How to attract startups to participate in a challenge?

Sharing my few cents, with kind intention, apologies in advance if it sounds tough. I can see you have identified problems very well, and the whole thing is to help founders overcome them if they participate. TLDR: Need social prove or more unique value proposition on why this should be the method I choose. Yes I have all the problems, but also tell me why nanohq is the right one. Though if I were a founder, I don't see why it has to be nanohq, your unique value proposition. I am being called to participate and the website helped me with understanding what to expect, but I don't see social prove or what additional/ creative approach nanohq offer to increase the chance of this challenge being a successful one. So to certain extent it feels like this is a more professionally done, organized community builder. The solution doesn't makes me want to commit immediately.

Hi Vladimir, There are quite many missing points to tell for sure what (if anything) went wrong, e.g. what activities have you implemented up to now. Otherwise, your website looks nice. But maybe a couple of things to add or consider - once I landed on your page, I did not see the word "challenge", neither I saw anything about "free" or price of participation. You did add the values of the event, which is a right move; but probably best to add some basics like a CTA of "Join Startup Challenge Free Now" or so. And maybe a countdown so people get a sense of urgency and scarcity. But frankly, with this post of your you got me interested in joining the challenge as well. So good move :)