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Comment by pauldisneyiv | Hacker News Reader

After viewing the MassChallenge site and perusing the complex application process, I am reminded why I'm not excited about applying anywhere outside of Y Combinator.

I don't care about the money I care about the experience.

Will I learn anything from these people? From the other startups that are accepted? Outside some seed money, what is the upside?

*EDIT

My initial thoughts may have been harsh - and perhaps I'm being a hipster - but I don't get the feeling that this is something truly special/cool. I believe there are talented business people involved, but for me it doesn't appear to be a life-changing event as much as a cash prize.

That being said there is obviously a lot of support from those involved - they represent the bulk of the dialog here.

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Mentors and speakers last year included the founders of billion dollar companies (Desh Deshpande - Sycamore/Cascade/A123, Josh Boger - Vertex Pharmaceuticals), billion pageview websites (Alexis Ohanian - Reddit), and successful entrepreneurs from all fields, including consumer web (Jeff Taylor - Monster.com), B2B software (Dharhmesh Shah - Hubspot), energy (Tim Healy - EnerNoc) and life sciences (Ken Bate - Archemix).

What makes you think you can't learn from these people?

Last year's finalists raised well over $30M in outside funding in the 7 months following day 1 of the accelerator program ... with 100+ startups on one floor, there is a lot of opportunity to learn (and teach).

I don't think his assertion was that he couldn't, but that he didn't know who would be there.

The first part of your post was very informative, but I downvoted you for the snark. If it wasn't intended the way I read it, please accept my apologies.

No worries. I was intentionally a bit snarky and deserved the downvote.

I have essentially poured my entire heart and soul into launching and running MassChallenge and I believe deeply in our mission and philosophy, so I took a little umbrage to the phrase "these people" -- they are, after all, my people and they are enabling something deeply important to me and many others.

I do believe that what we do is transformative and outstanding. But I also recognize that it isn't for everyone. Even if you don't end up entering, I encourage you all to come visit us at least once this Summer. I am sure you will find value in the experience and I promise to personally give you a tour and answer any questions you may have.

It's a brilliant mission, which I of course stand behind. The seed funds and accelerator programs which do mentoring are of incalculable value -- to offer them with no equity as recompense is as noble as it gets, though I don't think an equity stake is 'molestation'.

I'm ignorant to much of it, so I'm glad to see the discussion here where I can learn more. The website really is quite hard to follow for those just wanting to learn more.

I would say you will get probably the best line up of mentors you can get on the East Coast. We were one of the finalists last year (TaskPoint) and I cannot overestimate experience and publicity we got out of it

You'll learn a lot. The mentors are top notch. Upside is being part of the great MassChallenge eco system for a year (it's that long if you are a winner.) I was with one of last year's winners, RelayRides. It was all upside. And winning this helped us raise our $4.5 million Series A.

Do you mean there is a one year commitment if you win? Or do you have to stay in Boston for the year?

The accelerator is ~3 months.

It runs from June 27 through Oct 1. Final judging takes place in the first two weeks of October, and the final ceremony is on Oct 20.

Founders do not need to be present for that whole period, but we do strongly recommend active participation -- surveys and data demonstrate pretty clearly that startups perform much more effectively if they engage in the accelerator rather than "dialing in".

There is zero obligation to stay in Boston following the accelerator.

Any serious entrepreneur should care about the money, every penny even, which is why MassChallenge offers no equity taken.

For a $199 entry fee (which is automatically reimbursed to the entrepreneur upon securing a few endorsements that help to validate that crazy idea of yours), an entrepreneur gets access to a growing network of top attorneys, investors, mentors and industry leading, seasoned entrepreneurs. Not a bad deal, BUT, it is up to the entrepreneur to make the most of this value by being proactive and engaged.

Just to be clear, MassChallenge had a YCombinator startup - embedly - make it to the finals in 2010, so you can apply to both..

Why not just take applications and accept participants without charging? Preload the endorsements and use your own judgement.

If you want to help founders, this is what you should do. If you're trying to make money from conference fees, you're doing it wrong: no one reading this thread will apply.

I agree with you that this is another strategy and one the MC founders probably considered, however I think the purpose of the entry fee and endorsement process is to avoid a "Tragedy of the Commons" scenario and ensure that only the best startups make it into the competition.

Also, even with an entry fee last year, MC still saw 450 startups apply - imagine what that number would have been if it were free to all that apply? With such a small staff and the reliance on volunteerism for much of the operations, it would be very difficult to review thousands of applications and not let a few great ones slip through the cracks.

As a startup founder myself, I see the $199 fee as merely a cover fee to an awesome party with lots of brilliant, like minded, enthusiastic entrepreneurs and mentors.

The application process is designed to make you do things that you need to do anyway, i.e. having an executive summary, networking, etc.

We (Architexa) were finalists last year and did not find the application process complicated.

As for the experience: I found it really helpful.

Especially talking to the other startups and working with them day-in day-out. We did not apply for the office space, but it definitely was very useful working right next to the the other teams.

Beyond the above, the MassChallenge team works very hard in connecting the startups to the right people in the industry - we got great feedback and made progress because of that.

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