MIT $100K Competition for Entrepreneurs: Launched 160+ companies, Exit value of $2.5 billion with $15 billion Market Cap

The MIT 100K Competition is among the world’s oldest competitions for entrepreneurs, and has now completed 22 years. In 1990, the MIT Entrepreneurs Club in collaboration with the Sloan New Ventures Association held the first competition that had 54 participating teams. The winner won $10K, with $3K and $2K for the 2 runners up. In 1996 it became the $50K, and in 2006 the competition evolved into the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition.

Today, it is one of the worlds most anticipated competition. It is aimed at fostering the entrepreneurial spirit among MIT students and researchers, encouraging them to express their ideas, and providing the support required to bring them to fruition. The competition is a yearlong process that ropes in VCs, mentors and media, culminating in a giveaway of $350,000 in cash and prizes. The most prestigious of all is the $100k prize for the launch competition.

The Competition has nurtured the launch of 160+ companies that have registered aggregate exit values of over $2.5 billion captured with a market cap of more than $15 billion. They have generated 4,600+ jobs and gained around $1.3 billion in VC funds. Recent IPOs include net.Genesis(NTG), C-Bridge Internet and Akamai (AKAM). Acquisitions in the recent past include WebLine Communications by Cisco, Direct Hit by Ask.com, Harmonix by MTV and Silicon Spice by Broadcom. Other companies that made it successfully include SensAble Technologies, Frictionless Commerce, Stylus Innovation and Virtual Ink.

The competition is divided across three contests, namely The Pitch Contest, The MIT $100K Accelerate Contest and the Launch Contest. The competition begins with the pitch contest, and participants are culled over the three stages until the grand finale where the $100k prize is presented. Within each of the three contests, there are six distinct categories - Emerging Market, Energy, Life Sciences, Mobile, Products and Services and Web/IT.

Resources

The MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition offers teams with vast resources that allow the best ideas to be launched into successful companies.

• Networks of successful entrepreneurs, investors and potential team mates
• Mentoring by seasoned professionals
• Education in business planning and entrepreneurial insights
• Feedback from successful entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals
• Team-building opportunities
• Access to the private equity community
• Media exposure and PR

The Pitch Contest

One member of the team has 60 seconds to present the idea in front of a video camera. No props or other aids are allowed. Participants, in random order, will be asked to present their pitch at rooms dedicated for each track. Students are then mentored on how to better their pitch. The Semifinalists will be announced during the contest's Finale Show. They will then have to re-pitch their idea. The top prize is $5,000. 2 runner ups and the audience choice winner also win cash prizes.

The Accelerate Contest

This was first launched in 2011, and is aimed at the actual execution of the idea. Judges will select 36 teams warranting the highest potential to be a part of the accelerator phase. Each team will get $1,000 to work on their ideas, and they are assigned top-notch mentors and designers. They also get dedicated work space.

The teams then work on executing their ideas could involve prototyping, customer validation, data collection for proof of concept or rolling out a beta version. The work is presented on Demo Day where teams present their ideas as well as the progress made. The winning team gets the $10,000, Daniel M. Lewin Grand Prize.

Here is the complete list of winners:

• Daniel M. Lewin Grand Prize, $10,000
• AARP Foundation Prize, $2,000
• Audience Choice Award, $2,000
• Semifinalist expense accounts, up to $1,000 per team
• AARP Foundation finalists, up to $1,000 for at most three teams

The Launch Contest

This is the grand finale of the competition, where teams develop business plans to launch their startups in the real world. There are 3 rounds of submissions. The first round is open to all those who meet the eligibility criteria and requires students to present an executive summary. After judging by selected industry experts, an average of 10 teams per track will be selected to move to the next round. This works to around 50 teams.

The second round offers the selected teams legal and venture mentoring, with an expense account to develop the business. There is also access to invite-only events, aiding networking in the entrepreneurial community at large. At the end of the round, a complete business plan as well as a cover sheet and a 12 slide pitch deck must be submitted. A final round of judging takes place and the finalist for each track is awarded. There is a Wild Card Round where the 2nd and 3rd place teams from each track compete again to reach the final round. Two teams advance.

The final round sees the 7 finalists and the top MIT team from the Clean Energy Prize delivering presentations to the judges and audience at the Business Plan Contest Finale.

2012 MIT 100K Winner

The 2012 competition was won by CloudTop, which seeks to make the download button redundant. It seamlessly brings together online file sources with online applications. It means that a picture from a flicker page can be dragged and dropped into a Facebook page.

The team consists of:

• Brett van Zuiden, an M. Eng student at MIT's EECS department
• David Chang, an MIT senior, studying Computer Science and Political Science
• Anand Dass, a Sloan MBA
• Thomas Georgiou an MIT Sophomore, studying Computer Science

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Related Resource: MIT $100K for Entrepreneurs