Founders have a number of avenues to pursue when seeking funding, from boostrapping with friends and family to raising a seed round. But a grassroots organization wants to throw another option into the financing gauntlet: Startup Jackpot.
Startup Jackpot is organized and funded by entrepreneurs and innovative firms, for entrepreneurs. The atypical pitch competition aims to bring together startup communities to share stories from time in the startups trenches without the sugar coating, while also giving early-stage companies a chance to win no-strings-attached funding, along with a bunch of other great prizes.
Head’s up, Boston startups, because the Jackpot lands in the Hub on Saturday. After successfully hosting events in the Capital and New York City, the organization makes its third stop in Boston at WeWork’s South Station space this weekend.
“Pitch competitions ask the same questions, and tend to be all around vanity metrics,” said Mack Kolarich, cofounder of Startup Jackpot and Spontaneous Labs. “We wanted to do something that was just aligned with the interests of founders, and just a little bit of cash, to give them a little push as an early-stage startup.”
The “jackpot” starts at $3,000 from the Startup Jackpot team. All money from Boston sponsors – Goodwin Proctor, WeWork, Google, MassChallenge, and Boston New Tech to name a few – and tickets sales (which for Boston are $50) also go directly into the winning pot, meaning there’s no cap on the amount of funds that the early-stage champ can get. For example, Startup Jackpot gave away $10,000 to its top New York City startup, according to Kolarich. Washington D.C.’s winner received $9,000.
But for Boston, there’s more than a few thousand dollars at stake for the startups. See all the prizes, as provided by the organization, below:
- The Jackpot. This is cash. It's $3k from us (The Startup Jackpot team) + all ticket proceeds + any local sponsorships.
- You get to interview with Mass Challenge the following week (that's right, you can skip the line and make it to the final round of interviews. If you've already got an interview, we'll give your spot to the runnerup).
- You might get some beer. You might get a sweet cape!
While its name may conjure the notion of a low-odds lottery, rest assured there’s no randomization in Startup Jackpot’s winning process. Kolarich said that they received around 100 applications from companies in the Boston-area. The organization’s leadership team will then whittle down that pool to around 15 fledgling startups, which then go on to present their four-minute pitches on Saturday. To keep things fair, Startup Jackpot asks the audience to decide the champion companion based of off the following criteria: the idea, product-market fit and plan for the money.
Sound like Startup Jackpot is something your startup might be interested in? Sign up and find out more here.
