Review on MassChallenge by Douglas Cachazo
MassChallenge: Non profit organization supports entrepreneurship.
MassChallenge is a non-profit company that I would call NGO, has more than ten years supporting entrepreneurship projects in several countries around the world, especially in the United States, where it has its headquarters as well as a number of offices, it also has presence in some European countries.
As a non-profit company MassChallenge does not charge any money for the implementation of entrepreneurship projects, nor does it provide capital, the investment is made by a group of good and powerful investors who are associated with the company.
Many will ask, why support small and medium-sized entrepreneurial companies if there are already many international corporations? What is the benefit of doing so? And the answer is to observe the new economic reality in the world, entrepreneurship projects come with innovations either at technological or financial level and are new solutions that bring people around the world, create new sources of work which translates into a factor that reactivates and boosts the economy of a country, now, what is gained by financing these companies, funders win either with a favorable return on investment and in some cases become shareholders of these new successful companies that emerge from the hand of the experts of the incubators, in some cases have even bought the entire nascent company. So much so because it is a high-risk investment, sometimes they have the luxury of taking losses from failed start-ups, but the success stories cover that loss.
When we review MassChallenge's numbers, we find more than $6 billion in money raised and $3 billion in revenue since its founding in 2009.
The areas of the projects are numerous and only require innovation and feasibility of the project, giving preference to innovative technological projects, clean energy, food sector, technologies applied to sports, applications for macro companies, banking, insurance and others.
How is the dynamics? You must apply for registration of your project, you must pay an amount of $ 99, I imagine it is for administrative expenses, if you are among the pre-selected.
You go to the second stage in which you will have to go to a personal interview, if it can not be in person, it could be via skype, if you are still among the pre-selected you will compete with other entrepreneurs before a group of experts who will make the final decision of which projects are accepted, which will receive all the support of Masschallenge mentors and others belonging to associated corporations depending on the type of your venture and you can receive funding as appropriate with variable payment options, also receive money as a prize, the incubation time lasts 4 months and at the end you can build your brand or promote your services or applications hand in hand with massChalenge, through events attended by large macro associated companies.
It should be noted that if you are not accepted in any of the stages, you will always receive recommendations about your venture, this is very valuable.
Unfortunately its presence is limited for now to the following countries: United States, Israel, Switzerland and Mexico to be able to apply.
Pros
- Ten years supporting ventures in many countries.
- Palpable number of success stories
- Your products or service will be marketed with partner companies
- Offers Incubation, award, financing and marketing.
- Has generated potential jobs in several countries around the world.
- Offers to apply either as an entrepreneur, mentor or partner case companies.
Cons
- Few locations to apply
