Frequently Asked Questions

Anybody can create an account on MindSumo with a valid email. If you are a student, please use your school email, so that we can direct your school specific challenges to you.

Absolutely! You can associate your Facebook/Twitter accounts to your MindSumo account on your Edit profile page. You can then use those social accounts to sign in to MindSumo. When you connect your social accounts, we will extract your email and create MindSumo account for you if there isn't an existing account under that email, otherwise we will just log you in. Feel free to reach out to us if you have issues or questions.

Yes, MindSumo is now open to everybody.

Absolutely. But, our challenges will most likely be directed towards college students and recent graduates.

Reach out to us and we will help you.

When a challenge is completed, the company hosting the challenge takes some time (usually 2 weeks) to review all the solutions that have been submitted. They then select the designated number of winners to receive prizes based on creativity, relevance, and feasibility. The winners are then notified via email, and can redeem their prize money through the MindSumo payment system.

If you are chosen as a challenge winner, then you get cash! Challenges are a great way to connect and share your ideas with interesting companies. This real-world project experience is something you should be referencing on your resume.

The content from the solutions can be used by the company as they see fit. We will always be sure to notify you if we find out that one of your ideas was successfully implemented by of one of our customers!

Solutions for standard challenges should follow the deliverables guidelines in the challenge brief. If paragraphs are required, then be sure to write real paragraphs and complete thoughts. In general, the solutions that have the best chance of winning are the ones that are fully developed, and don't feel like they were thrown together in a few minutes.

Most challenges should be completed on an individual basis. However, if you do collaborate with another person, make sure to list that person's name as a contributor in your submission. Rewards will be sent to one person, so it's up to you to distribute it fairly.

Following a challenge means you will receive updates on the completion status of the challenge. Challenges you follow also appear on your profile for easy future access.

There is no set schedule, but there are generally new challenges every week.

MindSumo has an integrated payments system through PayPal. In order to cash out, go to your earnings page and click Cash Out Now. You will be prompted to connect your PayPal account if you haven't already. The cash out has to be manually approved by MindSumo, which usually takes 3-5 business days. If we notice fraudulent activity or PayPal returns an error, we will decline the cash out request and notify you of the issue. Once cleared, you can attempt to cash out again.

The solution rating assigned by companies is on a 10 point scale. Here's a general guide:
Meets Deliverables - Answers each of the sections directly. If questions were not addressed, rating of 5 stars or less.
Clarity - Well communicated, clear thoughts, with good structure. If frequent grammatical errors or incomplete thoughts, rating of 5 stars or less.
Novelty - Truly unique ideas (subjective). Bonus of 2-5 stars.

The only way to earn cash is to solve as many challenges as possible. Your earnings on MindSumo also serve as a single metric to quantify your performance on MindSumo. You can now use your total earnings to brag about your achievements and ideas.

MindSumo used to reward submissions with points which can later be converted to cash. In order to simplify the process, we are rewarding winning submissions directly in cash. Nothing significant has changed. Also, we removed the tiered conversion rates in cashouts.

Following a company means you will receive updates about the company's new challenges or job opportunities. Clicking 'follow' also indicates your potential interest, so companies are able to see their followers.

Right now, you can follow a company or solve their challenge to indicate your interest. Only companies can initiate a conversation via SumoMail.

Your profile page, which includes your bio, challenge history, is viewable to users and companies with accounts on MindSumo.