Monday, including a pre-event with startup enthusiasts from 3-5 pm followed by refreshments, networking and gaming from 5-8 pm.
Founders John Harthorne and Akhil Nigam, Mayor Menino, the Patrick-Murray Administration, Vertex Founder Josh Boger, serial mentor Desh Deshpande and other innovators will join in the launch celebration for this $1 million global startup competition, including Monster.com founder, Jeff Taylor (he will emcee the event). According to Hawthorne, other “surprise” guest speakers will be brought in via streamed video from across the globe.
MassChallenge is designed to identify, strengthen and facilitate funding for the world’s highest impact startups. The deadline for applications will run a full month until Monday, April 11. Between the 11th and May 24th, judging will occur to bring the initial pool of applicants down (last year to 110). Matched with mentors and resources, finalists will then “prepare for the accelerator” which runs through the summer. The final judging (last year of 26 startups, with 16 receiving part of the $1M prize) and ceremony will be held in October.
In 2010, 446 startups from 24 states and 26 countries applied to MassChallenge. This year we expect the program year to receive even more, thanks to the National attention the program garnered when President Obama honored the organization (along with TechStars and others) as a partner for Startup America this January. New to the program this year is the hire of a ‘Chief Mentorship Officer’ who will work with teams throughout the competition.
We encourage those looking to apply to learn more about the breadth and variety of the companies who applied and benefitted from the program last year. Below are full profiles of many of the winning companies last year:
- Osmopure: Bringing Clean Water to the World ($100k winner)
- Eliminate the Need to Reboot Your Computer with Ksplice ($100k winner)
- Locately is “Getting to Know You” ($100k winner)
- MassChallenge Winner Abroad101 Turns $50k into $500k ($50k winner)
- Collaborative Consumption: Relay Rides – Reinventing the Wheels with Peers ($50k winner)
- Storage by Mail: The Netflix for Storing Your Stuff ($50k winner)
- 3Play Media “Your Text is Your Timeline” ($50k winner)
- Symmetric Computing: Supercomputing for the Masses ($50k winner)
Interested in learning more about the program – like where did it start, who’s leading the initiative and how it has evolved? Check out our three part series that tells the full MassChallenge story:
