> and some were just a rung above you That's not necessarily the case. For some proposals, "[we] didn't understand the problem domain well enough to judge the

> and some were just a rung above you That's not necessarily the case. For some proposals, "[we] didn't understand the problem domain well enough to judge them". Or didn't have the time to look at stuff you've done; or your demo. Or they liked enough other proposals already that they didn't feel the need to look at your demo. The "stellar" ones were ones that "seemed better" in the opinion of the reviewers. As noted, "this process is fraught with error".