Day 16: 44 Companies Contacted, Still Zero Client Challenges
Six days ago we published a post with 15 registered users, three live challenges, and zero submissions. We said we'd rather report an unglamorous number than go quiet until there's better news. Here's the update, same policy.
Where things actually stand today
- 15 registered users on the platform — unchanged from our last update.
- 3 live challenges, still all founder-funded — none posted by a paying company yet.
- 0 submissions across all three, and 0 client-funded challenges to date.
- 44 companies now in our outreach pipeline, up from 27 in our last update — 21 contacted directly, 20 still pending a first touch, 3 bounced. Seven new outreach emails went out today alone.
Nearly doubling the pipeline while the conversion count holds at zero isn't a better headline than a smaller pipeline with the same zero — it's still zero. We're including the number anyway because the honest version of this story is more useful to anyone deciding whether to try BrainSumo than a polished one would be.
The closest deadline is 4 days out
Of the three live challenges, the "Quick Win Challenge" — pitch a 30-day growth idea for an Indian D2C snack brand, $50 prize — closes August 12. It's had zero submissions so far. That's not a great sign for that specific challenge, but it's also, bluntly, an opportunity: if you're a marketer or student who likes this kind of problem, there's currently no competition on it at all.
What we're doing about the company side
The honest answer is: more of the same, done more consistently. We haven't found a shortcut that turns cold outreach into a posted challenge faster — every company we've talked to that showed real interest needed a specific, scoped brief idea before they'd commit, not a generic pitch about the platform. So each new outreach email now includes one concrete challenge idea tailored to that company's actual marketing problem, not just an introduction to BrainSumo. It's slower to write. We don't yet have evidence it converts better — that's what the next update will tell us.
If you want to try it
You don't need an account to look: browse the three live challenges here. If you're a marketing lead with a problem shaped like a name, a campaign angle, or a referral idea, reach out and we'll help scope the brief — no cost to look, and the first conversation is just that.