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Starfish Wins Inaugural Lean Startup Challenge

Posted 00:52AM on September 01 2011

At tonight's awards ceremony, a new tech startup called Starfish won the inaugural Lean Startup Challenge.  Congratulations to Jared Chung, Starfish's founder and CEO for taking first place.

Starfish is a Google Chrome browser plugin that allows users to quickly and easily use a disposable (one-time use) email address to log in to any website.  The tool allows users to protect their privacy, avoid phishing, and prevent spam from giving out their regular email.  However, Starfish didn't win the contest because it has a cool or novel idea.  It won because the company did an outstanding job of launching and growing in a lean way.

Starfish did not in fact exist prior to the Lean Startup Challenge.  Jared Chung entered the competition planning to launch his idea, and hit the ground running.  Already well versed in Lean, Jared implemented the principles of Lean Startups and Customer Development from the get-go.  He built a great product, but not before he forced himself to get out of the building and talk to real customers first.  The result was a well executed series of iterations that took him from idea to working product within six weeks. 

For winning the inaugural Challenge, Starfish's Chung wins $1,500 in cash, $5,000 in free legal services from Series A Sponsor Foley Hoag, and his choice of either a office space at NEVCA's CriticalMass, or up to $24,000 in free hosting from Rackspace.com  www.gotstarfish.com.

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Lean Startup Challenge Events

July 15 & 16 (Fri-Sat) - Kickoff Weekend

August 1 (Mon) - Google AdWords Workshop @ Venture Cafe

August 31 (Wed) - LSC Awards Ceremony

Live Twitter Feed

$32,500 in Cash and Prizes

Award Ceremony

August 31st

Kickoff Weekend

July 15 - 16

awards ceremony august 31
Time Title
05:30 - 06:30 PM Trade Show
06:30 - 07:00 PM Welcome
07:00 - 07:30 PM Top 3 Teams Present - 3 minutes/5 questions
07:30 - 08:20 PM Lean Product Development with Dan Martell
08:30 - 08:45 PM Winner Announced
08:45 - 09:00 PM Networking
09:00 - 10:00 PM After Party at Whiskey Priest

The Contest

The Lean Startup Challenge is a new, early-stage business competition coming to Boston in 2011.

We’re pleased to announce a new business plan competition coming to Boston in Summer 2011. Actually, it’s not really a business plan competition. It’s an anti-business plan competition, and it’s called the Lean Startup Challenge.

The LS Challenge is based on the Lean Startup methodology. Entering teams will launch an MVP, then iterate over a six-week period. The winner will be the team that shows the greatest improvement over that period as they pivot and optimize their business.More Contest Information >>

Contest Underway. Registration is now closed. Please sign up for our mailing list.

Kickoff Weekend July 15-16
Time Title Speaker
Fri.07/15
05:30 - 06:00 PM Kickoff Networking
06:00 - 06:30 PM Welcome Remarks & Intorduction to LSC Michael Mullins, LSC Executive Director
06:30 - 07:00 PM Build & Test Your Web Idea Without Programming Elizabeth Yin
07:10 - 07:45 PM Contest Overview and Sample Reports
07:45 - 08:30 PM Team Workshop
08:30 - 10:00 PM Drinks at Whisky Priest
Sat.07/16
09:00 - 09:30 AM Coffee & Conversation
09:30 - 10:00 AM Welcome Remarks
10:00 - 10:30 AM Why Lean Matters Brant Cooper
10:30 - 12:00 AM Running Lean (Lean Canvas) Ash Maurya
12:00 - 12:30 PM Lunch Break (Go Buy Lunch or Get Pre-Paid Lunch In-House)
12:40 - 01:00 PM Contest Instructions
01:00 - 02:00 PM Customer Development Brant Cooper
02:00 - 02:10 PM Lean Startup Challenge Kickoff - Go!
02:15 - 03:30 PM Hands-On Training & Contest Workshop Performable
advisors

  • David Cancel

    Performable.com

  • Dharmesh Shah

    HubSpot

  • Brant Cooper

    Market By Numbers

  • Ash Maurya

    Running Lean

  • Dan Martell

    Flowtown

connectors

  • Aaron White

    Boundless Learning

  • Ariel Diaz

    Boundless Learning

  • Carrie Stalder

    Connector-at-large

  • Cort Johnson

    Blogger Offer

  • Jason Evanish

    Greenhorn Connect

  • Jay Meattle

    Shareaholic

  • Mike Sheeley

    Runkeeper

  • Punit Shah

    Zazu

  • Raj Aggarwal

    Localytics

organizers

  • Michael Mullins

    Executive Director

  • Sidd Goyal

    Founder

  • Parul Singh

    Founder

  • Vineet Sinha

    Organizer

  • Abby Fichtner

    Organizer

  • Ray Hallare

    Events

  • Michael Galbo

    Sponsorships

  • Alex Fallon

    Marketing

  • Joyce Fong

    Marketing

  • Karina Aguirre

    Social Media

  • James O'Connor

    Events

  • Swagata Chakrabarti

    Sponsorships

  • Alex Cook

    Events

  • Adam Fullerton

    Events

  • Chris Myles

    Speakers

  • Charu Kalluri

    Marketing

Series A Sponsor

Angel Sponsor

In-Kind Sponsors

Our In-Kind sponsors have generously offered us in-kind prizes for the LS Challenge contestants.

Partner Sponsors

The following list of organizations have supported the Lean Startup Challenge by assisting with Marketing and promotion, or logistical support such as hosting our events.