‘We became instant celebrities’: Challenge Cup 2016 winner on a week in DC

When 1776’s 2016 Challenge Cup festivities drew to a close on the evening of June 10, it was Dubai-based startup MUrgency that was left holding the trophy and a giant $50,000 check. MUrgency, you may recall, has an an app that aims to create a single, global emergency response network.

.@MUrgencyNetwork brings down the #1776Challenge Cup house again w their 9-1-1 platform for developing world pic.twitter.com/0dcFGZxsAF

— Evan Burfield (@eburfield) June 10, 2016

The company had traveled, along with 60 other finalists, to D.C. to spend a week pitching, networking, learning and hoping. The team participated in pitch training, sat in on panel discussions and spent time getting to know their fellow Challenge Cup competitors.
So what was the Challenge Festival experience like for MUrgency’s “power team” of four?
Director Sweta Mangal dives into just this question in a recently-published Medium post. Mangal documents her whole week in the District, from realizing, at the kickoff party, “that this challenge was not going to be an easy win at all,” to the exhilaration of coming out on top on Friday.
“That evening was magical,” she writes. “We became instant celebrities.”
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