The Who, What, Where, When, Why & How for MassChallenge Endorsements

This is a blog post by AndyGCook of Rentabilities, a 2010 MassChallenge $50,000 winner.

Who Needs Endorsements?

Every startup team entering the 2011 MassChallenge should aim to get some endorsements. It doesn't matter if you have a working product and customers, or just enthusiasm and an idea. Getting endorsements is a smart idea and will only help you. Only startups that have applied to the MassChallenge and paid the application fee by the deadline (April 11th) are eligible for endorsements.

What Are Endorsements?

Endorsements are codes that are given to people involved with the MassChallenge and act as a thumbs up for your startup. Endorsers may be current or past entrepreneurs, lawyers, investors, accountants, or in any other line of work. They are invested and interested in seeing startups succeed, which is why they have volunteer to help vet the entrants. The endorsers are instructed to give out their tickets to whoever they think will be high growth and high impact. Endorsements come in two flavors: Diamond - Rare and sought after. They are worth 8 platinums. Every diamond gets you a $50 refund on your entrance too. So 4 Diamond endorsements = free entry. Platinum - More common and still valuable. They are worth 1 point, and do not get you a discount on your entrance fee. Endorsements make up 10% of your Round 1 and Round 2 MassChallenge score. Endorsements that you get in Round 1 carry over to Round 2 (so get them early!) They are weighted based on the number of endorsements other startups have received. If you have the most endorsements, stop getting more because you've locked up 10 (or even 9.92) of the endorsements points you can receive. If you have 0, then you won't get any points. If you fall somewhere in the middle of the curve, then you'll get around 5 points.

Where Do I Find Them?

There's a giant list of all the people who have endorsements codes. With some tenacity and determination, you can get in contact with any one of these people. Here's a funny story of the steps I took to try to get HubSpot to endorse Rentabilities last year:

I started reading Inbound Marketing las year and finished it in three days. After I finished, I had such an entrepreneurial high that I emailed the two co-authors and thanked them for writing such an epic book. Brian kindly emailed me back a response (an amazing feat given how busy he is) and invited me to HubSpot.TV. I journeyed into Boston, went to the show, and met him in person for a few minutes. Next week, I sent him an email asking him to endorse us. He responded that he didn't know what I was talking about. I explained the program to him, and he said he wasn't involved. At that point, I moved on for fear of wasting his time.

The important part of the story is that you can get creative with finding endorsements and get almost anyone (even a CEO) to respond to you if you are pumped up enough about your start up.

When Should I Get Them?

As soon as possible!

• Deadline to input endorsements for Round 1 - 5/2 @ 12:00
• Deadline to input endorsements for Round 2 - 5/18

Why Do I Have to Get Them?

The whole point of endorsements are to give you a reason to engage in conversation with people who you otherwise normally wouldn't meet. I met some really interesting people during our endorsement process that normally wouldn't have had time to talk to me. The main priority of your business should be to succeed. Figure out a few people you want to target who can help you succeed, and get endorsements from them. Once you're in the top 10% of MassChallenge teams, you can stop focusing on it. Endorsements are not going to make your startup successful. They are only there to help you meet new and interesting people.

How Do I Get Endorsements?

And now for the most interesting part...Here are some tips to get endorsements. Email -Reaching out via email is perhaps the most efficient way to get endorsements, but it's also what everyone else is doing. My tips for standing out are as follows:

• Use the subject line to your advantage - Don't put something uninformative
• Keep your emails clear, concise, and short. Don't put in unnecessary details
• Personalize each email to the endorser
• Make it exciting or funny, or novel and convey you are passionate about your startup
• Use proper punctuation and grammar
• Be respectful and don't expect a response

Twitter - Send an @reply or direct mesage to the person you are targeting. If you can get me excited in less than 140 characters, chances are I'll want to talk more with you.

In-person -Go to events and meet other people in the MassChallenge ecosystem. Come by the MassChallenge office and try to find some former finalist to pitch. Use EventBrite and figure out which events the endorsers you want to pitch are going to. It takes a little bit of work, but meeting someone in person and having a reason to pitch them is a powerful motivator.

Introductions - Getting endorsements is pretty much the same process as fundraising. If you know the right people, it will be a whole lot easier. Try to reach out to your network and get introductions to endorsers. Once you land a successful endorsement, ask that person if they can introduce you to another endorser.

Experiment - If email and Twitter aren't working, and you don't know anyone to give you intros, you can always try coming up with out-of-the-box ways to grab people's attention. Maybe send hand written notes asking to pitch them and include a business card. Or you could do something nutty like make Old Spice-esque videos asking specific people to endorse you or learn more about your startup. Whatever you think of, if it's creative it will grab people's attention and get them to hear you out.

Will Rentabilities Endorse Me?

I've been getting a lot of emails in the past couple weeks, and have been trying to respond to everyone. Rentabilities is holding on to the rest of our endorsements code until the application deadline closes. Contact me then!