MassChallenge kicks off a new season on three continents this month, with a new managing director and new workspace for startups in Boston.
The accelerator and competition's programs in the Hub, Tel Aviv and its newest location — London — will accept applications from Feb. 11 to April 1.
At the helm of the Boston program is Scott Bailey, who started a year out of college as an unpaid intern at MassChallenge in 2010. Since then, he has held nearly every position at the startup accelerator, most recently leading partnerships and fundraising, before being promoted to managing director this month.
"It's been a wild ride," said Bailey, 27. "I feel like I've aged 10 years."
Bailey and Roman Kern, MassChallenge Boston's new director of programs and operations, will work closely with the board of advisers to refine and expand the organization's core offerings.
In addition to kicking off the Boston program this month, they'll launch Made@MassChallenge, a 5,000-square-foot space, adjacent to their Innovation District headquarters, where startups will be able to use hardware and software tools to build their prototypes.
MassChallenge also is in talks with the city of Newton about using a former branch library where the program's alumni could spend a year growing their companies.
"We're still shaping what that looks like," Bailey said. "We're always thinking of support for entrepreneurs, and there's a great mentor network there."
In the meantime, he said, MassChallenge is continuing to pursue its strategy of global expansion.
Boston will accept 128 startups into this year's class, Bailey said, and Israel will likely send 10 to 12 teams to the Boston program as finalists. The UK will decide how many finalists to accept, based on the quality of the applicant pool, he said. Applicants will be able to indicate which location they're interested in, Bailey said, and the finalists will be placed in the program that best suits their needs.
In Boston, finalists will be announced May 20 and have four months of free office space and mentoring, culminating in an Oct. 28 ceremony where they'll give their final pitches and compete for more than $1 million in no-strings-attached cash prizes.
The Israel and UK startups will not compete with the Boston finalists for the same prize money, Bailey said. Each program will award its own cash prizes.
Over the next five years, MassChallenge plans to open 10 new global hubs.
"We want there to be a MassChallenge location on every populated continent," Bailey said. "We have overwhelming interest and are researching the best places to open our next location."
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