Cambridge-based HubSpot Inc. is hoping to find the next great entrepreneur in its Facebook comments section.
The marketing software firm plans to give away $100,000 to an aspiring founder as part of its #SummerStartup competition. Anyone from the U.S., the United Kingdom, Singapore and Australia can enter the competition by posting a description of their startup idea in 25 words or less in response to this video on HubSpot's Facebook page.
Greater Boston has become hotspot for marketing tech startups since HubSpot was founded in 2006. See the slideshow above for 10 companies worth watching.
The company will choose 1,000 finalists to make videos with more details about their startup ideas, winnow that list down to 100 semi-finalists, and let a panel of HubSpot employees and outside experts choose "the idea that has the most transformative potential.” The only catch is that the winner has to quit his or her day job in order to get the cash.
"The idea for #SummerStartup was born out of a discussion the team was having about the fact that so many of us have, at one point or another, thought that we have an idea for the next big thing, whether that’s an app, a business, a blog, etc.," Ryan Bonnici, senior director of marketing at HubSpot, said in an email. "Despite that, very few of us have actually tried to turn that idea into a reality. Why not?"
HubSpot undertook a survey of 643 people across the country to find out what blocks people with big ideas from starting their own companies. The survey found that a lack of money, mentors and tools were the top three reasons. The winner of HubSpot's competition will also get one-on-one mentorship from a stable of executives and three years of free access to HubSpot's marketing software.
HubSpot, which was founded in 2006 and went public in 2014, is one of the Boston's areas most successful recent startup stories, seeding a growing ecosystem of marketing tech startups. This year the "inbound marketing" pioneer has been making investments of its own— a sign it's trying to enter a new phase in which it acts as a central player supporting an array of related sales and marketing softwares.
HubSpot co-founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah are both active angel investors, as well, writing checks to startups founded by HubSpot alumni, like Tettra, Drift and Crayon. Shah alone has invested in more than 30 startups, including Apperian, InsightSquared and Backupify.
