1776 and Revolution have decided to move the finals for its Challenge Cup competition to Washington, D.C. from its previously announced 1776 location in New York, the pair will announce today.
Since May, the two companies have been hosting Challenge Cup competitions in 75 cities around the world. In each city, startups have been pitching for an opportunity to represent their startup hub in the competition. Semifinals will be held virtually via UNION — an online platform designed for startups, mentors and investors to connect that spun out of 1776 in October — and 20 total startups will move forward to the D.C.-based final competition on March 22 for a chance of winning the $100,000 grand prize at the Challenge Cup Festival.
In mid-November, 1776 lost its temporary space in Brooklyn after its leasers, industrial startup hub New Lab, reclaimed it to sustain their own growth — leaving 1776 without a NYC base for a few months. As Technical.ly Brooklyn reported, the space plans to re-open once construction of its new Brooklyn office at Navy Yard's Building 77 on 8th Avenue is completed next year.
Now, this year's Challenge Cup finals will be hosted at Anthem, a music venue inside The Wharf on the Southwest Waterfront. Originally, according to the press release in April announcing this year's challenge locations, the finals were going to be hosted this November at the 1776 Brooklyn Navy Yard location.
Following the October merger of 1776 and Benjamin's Desk, the group decided to push back and re-think how they host the final competition. 1776 merged with Philadelphia-based co-working group Benjamin's Desk in October after a month of speculation into the deal. The combined entities took on the 1776 brand and Benjamin's Desk co-CEOs now head up the entire entity. Benjamin's Desk partnered with the Challenge Cup to host its Philadelphia event in September. In the merger, co-founder and former CEO Evan Burfield stepped down so he could head up UNION, a platform designed by 1776 that is now a standalone company, and he now holds the role of executive chairman at 1776.
3 Pillar, Uber, HiMMs, Global Entrepreneurship Network, the Washington D.C. Economic Partnership, Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech are all sponsoring the final Challenge Cup competition.
