My company (gazaro.com) got accepted to the AWS Startup Challenge last year, and although we did have a small amount of funding (non-VC), we were essentially ru

My company (gazaro.com) got accepted to the AWS Startup Challenge last year, and although we did have a small amount of funding (non-VC), we were essentially running a bootstrapped company at the time. We didn't win the "challenge". We were probably at a disadvantage from the start because we were against VC funded companies, but I think we did a very good job and I was generally happy with how the event went. Our only gripe with the event was the lack of media. I'm unsure if Amazon changed their qualification threshold, but we certainly didn't have and VC funding when we participated in the contest last year.