The startup scene in Boston, MA is positively buzzing with innovation. Nothing validates this more than the 1237 applicants MassChallenge announced applied to the popular startup accelerator. According to MassChallenge, the purpose of the program is to:
Catalyze a startup renaissance.
Help early-stage entrepreneurs win.
Connect entrepreneurs with the resources they need to launch and succeed immediately.
Help to contribute to a creative and inspired society in which everyone recognizes that they can define their future, and is empowered to maximize their impact.
MassChallenge prides itself on atracting all different startups, from biotech, to high tech, energy and clean tech. But, as this site is primarily dedicted to the coverage of all things social, here are 5 MassChallenge applicants to watch in the social media space:
MarketMeSuite
Elevator Pitch: Social is becoming integrated into all aspects of our lives. An SMB is expected to navigate through the social sphere looking, hoping they can find people willing to pay money for their product or service having little time, expertise or resources to help, but they have to embrace it. We are the solution to this problem. MarketMeSuiteis an end to end social media solution, providing a Social Inbox for SMBs to engage, manage, curate & measure the ROI of their social marketing activity.
PlayGiveWin
Elevator Pitch:
PlayGiveWin lets anyone use online game contests to fundraise and drive social media engagement. PlayGiveWin is the next generation fundraising platform. Charities and donors join for free. Donors support charities by buying tickets or going on sponsor supported missions to play in contests for a chance to win prizes. PlayGiveWin is a platform that allows both charities and donors to win while adding value to sponsors!
PlayDate
-No Video-
Elevator Pitch: Everyone can agree - gaming as a collaborative social experience can be very exciting. And we know that it is a pain and time consuming for game developers to integrate and manage a social platform. With this in mind, we decided to build a new multi-player gaming platform: PlayDate. It gives you an incentive to engage your network in your gaming experience with our currency where points are redeemable into real daily deals; Given your location, local businesses may sponsor your tournaments.
Pledge4Good
Elevator Pitch:
Pledge4Good lets you advocate for a favorite nonprofit by inviting friends to make a donation when events from your life occur-e.g. you bowl a strike. On our web and mobile platform, we make it easy for you to invite friends to donate to your pledge (as little as $1 per event) or "brag" about your strike via social media. Since launching 2 months ago, 15% of Unique Visitors have converted to active users, the site is generating thousands of dollars of donations and has positive gross profit.
Saltify
Elevator Pitch:Saltify is a platform that combines modern restaurant management with intelligent social tools. The solution aims to build up the communication between the culinary business and the customer ; perfect combination of intelligent social waiter features, apps that increase end customer engagement and dead simple monetization model.
Can I Vote?
MassChallenge wants input from the public on which startups should advance to the next level. You can help them get to the next level by rating them on the MassChallenge site. Register as an Observer, and then click on any of the companies above to assign the desired stars.