Competition Rules
These rules are intended as a quick reference for participants. For more details and limitations, please see the OFFICIAL COMPETITION RULES.
- Eligibility. To be eligible to enter the MassChallenge competition, a business entry must be at an early stage of development, and each team must pay the entry fee. The entry fee is intended to prevent entry from teams who are not committed to launching their business.
- Entry. To enter the MassChallenge competition, a team must submit an executive summary and written elevator pitch through the MassChallenge website, from April 14 to June 11, 2010.
- Awards. MassChallenge seeks to award high impact new ventures that will be successful, and anticipates approximately 300 Semi-Finalists, 100 Finalists and 20 Ultimate Awardees.
- Finalists receive Massachusetts resources including mentorship, work space, strategic advice, and networking opportunities to further their businesses.
- Ultimate Awardees receive approximately $50,000 to $100,000 in cash, business guidance, public relations promotion, and marketing exposure from the Competition. These Awards will be used toward development of the start-up business.
- Process. The process of forming the startup of each Entry is the focus of the competition. Note the following important dates:
- April 14: MassChallenge launch, opening of website for entry. Training and networking events begin.
- June 11: Deadline for entry submission. Round 1 of Judging. Training, networking and other events continue.
- July 11: Round 1 judging completed. Approximately 300 Semi-Finalists continue with competition events. Teams perform in-person pitches for Round 2 judging.
- July 20: **Round 2 judging completed. Approximately 100 finalists will receive one on one mentorship, work space, and other resources as part of a 3 month accelerator phase. The final judging panel will identify approximately 20 awardees.
- Mid - October: Final MassChallenge ceremony, announcement of awards.
**Entrants who participate in the accelerator must be present in Massachusetts to be eligible for awards.
- Judging. The goal of the judging process is to award startups with promise for economic success and positive impact in the community. There are three rounds of formal judging.
- MassChallenge will enlist the services of expert judges who are independent and objective, with no conflicts of interest.
- Judges’ scores will be based on a weighted percentage of the following factors:
-
Criteria
First Round1
Second Round
Endorsement Points
10
10
2 Pager/ Presentation 2
80
80
Solution and Technology
10
10
Industry and Competitors
10
10
Customer Needs and Acquisitions
10
10
Business Model and Financials
10
10
Team
10
10
Legal and Regulatory
10
10
Overall Impact and feasibility
20
20
Elevator Pitch
10
10
Total Points
100
100
- Endorsement Points The endorsement system is intended to encourage, capture and reward networking and referral.
- As indicated in these rules, endorsement points count for 10% of the judging score in the first round of the competition.
- Endorsements add to the score, but do not influence the judges review of the entry.
- Any reimbursement/discount indicated on any ticket expires on the June 11th (6/11) midnight EST entry deadline. These tickets must be entered into the system by the entry deadline to count. Although endorsement points can still be accrued until July 10th (7/10) at midnight EST, only those entered before June 30th at midnight count towards 1st round judging and those after towards second round judging.
- Endorsements are not considered received by a team until the long alphanumeric ticket number is entered into the "endorsements" field in the team account on the MassChallenge website.
- You can collect endorsements by having a successful entrepreneur (or subject expert, investors, business leader or other prominent individual in the entrepreneurial ecosystem) write to endorsements@masschallenge.org, cc a team member and provide a brief personal background so that we can assure the validity of the endorsement and maintain the integrity of the endorsement process.
- There are three types of endorsement tickets available:
Endorsement type Point value Reimbursement on Entry
Diamond +5 Free Entry
Platinum +1 $100 off
Gold +1 N/A
- Teams can collect as many endorsements as possible, but only one diamond endorsement (each worth 5 endorsement points) can be collected from any one endorser and there is a limit of three gold or platinum endorsements (each worth 1 endorsement point) from any one endorser. This limit will be enforced via the counting algorithm at the end of the first round of judging and then again at the end of the second round of judging.
- Endorsement tickets each contain a unique "ticket number" with a long hexidecimal number (letters and numbers). This is the number that must be entered into each team's account on the MassChallenge website.
- Endorsement tickets have been distributed to thousands of investors, experts, business leaders, successful entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship centers, incubators, and other nodes of entrepreneurship.
- In the event that a team finds subject experts, successful entrepreneurs, investors or business leaders who do not have endorsement tickets, these people/organizations can still endorse a MassChallenge entrant. These experts can endorse a team by emailing endorsements@masschallenge.org, CCing the team that they would like to endorse and at what level. Endorsers should provide a brief personal background so that we can assure the validity of the endorsement and maintain the integrity of the endorsement process. MassChallenge will then distribute the endorsement to the endorsed team.
- MassChallenge reserves the right to deny endorsement for any reason (in response to an suspected chicanery, being the most likely reason).
**Entrants who participate in the accelerator must be present in Massachusetts to be eligible for awards.
- Legal Action: MassChallenge shall be held harmless in the event of any legal action.
- Other Agreements. MassChallenge takes no responsibility for agreements between competition participants and third parties.
- Intellectual Property. MassChallenge takes no part in and has no liability for the domestic or international intellectual property rights of competition participants.
- Participants are responsible for their own intellectual property.
- Participants must keep confidential information confidential.
- Privacy. MassChallenge protects personal information collected in competition materials (see privacy policy on MassChallenge.org).
- Submissions. Entry materials become the property of MassChallenge.
- Immorality. Participants who engage in immoral activities, including lying and cheating, or any activity that may adversely affect the image of MassChallenge or other participants, become ineligible for the Competition.
- Originality. All work and submissions of Entrants must be original to the Entrant/team.
- Compliance, Disqualification. All participants must comply with the rules. Any violation of the rules will disqualify an Entrant’s team from the competition, and result in forfeiture of any awards awarded to the team.
- Liability Related to Awards. Awardees may not hold MassChallenge or other participants responsible for any harm resulting from accepting or using the award.
- Immigration. Participants must be legally present in the United States. MassChallenge takes no responsibility for immigration status of participants.
- Antiterrorism. Each Participant warrants that he or she does not participate in any terrorist activities. Mass Challenge shall not be held responsible for any harm resulting breach of this warranty.
- Law. The competition is subject to applicable federal, state, and local laws.
- Updates. Mass Challenge may update the competition rules throughout the competition. All updates will be posted on the Mass Challenge website.
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