# MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition

The MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition is a student-managed business plan competition, where undergraduates and postgraduates from various programs and all levels at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) organize and enter the competition. Teams must include at least one full-time MIT student, but membership is not limited to the MIT community. The competition is supported by the MIT Entrepreneurship Center at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Every year a total of $300,000 is distributed as non-dilutive grant money. Since 1990, over 160 companies have been started as a result of the competition, generating 4,600 jobs, receiving over $1.3 billion in follow-up venture capital funding and totaling a cumulative market value of over $15 billion.

## Process

Throughout the academic year, the teams take part in a process that includes industry and legal mentorship, multiple live judging rounds, prototyping and pitch workshops, expense accounts for venture development, networking events with sponsors and alumni, and the awarding of roughly US$300,000 in non-dilutive prize money.
The competition started in 1990 as the $10K competition and continued to grow throughout the 1990s. In 1996 the $10K evolved into the $50K, with $30K going to the winner and $10K to each of the two runners-up. In 2006, the $50K grant competition also added another aspect to the competition focused on business plans for low-income communities to complement the traditional business venture competition. Subsequently, the competition has rebranded itself with a larger grant amount of $100K and is called the MIT $100K Pitch Contest.

## MIT $100K PITCH Contest

The MIT $100K Pitch Contest is organized yearly by the MIT $100K organizing committee. Intended to provide a way for entrepreneurs with ideas to form teams, it is held in the fall. The contest is a warm-up event for the Executive Summary Contest, held in the winter, and the Business Plan Contest, held in the spring. In the Elevator Pitch Contest, each contestant is given 60 seconds in front of a crowd to give their "elevator pitch," with the winner receiving a cash prize. This contest is open to the public.

## MIT $100K ACCELERATE Contest

The MIT $100K ACCELERATE Contest replaced the MIT $100K Executive Summary Contest in 2011. It is held in the winter of the academic year and is intended to help teams build a robust prototype for their start-up idea. Teams work on creating a demonstration of their idea over December and January, and the best selected are the ACCELERATE Finale Show. MIT $100K provides resources and mentorship to help teams build their demonstrations, which will be reviewed by a panel of judges, with the winner receiving a cash prize.

## MIT $100K LAUNCH - Business Plan Contest

The MIT $100K Launch Contest is the flagship of the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. In the spring, semi-finalists are selected from all business plan submissions. LAUNCH is the final contest in the $100K cycle. Participants present full-scale business plans for the chance to win a $100,000 grand prize.

### Winners - Business Plan Contest

| Year | Winner | Track and Description | Team Members |
| 2023 | Active Surfaces | Cleantech, Sustainability, Hardware | Shiv Bhakta, Richard Swartwout |
| 2022 | Nona+ Desalination | Cleantech, Sustainability, Hardware | Junghyo Yoon, Bruce Crawford |
| 2021 | Osmoses | Cleantech, Energy Efficiency | Francesco Maria Benedetti, Katherine Mizrahi Rodriguez, Holden Lai |
| 2020 | Ocular Technologies | Hardware, Health & Wellness | Brett Sternfield, Zona Liu, Grayson Armstrong |
| 2019 | Amplified industries | Artificial Intelligence, IoT | Sebastien Mannai, Charles-Henri Clerget, Louis Creteur |
| 2018 | Infinite Cooling | n/a | Maher Damak, Karim Khalil |
| 2017 | Lightmatter | Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Photonic Computing | Nick Harris, Darius, Dr. Yichen Shen, Thomas Graham |
| 2016 | Astraeus Technologies | Medical Devices (Diagnostics) | Joe Azzarelli, Alex Blair, Jay Kumar, Graham Lieberman |
| 2015 | Raptor Maps | n/a | Nikhil Vadhavkar, Forrest Meyen, Edward Obropta |
| 2014 | Disease Diagnostic Group | n/a | |
| 2013 | 3dim | Mobile Track | Andrea Colaço, Nan-Wei Gong, Vivek K. Goyal, Ahmed Kirmani, Nate Stewart, and Rahul Tejwani |
| 2012 | Filepicker.io | Mobile Track | Brett Van Zuiden, Anand Dass, David Chang, Thomas G |
| 2011 | Sanergy | Emerging Markets Track | David Auerbach, Lindsay Stradley, Ani Vallabhaneni |
| 2010 | C-Crete | Products & Services Track | Rouzbeh Shahsavari, Natanel Barookhian |
| 2009 | Ksplice | Web/IT Track | Tim Abbott, Jeff Arnold, Waseem Daher, Anders Kaseorg, Nelson Elhage |
| 2008 | Diagnostics for All | Life Sciences Track | Roozbeh Ghaffari, Jon Puz, Hayat Sindi, Gilbert Tang, Carol Waghorne, Krishna Yeshwant |
| 2007 | Robopsy | Medical Devices (for biopsies) | John Harthorne, Conor Walsh, Nevan Hanumara |
| 2006 | Semprus BioSciences (formerly SteriCoat) | Surface Modifications on Medical Devices | Chris Loose, David Lucchino, Joel Moxley, Mike Hencke and Vipin Gupta |
| 2005 | Balico | Medical Devices | Baruch Schori, Harry Lee, Kathleen Sienko, Jimmy Robertsson |
| 2004 | Active Joint Brace Now:Myomo Inc. | Medical Devices | Mira Sahney, Kailas Narendran, John McBean, Joe Jackson, Hocking Chen, Raja Surapanani, |
| 2003 | SmartCells | Medical Devices | Todd C. Zion, Robert Bruch, Martin Curiel, John Hebert, Tsafrir Vanounou |
| 1998 | Direct Hit Technologies | Internet search engine | Mike Cassidy, Gary Culliss, Steven Yang |
| 1992 | Toolbox | Machine Tool Controller | Miles Arnone, Chad Clawson, Dan Berkery |
| 1991 | Stylus Innovation | Barcode-based remote shopping | Krisztina 'Z' Holly, Mike Cassidy, John Barrus |

## Notable companies formed through the competition

Since its founding, the $100K Competition has helped launch more than 60 companies with an aggregate value of more than $10.5 billion. Prominent $100K alumni companies include Akamai, net. Genesis, and C-Bridge.
| Year | Competition Result | Company | Result | Exit lue |
| 1991 | Grand-Prize Winner | Stylus Innovation | Acquired - 1996 | $12.8M |
| 1995 | Finalist | Harmonix, Inc. | Acquired - 2006 | $700M |
| 1995 | Finalist | Silicon Spice | Acquired by Broadcom | $1.2 billion |
| 1996 | Finalist | Webline Communications | Acquired by Cisco | $325M |
| 1998 | Grand-Prize Winner | Direct Hit | Acquired - 2000 | $517M |
| 1998 | Runner-up | Akamai | IPO - 1999 | $26.00 per share Current market cap: $12.50 Billion |
| 2003 | Finalist | Brontes Technologies | Acquired by 3M - 2006 | $95M |
| 2006 | Finalist | HubSpot | CurrenMarket cap | $2.29 Billion |
| 2010 | Finalist | Pushpins | Acquired by Ebates - 2012 | $10–17M |
| 2010 | Runner-Up | Flywire (fka PeerTransfer) | IPO - 2021 | $250M |

## History: MIT $10K/$50K/$100K Entrepreneurial Competition

The competition was founded in the 1989–1990 academic year and was initially intended as a promotional vehicle for the MIT Entrepreneurs Club (now the MIT E-Club.) Club members Richard Durling-Shyduroff and Douglas Ling along with club Founder Peter Mui envisioned a cross-campus event that brought MIT's varied schools together to identify and support innovative ideas on campus. The goal was to create a safe, nurturing, (relatively controlled) sandbox environment where fledgling entrepreneurs could try their wings. The lead alumni donor was George Hatsopoulos of Thermo Electron. with additional generous support from other alumni, the Sloan School (Dean Lester Thurow) and Engineering School (Acting Dean Jack Kerrebrock.)

### Managing Directors

| Year | Name |
| 2023 | Stefan Sayre, Ping King, Santiago Tagle Llamosas |
| 2022 | Ezgi Emiroglu, Jimmy Teng, Graziano Gallitto |
| 2021 | Claire Beskin, Thierno Sylla, Samuel Lambert |
| 2020 | Akhilesh Koppineni, Christian Mirabile, Jennifer Shin |
| 2019 | Harry Kainen, Kat Krieger, Cy Schroeder |
| 2018 | Jake Guglin, Sandy Corrales |
| 2017 | Bar Kafri |
| 2016 | Monique Guimond |
| 2015 | Marc Chalifoux, Jake Auchincloss |
| 2014 | Peri AbouZied, Gino Korolev |
| 2013 | Ally Yost, Haya Al Ghanim |
| 2012 | Alice Francis, Adam Borelli |
| 2011 | Kourosh Kaghazian |
| 2010 | Daniel Vannoni |
| 2009 | Sombit Mishra, Brian Cantwell |
| 2008 | Frederic Kerrest |
| 2007 | Jeff Sabados |
| 2006 | Karina Drees |
| 2005 | Jason Fuller, Lawrence Walmsley |
| 2004 | Ian Blakely, Marcus Lopez |
| 2003 | Dan Riskin, Matt Richards |
| 2002 | Brian Curtis |
| 2001 | Michael Parduhn |
| 2000 | Elad Gil |
| 1999 | Heather Wilding |
| 1998 | Scott Blankstein |
| 1997 | Sally Shepard |
| 1996 | Will Clurman |
| 1995 | James Deverell |
| 1994 | Joost Bonsen |
| 1993 | Joost Bonsen |
| 1992 | Doug Ling |
| 1991 | Doug Ling |
| 1990 | Peter Mui, Doug Ling |
| 1989 | Peter Mui, Doug Ling |

## Entrepreneurship for Development Competition

The Entrepreneurship for Development Competition is a competition for business plans that are judged on the following criteria: uniqueness of business idea, management strength, path to sustainability and social impact. The competition was added in 2006 as a complement to the Business Venture Competition due to increasing demand and interest in socially conscious ideas. In the spring, semi-finalists are selected from all business plan submissions. Semi-finalists submit more detailed business plans, and 5-6 finalists are then chosen. At the awards ceremony, the top team is awarded the Entrepreneurship for Development grand prize.

### Winners - Entrepreneurship for Development Competition

In 1998, a dual award within the Venture Competition was awarded to a pair of finalists including Volunteer Community Connection. At the time, VCC was a non-traditional entry into the competition and has since served as a motivating example for the genesis of the MIT $100K Developmental Entrepreneurship Competition. As a result, they are listed as a winner and implicitly as an innovator within the Entrepreneurship for Development Competition.
| Year | Winner | Description | Team Members |
| 2007 | Bagazo | Alternate Fuels from Agricultural Waste | Johan Löfström, Felicita Holsztejn, Jules D. Walter, Gerthy Lahens, Amy Banzaert |
| 2006 | CentroMigrante | Sustainable Housing for Migrant Communities | Illac Diaz, Neil Ruiz, Tina Laforteza, Artessa Salvidar-Sali, Bianca Locsin, Chester Yu |
| 1998 | Volunteer Community Connection | The Volunteer Community Connection enables the easy and automated sign-up and management of volunteers with non-profit agencies. | Michael Bryzek, Jonathan Allen, Oumi Mehrotra, Emily Sandberg, Mark Y. Sun |