How to Create a Killer MassChallenge Application

The following post was written by Andy Cook, cofounder of Rentabilities and MassChallenge 2010 $50,000 winner. Having been through the MassChallenge before, Andy has provided his take on how to make it through the first two rounds of MassChallenge judging and get into the Accelerator as a MassChallenge Finalist.

General overview of the application process and judging rounds

The MassChallenge application process is officially open and you can submit your's today. You can make unlimited changes to your application up to the deadline, at which point you will not be allowed to edit what you've submitted. It's in your best interest to apply as early as possible and not leave it to the last minute, which I've explained below. Schedule of Events

• Deadline for application - April 11th, 2011 @ 11:00 pm
• End of voting/endorsements - May 18th, 2011
• Second round judging ends - May 24th, 2011

5 Steps to Make Your Application Better

1. Enter Early (Deadline is April 11th, 2011)

If you are at all interested in entering the 2011 MassChallenge competition, you should head over the website right NOW and do it. You're inviting yourself to run into problems if you leave it until 3 hours before the deadline. Your application will not be as strong, and you may even miss the deadline completely for some reason or another (you could have a question, your internet could go down, etc.) From experience I know most of the entries came in the last couple of days before the deadline. If you enter now (why not today?), you'll have much better shot at getting your questions answered and submitting a higher quality application. * Also, the earlier you enter, the earlier opportunity you'll have to collect votes and earn endorsements before they're gone.

2. Focus on Your Strengths

To better your chances, you should put more effort into the places where you are guaranteed to get points. Perhaps you do not have your business model and financials worked out yet (that's okay!) but you were just recently awarded a killer patent, and have clearly proven the need for your solution. It seems like a good idea to put more effort into your Regulation and IP and Customer Pain and Solution sections and half-assing the Business Model and Financials section. Rentabilities example - We have a software company and do not have any intellectual property. Instead of focusing on this section, we just did the bare minimum and put our brain power on the sections that were more relevant to us.

3. Go to Events

The MassChallenge team is great at running frequent events. The calendar for events can be found on their website under neath the Resources tab (or just click here). At the events, the team will first hand explain to you what you should be doing to maximize your chances of getting into the next round. You will also get to meet new people and see the space you'll be working in. It's much easier to understand how the application process works by watching a presentation than sifting through the website an guessing which information is important. From my own experience, here are some good events to attend: - Untapped & Info Session - Try to make it to at least one of these presentations. The team will give you a no-fluff presentation on what you need to know. And there's usually free beer and wine. - Speed Networking - This was a great event and I highly recommend it (April 5th). You'll get to meet other entrants and practice your pitching in front of other people, and again, there's free beer and wine.

4. Make a Down and Dirty Video Pitch

Our CEO, Alex Cook, borrowed an HD video camera and recorded a pitch in the kitchen of his condo. It wasn't the most polished and exciting video, but it got the point of our business across to people who did not want to read our entire profile. After having looked through all 450 of last year's applications as well, the ones with videos really stood out and showed a lot of effort. Do not go crazy on your video and spend too much time on it. Just make something simple and to the point.

5. Iterate your Application

The one thing that life has taught me thus far is I do my best work when I slowly iterate on something instead of trying to blast it out in one shot before a deadline. If you enter early (again, enter today!) you'll have time to think about your application and make small changes as you think of them. You'll have time to have people read over your application and tell you what they don't understand.In the case of beautiful things, it's the hundreds of little details added together to make a whole that are astounding. Trust me - You'll do a much better job on your application if you enter early and work on it slowly rather than all at once. You'll be much less stressed too!

General Advice: Think like Einstein

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough

My all time favorite quote just about sums up how you should think about your application. Being an entrepreneur and working on a startup generally means you'll have 100 ideas in your head at once. The best entrepreneurs are the ones who can boil down those ideas into succinct and clear thoughts for the everyday person. If you can explain your company to your grandparent or parent in one minute and they understand it, you're in good shape.