Before diving into the strategy, here are the core concepts the whole system is built on.
You don't need to memorize these — but having them in one place makes the rest of this much easier to follow.
Click any card to expand it.
Challenge Area ▼
The topic
The five focus areas MassChallenge organizes all its programs around: Healthcare & Life Sciences, Climate & Environment, Finance & Financial Inclusion, Sustainable Food & Agriculture, and Security & Resiliency. Every piece of content belongs to one of these.
Persona ▼
The audience
A defined type of person we're talking to. We serve five: Corporate Partners, Prospective Startups & Alumni, Donors & Philanthropists, Prospective Experts, and the General Public. The same startup story lands completely differently depending on who's reading it — a donor cares about impact, a corporate partner cares about deal flow. Persona determines tone, content, and what we ask them to do next.
Funnel stage ▼
Where they are in the relationship
A way of describing how far along someone is in their relationship with MassChallenge:
Awareness — they've just discovered us. Goal: make them curious. Evaluation — they're learning more. Goal: answer their questions. Conversion — they're ready to act. Goal: make it easy to say yes. Retention — they're already engaged. Goal: deepen the relationship.
Content matrix ▼
The system
The combination of 5 Challenge Areas × 5 Personas × 4 Funnel Stages = 100 unique content cells. Each cell represents one specific need: "what do we say to a corporate partner who's just heard of our climate program?" The matrix ensures we have an answer to every one of those questions — not just the easy ones.
Nurture stream ▼
The automated sequence
A planned series of emails sent automatically over time to a specific person. Not a one-time blast — a conversation that runs on autopilot. Each stream is triggered by an action (signing up, attending an event, downloading something) and guides the person gently toward the next step. We write it once; HubSpot delivers it at the right moment. Each persona + challenge area combination gets its own 10-email stream.
Thought leadership ▼
The credibility layer
Content where a named MassChallenge leader shares an expert point of view — not a program announcement. Examples: Gaurav's monthly LinkedIn data articles, Cait's CEO perspective pieces, benchmark reports, policy POV essays. Thought leadership is tracked separately because it builds credibility over time, reaches audiences before they're ready to engage with us, and requires a different editorial voice than program content.
CTA ▼
Call to Action
The one specific thing we want someone to do after reading or watching a piece of content. "Apply now." "Schedule a call." "Download the report." "Donate." Every email and content piece should have exactly one CTA — two CTAs means confusion, and confusion means no action.
HubSpot ▼
The automation engine
Our marketing automation platform. This is where nurture streams are built, contacts are organized by persona and challenge area, and content performance is tracked. Think of it as the infrastructure that makes all of this scale. If content isn't in HubSpot, we can't measure it — and if we can't measure it, we can't report on it.
Step 2 of 4
Who are you, and what's the topic?
Select the persona you want to explore — then pick a challenge area. In the next two steps you'll see exactly what content exists for that combination, and what emails that person would receive.
I am a...
Corporate partner
Company seeking deal flow, co-development, or brand presence
Startup or alumni
Founder applying to or who has been through MC
Donor or philanthropist
Individual or foundation interested in supporting MC's mission
Expert or mentor
Practitioner interested in advising or judging startups
General public
Curious about innovation and what MC does
...interested in
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Climate & Environment
Finance & Inclusion
Food & Agriculture
Security & Resiliency
Select both a persona and a topic area to continue.
Step 3 of 4
Your content journey
These are the four pieces of content that need to exist for this combination — one for each stage of the relationship. Think of this as the roadmap: what does this person need to read or see at each moment?
Step 4 of 4
Their nurture stream
This is the automated 10-email sequence this person would receive after first engaging with MassChallenge — triggered by signing up, downloading something, or attending an event. Three welcome emails, four education emails, three social proof emails. HubSpot sends them on the schedule shown.