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In a world brimming with great ideas, entrepreneurs too often lack the resources required to achieve their visions. To craft a world-changing idea takes dedication and perseverance, but to grow a company also requires a committed team, expert advice, often some money, and a fair amount of luck.
Since our launch in 2010, we have celebrated these daring entrepreneurs and with help from our partners, provided greater access to all the resources startups need to succeed.
In 2013, new international partnerships dramatically expanded that access to better support the enormous range of entrepreneurs who enter our accelerator. We launched our first international office in Tel Aviv and solidify partnerships in Colombia, Russia and Mexico to exchange entrepreneurial resources across multiple ecosystems. Thanks to these partners, the 2013 applicant pool and accelerator class were the most geographically diverse pools of entrepreneurs in MassChallenge's history.
Local support of MassChallenge has also expanded. New funders with bold commitments to startups joined our cause, including the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), The Kraft Group, and the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation. Several corporations and foundations also signed on to help entrepreneurs succeed through sharing expertise, funds and resources: Autodesk, the Boston Foundation, EMC, the National Science Foundation, Oracle and Pfizer.
The support of these new funders and the continued efforts of the returning supporters contribute mightily to the quality of the startup accelerator. The advice and hard work of the hundreds of volunteer mentors and judges, the collaboration with other top entrepreneur organizations, leadership from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the City of Boston, and continued engagement from the general public are invaluable to our organization.
We couldn't be more grateful for the friends and supporters who have rallied around our mission over the last three years, and we couldn't be more excited to connect these supporters with the world's highest-impact entrepreneurs.
Thank you for your time, engagement, and contributions.
Sincerely,
The MassChallenge 2013 Global Finalist cohort has raised 1.75x the funding the class of 2010 had raised upon its completion of the accelerator program.
"At MassChallenge, everybody is working hard. The simple idea of surrounding yourself with like-minded, focused, competitive people allows everyone to work towards a common goal of growing big and making an impact."
Arian Radmand
CoachUp,
2012 MassChallenge Winner
Studies show that startups are responsible for virtually all net job growth in the United States. The Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation is a supporter of economic mobility in Greater Boston and joined MassChallenge as a funder in 2013.
The MassChallenge 2013 Hiring Fair gathered nearly 400 job seekers with MassChallenge finalists and alumni.
"Our MassChallenge experience was like a startup buffet - we always had the resources we needed in front of us. Being part of such an engaged community allowed us to pick the brains of industry experts and peer entrepreneurs on a regular basis."
Mario Bollini
Global Research Innovation & Technology (GRIT),
2012 MassChallenge Winner
The active participation of hundreds of expert MassChallenge mentors equates to a rich breadth and depth of startup knowledge and experiences for the diverse class of entrepreneurs.
MassChallenge mentors come from all disciplines and industries and include entrepreneurs, investors, lawyers, marketers, and other corporate executives. Informal office hours complement a formal mentorship program, allowing entrepreneurs to meet with experts from companies like Verizon, whose executives provide invaluable insights to dozens of MassChallenge entrepreneurs.
"We reached out to Brian Kalma at a MassChallenge mentor matching event hoping to learn from his background in user experience with Zappos and others. Not only were his skills a fit, but also Brian's personality and values align with ours. When Brian joined our team full time after the accelerator, the process of bringing him on couldn't have been easier."
Kit Hickey
Ministry of Supply,
2012 MassChallenge Winner
JUDGES INVOLVED IN SELECTING 2013 WINNERS
ACTIVE MENTORS IN 2013
AVERAGE NUMBER OF MENTORS PER STARTUP
On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend MassChallenge to another early-stage startup?
The exceptional 2013 MassChallenge NPS score places the accelerator among the very highest-rated brands in the world in terms of user satisfaction, ahead of brands such as Amazon, Apple, and Trader Joe's.
"The MassChallenge network advised us in patenting, engineering talent, financing strategy and manufacturing. We still work closely with many of those connections, including the team at Lightspeed, who provide amazing resources for hardware startups. The MassChallenge community helped us progress from a team with an idea to a company ready to launch."
Francisco Aguilar
Bounce Imaging,
2012 MassChallenge Winner
The MassChallenge accelerator program is designed to provide entrepreneurs a range of strategic and tactical insights, covering everything from sales to hiring, legal to financing. Fidelity Investments has made an impressive impact on the program content, which features its Design Thinking group to lead workshops on pitching and user testing.
Early-stage startups and large corporations have enormous opportunities to share ideas and expertise to achieve mutual goals. Some of the most effective MassChallenge startup-corporate relationships are born out of events. Microsoft is an early and ongoing supporter of MassChallenge's growth, and actively engaged in many 2013 events, including the Launch Ceremony and the 60-second pitch competition, Minute to Pitch It.
UNITED STATES APPLICANTS FROM 41 STATES
INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS FROM 58 COUNTRIES
"Thanks to MassChallenge, we have had access to an organized community of experts, investors and resources that we otherwise would not have found in Colombia."
Jorge Soto
Keraderm,
2013 MassChallenge Finalist
Shared access to global resources is critical to modern entrepreneurs. In partnership with Innpulsa Colombia, MassChallenge runs intensive boot camps for Colombian entrepreneurs annually. In 2013, judges accepted five Colombian startups into the MassChallenge accelerator.
MassChallenge Israel launched in 2013 as the first official MassChallenge program outside of Boston. The mission of MassChallenge Israel is to enable top-tier Israeli startups to access global markets by connecting them with the very best people and organizations in the Boston entrepreneurial ecosystem.
העזרה שאני הכי נהנה ממנה היא התמיכה של החברות האחרות. יש תחושה של כולם בסירה אחת, ואנשים משתפים מידע ולא מסתירים כלום: מגלים עם מי נפגשו, ממי גייסו כסף וכמה. יש אמפתיה ועזרה הדדית וסולידריות נדירה.
Tomer Binyamin
Greenvolved,
2013 MassChallenge Finalist
GLOBAL INNOVATION & STRATEGY EXECUTIVE, Verizon Enterprise Solutions
SenIOR VICE PRESIDENT & DIRECTOR, fidelity center for applied technology (fcat)
founder & Managing Partner, Berylson Capital Partners
MASSACHUSETTS secretary of housing & economic development
founder & former ceo, vertex pharmaceuticals
CO-CHAIR, NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL ON INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
director, the john w. henry family foundations
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, CENTER FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE IN SPACE
Senior director, microsoft new england research & development (nerd) center
Fidelity
Jamestown
Verizon
Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation
CASIS
The Deshpande Foundation
Innpullsa Colombia
Fan Pier
AMERICAN AIRLINES
MASSACHUSETTS LIFE SCIENCES CENTER
MICROSOFT
RUSSIAN VENTURE COMPANY
RETO ZAPOPAN
AUTODESK
THE BOSTON FOUNDATION
EMC CORPORATION
FOLEY & LARDNER LLP
THE JOHN W. HENRY FAMILy FOUNDATION
JOSHUA BOGER
THE KRAFT GROUP
MASSACHUSETTS CLEAN ENERGY CENTER
MASSACHUSETTS TECHNOLOGY COLLABORATIVE
THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
ORACLE
PFIZER
Babson college
boston university
Northeastern University D'AMORE-MCKIM
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
deloitte
duane morris llp
foley hoag llp
fish & richardson llp
goodwin procter LLP
ibm
Perkins SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND
softlayer
The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and MassChallenge formed a one-of-a-kind partnership to push the boundaries of entrepreneurial research. MassChallenge has always helped entrepreneurs out of the proverbial garage and into a buzzing community of entrepreneurs and supporters. CASIS wants to help take startups even higher and enable entrepreneurs to conduct research in the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory (ISS NL).
In 2013, CASIS provided an additional $400,000 in prize money and the opportunity to use the ISS NL as the ultimate research or technology development platform. This represents an unparalleled opportunity for early-stage entrepreneurs to utilize the unique microgravity environment and vantage point of the ISS NL to develop intellectual property or applications that provide significant benefit to U.S. citizens in the areas of life sciences, material and physical sciences, or earth observation and remote sensing technologies.
Modern entrepreneurship is a global endeavor. At MassChallenge, we have always envisioned a global startup renaissance - a rebirth led by inspired, creative innovators who strive primarily to create new value instead of obsessing over extracting from what already exists.
We are committed to further this global mission of collaboration and impact while also continuing to improve access for entrepreneurs at our vanguard in Boston. This starts with an exciting transition to our new headquarters as an anchor tenant in the Innovation and Design Building in Boston's Innovation District, and continues as we further activate partnerships within the ecosystem of startup supporters to better help entrepreneurs succeed.
