ChallengePost is a platform that enables companies, non-profits and individuals to create contests and award prizes for solving problems. It was founded by Brandon Kessler in 2009.
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Origin
In 2006, Colin Nederkoorn initiated a public contest prompting programmers to develop a means for running the Windows XP operating system through an Intel Mac. Programmer Jesus Lopez eventually won the competition, which had accumulated over $13,000 in donations. Seeing this competition, Kessler soon developed ChallengePost as a means through which similar competitions could take place.
Funding
In June 2009, ChallengePost raised $500,000 through angel investors including Esther Dyson, Personal Democracy Forum founder Andrew Rasiej, betaworks, Scott Kurnit, Jason Calacanis, Rose Tech Ventures, PKS Capital, Andrew Rasiej, Coriolis Ventures, Gerry Campbell, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
In August 2011, ChallengePost raised $4.6 million in Series A funding from investors including former Apple executive Bob Borchers of Opus Capital and Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs.
Challenge format
Once a challenge is over, its creator is responsible for selecting both judges and prize recipient(s). In open contests, the intellectual property remains with the winner, while in closed challenges, there is an alternative option of transferring the intellectual property to the contest creator.
Notable clients
In 2010, ChallengePost was named the official online "challenge platform" of the U.S. federal government, previously overseeing the NYC Big Apps contest in conjunction with the city of New York, as well as Michelle Obama's Apps for Healthy Kids challenge in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (Challenge.gov).