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by JohnHarthorne 5553 days ago
Mentors and speakers last year included the founders of billion dollar companies (Desh Deshpande - Sycamore/Cascade/A123, Josh Boger - Vertex Pharmaceuticals), billion pageview websites (Alexis Ohanian - Reddit), and successful entrepreneurs from all fields, including consumer web (Jeff Taylor - Monster.com), B2B software (Dharhmesh Shah - Hubspot), energy (Tim Healy - EnerNoc) and life sciences (Ken Bate - Archemix).

What makes you think you can't learn from these people?

Last year's finalists raised well over $30M in outside funding in the 7 months following day 1 of the accelerator program ... with 100+ startups on one floor, there is a lot of opportunity to learn (and teach).
1 comments
bmelton 5553 days ago
I don't think his assertion was that he couldn't, but that he didn't know who would be there.

The first part of your post was very informative, but I downvoted you for the snark. If it wasn't intended the way I read it, please accept my apologies.

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JohnHarthorne 5553 days ago
No worries. I was intentionally a bit snarky and deserved the downvote.

I have essentially poured my entire heart and soul into launching and running MassChallenge and I believe deeply in our mission and philosophy, so I took a little umbrage to the phrase "these people" -- they are, after all, my people and they are enabling something deeply important to me and many others.

I do believe that what we do is transformative and outstanding. But I also recognize that it isn't for everyone. Even if you don't end up entering, I encourage you all to come visit us at least once this Summer. I am sure you will find value in the experience and I promise to personally give you a tour and answer any questions you may have.

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bmelton 5553 days ago
It's a brilliant mission, which I of course stand behind. The seed funds and accelerator programs which do mentoring are of incalculable value -- to offer them with no equity as recompense is as noble as it gets, though I don't think an equity stake is 'molestation'.

I'm ignorant to much of it, so I'm glad to see the discussion here where I can learn more. The website really is quite hard to follow for those just wanting to learn more.

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