Acquiring funding is no easy task for startups. Naturally, a competition such as the MassChallenge, which set out to award one million dollars in total funding across sixteen startups, attracted a lot of attention. Just recently, the competition announced its winners. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/deua6O) The four $100k winners were enterprise software company Ksplice, location services analytics company Locately, water purification company OsmoPure, and shoe supplier for women with larger feet Samanta Shoes. The twelve $50k winners were 3Play Media, Abroad101, Energesis Pharmaceuticals, OsComp Systems, Pearl's Premium, Inc., RelayRides, Rentabilities, ScholarPro Inc., Seeding Labs, StorageByMail.com, Symmetric Computing, and Zyrra.
“MassChallenge is a tremendous initiative helping harness the collaborative strength of the brilliant minds attracted to the Massachusetts innovation ecosystem,” said Deval Patrick, Massachusetts’ Governor. “The Commonwealth has always produced and supported revolutionary thinkers and positive change agents, and our Administration continues this tradition as a positive force for change and as a proud sponsor and avid supporter of the MassChallenge Startup Competition and Accelerator.”
This year’s MassChallenge had 446 entrants, spanning 26 countries and 24 states. From this pool, judges selected the top 111 startups to take part in a 3-month accelerator program, which included free mentoring, office space, legal support, introductions to customers, and introductions to funding sources. The startups were judged on impact, scalability, competitive positioning, and execution. Finally, 16 winning startups were selected to pitch their ideas to a final panel of judges to determine their prize level.
“MassChallenge has brought hundreds of innovators to Boston’s 
waterfront. The entrepreneurs who have competed are the job creators of the future, and Boston’s Innovation District has been delighted to be their home and their launching pad,” said Thomas Menino, Boston’s Mayor.
According to John Harthorne, the Founder and CEO of MassChallenge, exit surveys revealed that eight startups chose to relocate their companies to Massachusetts as a direct result of participating in the competition. Harthorne also pointed out that MassChallenge has created more than 40 jobs in Massachusetts over the past three months. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/aGGWah)
“MassChallenge is an efficient and effective form of stimulus and is an ideal means for Massachusetts and America to harness and showcase the expertise and collaborative strength of our universities, investors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and businesses,” Hawthorne said. “After all, we’ve been providing revolutionary ideas since 1776.”
This year’s first MassChallenge seems to have been tremendously successful. The competition brought jobs and attention to Massachusetts and substantial funding to 16 deserving startups. Hopefully the MassChallenge will become an annual tradition and attract even more sponsors and participants next year.
[Sources: http://bit.ly/bxAjBE, http://bit.ly/deua6O]
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