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What you’ll hear in this episode

• A non-profit startup accelerator program
• How MassChallenge as an accelerator is different
• Startup mentorship

MassChallenge is a different kind of accelerator program for startups. We were joined by Mike Millard, the managing director, and Dana Rygwelski, the director of communications and ecosystem to learn all about it. MassChallenge was founded ten years ago and has expanded globally. What MassChallenge is is a non-profit accelerator program based on a competition model and offers the startup winners no equity grants. The startups send in applications, MassChallenge accepts applications from all industries, and from there the applications chosen are voted on by the community to find a winner. The community which votes on the winners is comprised of experts from all different industries to bring a holistic view to the voting process.

Another way MassChallenge differentiations itself from other accelerators is its mentorship program. They have an online system where the startups can go in to see who is wanting to mentor. They can search based on niche industry specifics, and once they find a mentor they wish to work with, they can simply send them a message. If they are unable to find the right mentor in their location, MassChallenge will assist in finding them the right person even if they’re halfway across the globe. This program allows the startups to gain assistance and learn from the experts who are mentoring.

MassChallenge Texas started out solely in Austin, but it’s MassChallenge Texas, not MassChallenge Austin. Millard never wanted to be confined to the capital, so after they found their footing in Austin, they expanded into Houston. Rygwelski stated that Houston is a perfect fit because it has all the resources needed for startups to succeed, but they don’t want to just stop there; they want to continue expanding into the larger Texas cities like Dallas, San Antonio, and even El Paso.

To hear more about how MassChallenge is helping startups in a new and innovative way, listen to the third installment of Up and Comers. If you enjoy the episode be sure to share it with friends and colleagues!

Up and Comers is a founding_media podcast created in partnership with Heather Wagner Reed

Host: Heather Wagner Reed

Guests: Mike Millard and Dana Rygwelski of MassChallenge

 

Transcript:

this is a founding media podcast if Hey everyone welcome to another episode of founding Austin’s up and comers a show about Austin startup boom with a focus on the city’s vibrant innovation sector I’m your host heather Wagner reads today we are exploring the world of Austin based accelerators starting with MassChallenge Texas Mike Millard managing director and Dana Rick well ski director of communications and ecosystem introduce us to their global not for profit started accelerator network Nash challenges mission is to help all entrepreneurs win and offers no equity grants to the start ups through a competition model I’ll let them tell you all about it now let’s jump in

to make India yes you are here with MassChallenge Texas which I know and love for many reasons but most of all because you’re such a great story as to how you came to Texas had this organization came to Texas and what you’re doing so I so I started with you guys can you jump and tell us more about yourself tell us more about the organization she media yeah MassChallenge founded ten years ago now in Boston Massachusetts has since expanded to become a global organization we have offices in Switzerland Israel Mexico City two programs in Texas plus three different programs in Boston so that’s a total of eight accelerators a year and how did we get to Texas well MassChallenge is looking to expand and they did a lot of research and Texas just kept coming up in conversations and it’s no secret Texas is a really awesome place to do business to be creative there’s lots of resources leader in economic development for more than the last ten years across the entire country and so they landed on Texas and here we are and thanks to our founding partners at USA a Southwest Airlines upstream we work and the Max T. Max thank you thank you thank you to those five mass challenge Texas exists and we launched in two thousand and seventeen October two thousand seventeen here in Austin and have six since expanded to our second program in Houston

you’ve been practicing that I’ve done that you just believe it or not T. mac and I still love team act they are wonderful and if you don’t know who they are they help with manufacturing oh my goodness yeah okay well might tell us more about MassChallenge as accelerator accelerator and what makes it different a lot of things so the number one thing that we can communicate let people know it’s mass challenges innovation at scale so this isn’t one company two company center please this is so many companies hire companies all of one’s going to excel at second thing is you have the community who picks who gets in so what’s cool is I don’t think you can send some people always ask me like how come these companies so so great because I don’t think any of the community banks with merit based you have an online application hi scores go around to the competent person to our experts they score them again and we’re pretty selective we got about a ten percent acceptance rate with a RTS printers the third thing is for global so all around the world which is great that is how I did that I think those three things coupled with the fact that we don’t take any equity or non profit actually makes a pretty desirable I think missions Texas has a different kind of approach because we truly are trying to spear had bringing the world to Texas to debate and because we don’t take equity allows us to work with every other entity within the ecosystem without having any issues with valuation one not right

right so just for our listeners and viewers what kind of companies are typically apply for this at what stage are they act thirty stage in we define early stage as lesson from rebels and dollars in funding in less than a million dollars in revenue but you know there’s a little bit of flex on that because sometimes our research companies like in healthcare or technology might be a little bit over that but we look at that and we’re inching gnostic so the other thing that’s unique about mass challenges we look for the best companies have the most impact most high potential companies from around the world we don’t care what industry you’re in and you can be social impact to be health care you can be tacky P. consumer in energy whatever it is we want you here because that’s what basically makes a difference of the diversification for the companies and try to sign him right I think just on that topic it’s interesting because you’re here in Austin now you’re in Houston and there’s been a vibe and I sense that there’s a huge tech community in this and there it is but I feel like with the accelerator community it’s really shining a light on companies well beyond just tack and so you guys have been opening your arms to all kinds of companies and in just this new cohort for example that you’ve just announced tell us about the industries that have been selected were even last year’s cohort yeah so MassChallenge organizes out asks companies to organize themselves into one of five categories hi tech healthcare and lifesciences energy and cleantech general retail and guides on the fifth one forming social social impact yeah I’m gonna go to him from my faith from the my number five is going forward and social impact and so the start of actually you get to say Hey we are a high tech company and then they can drill in a little bit further and say you know their sub industries are I am a software as a service platform in education and so that’s how they organized as far as any trends that we’ve been seeing I think hi tech is by far the most populous group that we get applications from but what I’ve really seen an uprising over the last year the social impact companies that are coming in and this year social impact applications rose above clean tech which was really interesting I think

absolutely yeah so you say that there’s a community behind mass challenge that actually selects the participants so tell us more about that is it your corporate partners is it the mentors that you bring into this who’s in the community so the community consists of experts that we draw from our partners from the media from venture capitalists and entrepreneurs other accelerators on corporations and whatnot some of them have special skills like CPA’s some of them have legal skills and whatnot we’re trying to get folks to have a propensity to help the startups win so it’s not everybody gets to be an expert you actually there is a bar where we’re looking for folks are successful in field and have some kind of tie to help these folks succeed what’s unique about that is we have got over five hundred that are dedicated just to Texas but we have over we have thousands of experts all around the world so you can actually get an expert that’s not in Texas help your startup right pretty cool right so if you’re looking for like a niche particulars solution I need something else on about I. P. for healthcare and explains he and that person may be in Israel we can find them and they can still do the magic of technology mentor you

right so the the people that are in this community also participate in the program it right see bringing mentors tell us what it’s like to involve the mentors on the day to day or maybe what a day in the life looks like for a covert member for a start up in the cohort and how do they get attached so we have a an online system that Elena logistically speaking allows the start ups to go in and see who wants to be a mentor for MassChallenge Texas start up and they can search based on specific industry needs and say mom I need someone who is an SCO expert with healthcare specificity and then those people will rise up and because of the community nature of what MassChallenge does is the start ups have the ability to just send an email or make the phone call and ninety nine point eight percent of the time it is returned and the start ups are able to engage so a day in the life of the start up they probably spend a lot of time on that platform researching who’s coming in to speak they need to be connecting with but also they spend a lot of time in curriculum and and being taught by those same experts who serve as mentors some of them also service curriculum facilitators and we do two to two days a week of crippled full days a week of curriculum so that can be anywhere from eight to ten classes a week and those are organized based on facet of business so that’s marketing product development things along that line and then from there we also work really hard to connect them with the community and what that means is getting them in touch with our partners getting them at the the you know the partners like our founding partners getting them in touch with our community partners like other excel readers or he sees and in addition to that providing them with events and opportunities to really forge those Connecticut or sections where the magic happens

right right what think that’s a really interesting point is how you say you’re connecting with other accelerators because you do see some of these companies doing multiple accelerators going from one to the next so I don’t know if you could just speak a little bit about that and how that generally can work in this ecosystem at least for Austin like what levels are there in the accelerator world and and how do you know how do you go from one to the next six years how do you choose that path the stuff is so I think with you know the vision that we have for MassChallenge Texas and why I took the job was I wanted to be not mass health Austin I really wanted one to just experience drinking way too much coffee to stay awake in Damascus Texas so we wanted the world to come here to innovate part of that vision is making sure that we do whatever we can to help our startups win in our corporate partners succeed so it may be that after MassChallenge they might be a good fit for other accelerators in town we do share information we follow the G. D. P. R. now very closely but we try to make sure that his good fit we want to make sure that they know about it and we’ve got some of them are ready for another one some may want to go to text are some we want to go to why commentator and we’re we’re very open about that what we’ve done the last probably three weeks or so events a lot of questions about what should be doing like which one should I use it’s really up to that individual and we just ask them the questions are you ready for this kind of programming is this what you’re looking for the state your you know your journey how much equity do you want to give up things like this to make sure that’s a good fit and some on the right day already and it’s a good fit and we encourage them to go yeah that’s another thing I’ve heard especially talking a lot of start ups is something many some are very much afraid to give up equity in just really hesitant to do that and so it’s an interesting decision people have to mix I think that’s why MassChallenge offers such a great opportunity it’s like that’s you don’t have to worry about that right

but can you just talk more about that that decision I suppose is to win a start up should really consider giving up a piece of that pie so that they can go forward at what point in verses because I know that’s kind of next step from MassChallenge but I’m just curious like you know from a start up perspective what’s the time line on that like at what point do you really need to consider it I think it is individuals so it’s one of those classic it depends Mani advice to folks is where are you on the journey what success in traction if you had to date and are you ready to leverage this and put everything into the X. elevator because if you’re going to you’re going to take equity is this something you want to commit to to go do Excellency some of them it’s they’re not ready for that they haven’t really hit the milestones and we can say maybe it’s not something you should go do but I do think there’s a lot of them that do take equity that’s still fine model it still works yeah it’s just really individual to them are you ready to commit to that because now they’re on your cap table right most likely forever yep yep

okay so converting this to another discussion then so you’ve gone you’ve started in Austin two years ago you just announce that you’re in Houston and now you’re in that market so you really are branching out to Texas tell us more about the Houston expansion Houston was a lot of fun to lines it really is true you know I think what’s really awesome about what’s happening in Houston is there ready and Houston has all of the resources that startups need to sixty eight it’s a global city there are countless I mean over fifty maybe even a hundred of the fortune one thousand Start-up Podcast that reside in their and so they and they have the resources already what they really wanted the support west was bringing that as an organization and to be that catalyst to forge that the community to work together and to make Houston a destination for start ups so it’s not just in there and they are very much interested in the activity that’s already happening there but what they really for seeking from MassChallenge was bringing the world to Houston because it is a global city at offering offers so much right so there is I know in Austin you have a percentage of international companies in this year and last year’s cohort and many from around the country which I think is another interesting thing for people now it’s like this is open to anyone from anywhere yes not just Texas right you’re coming to Texas to experience it so where are you in the situation with Houston right now as far as the seeking of companies and and I know I you know tell us a little bit more about that because I know you have some deadlines and I will it it is so that I will say you should just check your email box and watch our Twitter and being weeks recent really big news but we did finish all of the application or creating we recruited two hundred and eighty six start ups for this first Houston for this first Houston accelerator and now they are going through the judging process and we will be announcing finalists in July and then the accelerator will kick off very quickly there after and this accelerator is much shorter than a traditional MassChallenge early stage accelerator this one is actually a six six week boot camp that has two week long intensive someone at the first week in one of the last week and then similar to other programs we will be having a celebration and showcase to support the start ups and show off the twenty to twenty five start ups that were accepted into this program and highlight their accomplishments and our partners and how they supported making all of this happened right right R.

so Austin and Houston obviously there’s some other bigger markets in Texas too so is there a broader vision yes domination we we have the whole plan was to go methodically grow within each of these markets and connect them very strategically so awesome first than Houston and right now we’re getting a lot of interest between San Antonio and Dallas I always throw no Paso because nobody talks about a passer rating sixteen also is awesome right it is a there’s a lot going on there and I kind of forget about them because they’re so far away but there’s things going on and we had companies and both Austin accelerators from el Paso yeah so there is plans part of what we look for is a good base our anchor partner that can help us get off the ground so in Houston we had central Houston and we collaborated with midway and sort of used to an increasing partnership we’re looking for those kinds of partners initially in San Antonio and Dallas and all made in el Paso and over time I think the vision is we can actually look at some of the smaller cities and connect them as well what we really need to do is make sure that when they come in the MassChallenge family they have access to the VC’s the partners to the experts to the alumni all over in every city right what’s been kind of playing us in in Texas is that a lot of folks including myself knew what was going on in Austin but I didn’t really know what’s going on in Dallas or Houston or San Antonio and what we’re trying to create is like we should be able to connect them and make them succeed by leveraging our huge network yeah thank god this is sort of silly like why are we making where we competing months ourselves when we should just be one big ecosystem extreme and Texas is such a big state I think that’s part of it was nice just to sell hearing age size right actually one of our biggest challenges when it comes to going out and meeting the start ups during our application or even just in general you know all that all throughout the year were out there meeting start ups getting to know these communities but if you wanna go to Houston I mean that’s a three hour trip from Austin and you want to L. podcast so you’re gonna drive that’s a day long drive right and even if you’re gonna fly it’s an hour and a half flight so I think in general if you’re not not in Texas you you grossly underestimate the size and what it really takes to to forge this to make me believe in them we’ve been using the online I would be a great partner online online this of and I know that it has to start coming out this

what about some minutes Chile should Texas success story so far from last year let’s see I like to talk about samples a lot that’s been a flagship they won the award last year did exceptional izle device that monitors all kinds of of human I guess your your heart rate to near oxygen right all these things are behind the ear and they’ve done well with funding and they’ve actually had different applications I can apply not only to the military but also children in normal folks which is kind of cool which were the ones who think mentor method is another really great success yeah so their stories very interesting because she came in with a little more than like an idea on a napkin she had like a splash page enough founding partner Jack and she sat down she is either all the people that I want to meet and that woman knows how to hustle and she’s doing an awesome job and now she’s a pipeline north over of sales worth over two million dollars and she’s done all this bootstrapped is pretty much just all last year she’s on fire she’s on fire she created the Austin mosaic a word processor yeah yeah and so they are a great success story and I think what you’ll see here is what we are defining Essex us is really indicated by the impact that these companies are having absolutely their revenue matters and if they get funding to support their growth that well but what mass challenge really looks for is that how are they how are the start up’s going to affect the lives of their audience how are we gonna make people live work and play differently and samples and mentor method are two really good examples of that happening and the other thing is cool is that when you look at how we look at that impact it’s kind of understanding where you are just accepting where they are and where they can make that traction during the examiner so part of that you may win you know the the ultimate prize some of that equity free cash free prize money but it’s not always like I have to go accomplish all these things it’s how far you’ve come right right that’s right Mr method obviously its genesis just an amazing question quite

clearly that the cash prize at the end is a great incentive but it’s more the value of what you I wouldn’t say more but it’s equally the value that you get throughout the program because of all the things you take away the contacts you make an so an example of that is EQ well who is another one hundred thousand dollar prize winner last year so their whole solution is out there by our mental quality operations what they’re doing in the first thing they’re tackling is the zebra mussel problem and state tax by zebra mussels EQ was able to help facilitate a solution for the city and they sat in on those meetings and they were part of that and another really interesting start up that I’m at he I’m a big fan of I don’t have favorites but I’m I do have some then fan out Linder love vendor and then show by the way and then ironically out of all the co yeah it was great so yeah Sam is another one who can hustle and so he has an online farmers market that goes out to local farmers urban farmers and says Hey I can help you sell your goods more fast with the delivery service and now he’s expanded and he’s got presence as far north as Amarillo and even down a little bit not as far as Houston but overall the furs and out to college station and then out toward San Antonio yeah in like it’s been really interesting and what I also really like about his platform is they offer education around like why should I be buying apples from a local farmer right other than supporting the local farmer well did you know the apples are stored for a year underground before they get to you in the grocery store when I found that out I was like okay so let me download that

do you take any options in the company when you’re selling well I I’m trying to roll around this but I bought about two hundred dollars worth money street trying to sell you know a way to support the company and I’ve I’m we’ll see what happens I’m gonna hold on to my email about that because you know passing things on and then my kids are like vendor remember that so I have some I was seeking this kind about a star knows how to take advantage of resource took advantage of everything and you can really see his growth yeah well then I have like one or two more questions and and certainly if you have anything else you want to bring up or talk about please please bring it up but my I guess my last question really is just what is it that defines success in the program and we talked about a little bit but you know some some companies public struggle with this too because I’m sure it’s a lot to take on once they commit their time service and so you know I guess give me some examples of what would be a challenge a company could have while in the program because it’s quite good for people to think that through before they commit to it right right so what is in there we have some new work plan which is really what they wanted in the next twenty days some of them may be get more customers some may develop a really good pitch tack obviously I want to get funding some maybe just get myself and you know organized with my I. P. and my legal docs and will not get structured so maybe I just wanna figure out my marketing plan I may want to go to my car to go to market plan they all have different areas depending what they really need what we encourage them to do is just get honest look in the mirror and say like what do you really need to improve it’s okay you’re in a safe space right you’re at MassChallenge so someone may go you know what I really need is I don’t understand my financials so we’re encouraging a CPA and help you understand that and get quick books or whatever you need to be successful so it kind of depends but most of them fall on you know some kind of go to market getting funding or ironically some also come in to learn how to shut down gracefully that’s true while we have had a couple of companies some recently and that’s over and then last year one company just straight up in polluted and she rebuilt her company in the matter of two weeks in our conference rooms using our mentor network and now she’s out there raising money building a new medical device and really working to help her audience

yeah the whole mentor the whole concept of mentor ship like that just having accessibility it makes all the difference so what else tell me all right I got a so called so long and I took the job for medicines sex but I always want to highlight it can like the idea of this all came from believe it or not Paul o’brien all yeah Paul actually when I met Paul almost ten years ago plus Ryan is with me to ensure just resentment yeah in Poland said he was from California we don’t can hold them back against him but he said like why isn’t this message tones or why isn’t this a Texas ecosystem wiser Austin you need to like you didn’t get it and he’s someone that since the beginning is kind of challenges all of this should be something that we’re connecting this entire market this is the place where startups can come get the resources and scale not California right and so what is set up to Paul the other thing is when I look at the funding aspect I’m always what I drive home we as Texans wilfully under fund are start ups and an order of magnitude less than the coast in Boston New York and California do we take too long to write to smaller check into what we want to do with mass challenges bring in really good start ups to make sure the fund or see the best of the best but that needs to have a lasting needs to occur and that’s how you get the partners involved the universities involved the median vault SO you get success source the start ups but you’ve got to get that funding the lost city because I think in Texas we’ve we just take a long time to do certain things and we have changed a little bit that’s wonderful and my closing remarks closing yes no well I think from my perspective where I set what I find most unique about Texas as a whole is everyone’s willingness to support everyone else and it’s a you know from the outside I mean I’m from Philadelphia I’m in northeast garland Texas was never on my radar of places to live in it I was incredibly and delighted surprised and delighted when I arrived here in two thousand twelve at first and we’re taking this job and in my role where my job is to connect the communities and to make sure start ups and potential partners know about us it’s been really awesome to see the support across the entire state MassChallenge is a very strong global brand so that makes it a lot easier for us but I believe that support exists no matter what and that is just didn’t like southern hospitality is a real thing here and it’s been amazing yeah that’s true and we are both Polish but yes living yes ended up in Texas yes right all right well thank you so much for coming on and a part of this I know you guys been interviewed in the magazine we’ve had a lot of things that we’ve done together a lot and you know just great to have you here today

thank you so much thank you thank you okay now that you’ve heard all about this amazing accelerator I hope you can take away that there are some incredible opportunities out there to take your start up to the next level MassChallenge is certainly one of them and I want to thank my container for sharing their expertise and inspiration today the up and comers podcast is hosted by yours truly heather Wagner read produced by Mariah gossip along with our audio engineer Jake Wallace and special thank you to Dan Dillard and everyone it found in Austin for your support founding Austin’s up and comers is available on Spotify iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts you can follow me at Jews consulting on Instagram or Facebook links are in the show notes and thanks for listening