John Harthorne is the Founder and CEO of MassChallenge, a startup competition and accelerator designed to catalyze a startup renaissance by connecting high-impact startups from around the world with the resources they need to launch and succeed. The first annual competition launched in April 2010 and 16 winners split a prize pool of $1 million in cash in October 2010. In the first 12 months since joining the 2010 MassChallenge accelerator program, the first group of 111 MassChallenge startups raised over $90 Million in outside funding and created nearly 500 new jobs. The 2011 MassChallenge competition received over 730 applications from 34 states and 24 countries.
In January of 2011, President Barack Obama identified MassChallenge as one of America’s most effective startup accelerators and announced MassChallenge as an inaugural member of the Startup America Partnership to promote high-growth startups across the country and around the world.