Startup America’s Master Challenge showdown is now underway. This fun, friendly competition pits influential tech groups against each other, to see which one can encourage more startups to join the Startup America Partnership. The winning group gets bragging rights, of course, and will be recognized at upcoming events, like Startup America’s Anniversary and at SXSW.
Past challenges included East vs. West and Feld vs. TechStars, for example. This week’s competition, which kicked off just this morning, is between Tech Cocktail and Startup Weekend.
The Startup America national campaign, chaired by Steve Case, co-founder of AOL and Chairman of the Case Foundation, is meant to encourage and accelerate entrepreneurship across the country. Now a year old, the organization is active in regions where entrepreneurship can really benefit from a push, including Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Connecticut, Florida, and Texas.
Participating startups receive expertise via coaching sessions and VC round tables, access to Microsoft BizSpark and various discounted services, and a funding fees offer from open funding platform IndieGoGo.
The Master Challenge will be underway until March 31st, 2012, and has a goal of recruiting 100,000 startups during its run. Each week, two different groups will compete. You can keep track of the week’s winner here on the Master Challenge Leaderboard. (In case you’re curious, East beat West and TechStars came out on top).
If you’re a startup interested in Startup America, you can help your favorite community win by clicking the appropriate link: Tech Cocktail and Startup Weekend. Happy competing!