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Your point is very true. They hope to stimulate innovation in Boston through the competition, but the main goal is to stimulate innovation nationwide. One of th

Your point is very true. They hope to stimulate innovation in Boston through the competition, but the main goal is to stimulate innovation nationwide. One of the winning teams last year, RelayRides, recently opened a second location in California, so you're not limited to Boston. There really is no strings attached to the money if you win. You could go to Vegas and put it all on black if you wanted (although the judges would probably sense that was the plan you wouldn't make it through). P.S. I was on a winning MassChallenge team last year (Rentabilities)

deleted 16y ago
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- PMHacker 16y ago
  You can get through even with 0 votes from general public and 0 endorsements BUT if you cannot sell you idea to people to make them vote for it on the web site chances are that you would not be able to sell it for money, think about entry form as kind of MVP for your startup.
  - jayzee 16y ago
    That does not fly for several reasons. Some ideas can be highly technical. Or have a niche market like control systems for nuclear reactors. Or can buck conventional thinking Copernicus would have a tough time getting those votes for example. I think that the reason they are doing it is to drive traffic and publicity to their cause. In the video they mention again and again how many twitter followers they have etc. Look, I don't want to be too critical. This is fantastic and kudos to them for doing a great job. It is just this one thing that seems silly other than that it sounds fantastic.
    - JohnHarthorne 16y ago
      Even technical/niche startups should be able to find 5 friends who will visit and vote for them. Last year we had finalists working on airborne wind turbines (altaeros energies) and on desalination systems powered entirely by renewable energy (Resolute Marine Energies) and many other technical/niche plays. The public doesn't need to understand the depths of the technology to decide if it's a good idea or if it's well expressed. Regarding driving traffic - sure, there is at least a minor "viral" impact from the system. Keep in mind, MassChallenge is a community. Driving traffic to our website helps the whole community, i.e. there are spillover benefits for other startups when one startup convinces their supporters to visit and browse the site. There's no profit at the center of the system -- so this isn't a selfish motive -- it's designed to benefit everyone. We are still a relatively young startup ourselves and continue to refine our approach ... so there is definitely room for improvement in areas. On balance, though, we are confident that our processes work. We'll continue to refine and definitely appreciate the feedback.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

PMHacker 16y ago
You can get through even with 0 votes from general public and 0 endorsements BUT if you cannot sell you idea to people to make them vote for it on the web site chances are that you would not be able to sell it for money, think about entry form as kind of MVP for your startup.
- jayzee 16y ago
  That does not fly for several reasons. Some ideas can be highly technical. Or have a niche market like control systems for nuclear reactors. Or can buck conventional thinking Copernicus would have a tough time getting those votes for example. I think that the reason they are doing it is to drive traffic and publicity to their cause. In the video they mention again and again how many twitter followers they have etc. Look, I don't want to be too critical. This is fantastic and kudos to them for doing a great job. It is just this one thing that seems silly other than that it sounds fantastic.
  - JohnHarthorne 16y ago
    Even technical/niche startups should be able to find 5 friends who will visit and vote for them. Last year we had finalists working on airborne wind turbines (altaeros energies) and on desalination systems powered entirely by renewable energy (Resolute Marine Energies) and many other technical/niche plays. The public doesn't need to understand the depths of the technology to decide if it's a good idea or if it's well expressed. Regarding driving traffic - sure, there is at least a minor "viral" impact from the system. Keep in mind, MassChallenge is a community. Driving traffic to our website helps the whole community, i.e. there are spillover benefits for other startups when one startup convinces their supporters to visit and browse the site. There's no profit at the center of the system -- so this isn't a selfish motive -- it's designed to benefit everyone. We are still a relatively young startup ourselves and continue to refine our approach ... so there is definitely room for improvement in areas. On balance, though, we are confident that our processes work. We'll continue to refine and definitely appreciate the feedback.