Our Approach

Powered by technology.
Driven by values.

Why Competitions?

Our world is changing fast and the old ways of solving problems are no longer producing the best results. Competitions are a unique tool that leverage the power of incentive engineering to attract new innovators to design innovative solutions built to meet your needs. At Carrot, we have over a decade's experience designing, building, and running custom competitions to solve problems in a vast array of verticals; from designing tools for the Mars Landing Mission with NASA, to scaling solutions to gender equity in the U.S., our team is ready to help you use this powerful tool to achieve the outcomes your organization needs to thrive.

Mobilize Talent

Prizes spark the interest of diverse groups of experts and professionals.  Engage a broader community of focused interests and capture the attention of highly credible authorities.

Leverage Funds

Participants invest their own time and resources solving your problem, but sponsors only pay for the most effective outcomes.  You will only reward success, as you’ve defined it.

Discover New Solutions

The cross-pollination of ideas from different backgrounds and skill sets unleashes creativity, allowing solvers to generate new breakthroughs, that you might not have imagined.

Influence Stakeholders

Well designed prizes generate newsworthy coverage, activate our sponsors’ brands, and shape a better public understanding of the target problem and your intended outcome.

Our Values

While competitions are incredibly effective for sourcing new talent, innovation, and partners, not all competitions are created equal. Competitions produce the best outcomes when they are Open, Transparent, Fair, and Equitable.

Open

We believe that great solutions can come from anyone and anywhere. Our competitions are built so that any eligible person or organization can apply their solutions to your challenges. We know that when we're more open to diverse ideas we are better because of it.

Transparent

We believe that applicants should always know the requirements of any competition, how they're being scored, and when they can expect to see results before they choose whether or not to apply. Carrot's front end designs and back end platform are built to keep problem solvers informed throughout the entire process. When we're transparent with our expectations, we're able to build trust within our communities.

Fair

We believe that applicants should always know how they're being judged, who is scoring their application, and why they received the score they did. We clearly publish our applications, scoring rubrics, and organizational readiness tools on every challenge site we develop so applicants understand the level of commitment required for their participation. The game is only fair if everyone is playing by the same rules.

Equitable

We believe that in the best competitions, every participant should gain value regardless of if their solution is ultimately selected. Our platform tools are designed so that every applicant receives meaningful feedback on their application to ensure that even if they don't receive funding that they can improve their solution and organization over time. A rising tide lifts all ships.

Level Playing Field

Whether you're playing chess with your sister, competing for a national championship, or looking for investment, no one likes to play a rigged game. In our competitions we work tirelessly to ensure that every participant is playing by the same rules and that no person or organization can gain an unfair advantage. We've developed tools like peer-to-peer review, a unique normalization algorithm, and clearly written scoring rubrics and applications to guarantee that every problem solver is judged by the merit of their solution and not by the size of their network.

Everyone Wins

Good competitions can produce groundbreaking results, spur new innovation, activate previously untapped networks, and solve important problems. Great competitions can do all of the above while fostering a robust network and community of problem solvers building off one another's ideas to create long-lasting value for everyone involved. At Carrot, we help you go from good to great.

How can we entice the world to solve your most important challenges? Let's start today.

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5 Unexpected Benefits of Running a Competition

Here's the simple truth: you have more important things to worry about than becoming a competition expert. Download this free PDF to learn five ways that we can help you save time and money.