YouNoodle
YouNoodle Compete is a SaaS platform enabling corporations, governments, universities, and foundations to run startup competitions end-to-end — from application collection and structured judging to winner selection — leveraging a global network of 60,000+ judges and 190,000+ entrepreneurs spanning 180 countries.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2010
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What YouNoodle does
YouNoodle Compete is a SaaS application-management and evaluation platform that enables organizations to run startup competitions and innovation programs end-to-end. Founded in 2010 in San Francisco, the platform serves corporations, governments, universities, and foundations with capabilities that include customizable application forms with conditional logic, multi-stage structured judging with weighted scoring criteria, automatic judge assignment, scheduled communications, multi-language support, lock-answer and one-time submission controls for high-stakes evaluations, and real-time results dashboards. The system is backed by a research partnership with Ecole Polytechnique Paris that has analyzed 20,000+ startups across 5M+ data points to validate the underlying evaluation methodology, and by a 2021 UC Berkeley research project on diversity, equity, and inclusion in innovation programs.
The underlying product is a cloud-based workflow engine with program- and form-level configuration, data export, public showcase directories, WordPress plugin integrations, and an SOC 2 Type 2 / GDPR-compliant security posture. Beyond the core SaaS, YouNoodle operates a global marketplace network spanning 180 countries with 60,000+ judges, 190,000+ entrepreneurs, and 400,000+ applicants, and curates a published case-study library of 2,500+ competitions delivered to 11,000+ clients including Stanford, AWS, Tommy Hilfiger, World Bank, Startup-Chile, and Cartier.
YouNoodle's revenue model combines tiered SaaS subscriptions — Starter at $199/month, Premium at $299/month, Premium Plus at $499/month, and custom Enterprise — with modular Professional Services add-ons covering program management, applicant sourcing, judge recruitment, marketing services, and best-practice advisory. Distribution is augmented by a Program Partners channel network (including organizations such as Innovup and Startupbootcamp), a customer referral program, and a publicly indexed showcase marketplace that drives organic discovery of new programs.
YouNoodle firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- YouNoodle
- Legal name
- YouNoodle, Inc.
- Website
- https://younoodle.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2010
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- YouNoodle Compete is a SaaS platform enabling corporations, governments, universities, and foundations to run startup competitions end-to-end — from application collection and structured judging to winner selection — leveraging a global network of 60,000+ judges and 190,000+ entrepreneurs spanning 180 countries.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
YouNoodle industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Startup Competition Management Software
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518210)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- IT Service Management (ITSM) Platforms (HDAEALAA)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Talent Acquisition (Recruiting) & Applicant Tracking (ATS) (BPACAPAD)
Keywords
Where YouNoodle is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
YouNoodle business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Software Subscriptions: Tiered SaaS subscription model with four levels: Starter ($199/mo or $999/yr), Premium ($299/mo or $2,499/yr), Premium Plus ($499/mo or $3,999/yr), and Enterprise (contact for pricing). Revenue is recurring from annual or monthly subscriptions.
- Professional Services: Add-on services including program management, best practice advisory, applicant sourcing (scout, reach, recruit), judge recruitment/training/management, marketing services, and dedicated support hours. These are sold as add-ons to core subscriptions.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Entry-level plan for pilot programs with single evaluation round |
| Subscription | Monthly | Multi-stage evaluation plan for accelerators, incubators, and grant programs |
| Subscription | Monthly | High-stakes evaluation plan with auditability and compliance features |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Enterprise-grade with SSO, procurement compliance, and multi-program support |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels14 records
YouNoodle product offering
Product offeringCore offering
YouNoodle provides a cloud-based SaaS platform called YouNoodle Compete that enables organizations to collect applications, manage evaluation and judging processes, track live metrics, and select winners for startup competitions, innovation challenges, grant programs, and awards. The platform is complemented by add-on professional services for program management, applicant sourcing, judge recruitment, marketing, and best practice advisory. Customers include corporations, governments, universities, and foundations running entrepreneurship and innovation programs globally.
Product overview
YouNoodle offers a single unified platform called YouNoodle Compete for managing startup competitions, innovation programs, and awards. The core platform provides end-to-end functionality including customizable application forms, showcase pages, judging workflows, metrics dashboards, and winner selection. The platform is available through four pricing tiers: Starter ($199/month), Premium ($299/month), Premium Plus ($499/month), and Enterprise (custom pricing). YouNoodle also provides supplementary services including Program Management, Applicant Sourcing, Judge Recruitment, Marketing Services, 24/7 Tech Support, and Best Practice Advisory, which can be added to enhance platform usage. Additional offerings include the YouNoodle Library (educational resources) and a Referral Program for customer acquisition.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- YouNoodle Compete Cloud-based SaaS application management platform that enables corporations, governments, universities, and foundations to source, receive, evaluate, and select winners for startup competitions, innovation challenges, grant programs, and awards. Features include customizable application forms, showcase pages, judging workflows with automatic judge assignment, live metrics dashboards, and winner selection with weighted ranking.
- Program Management Services Account management services to assist organizations with program setup and execution, including daily operations support, stakeholder management, and reporting services. Sold as an add-on to YouNoodle Compete platform subscriptions.
- Applicant Sourcing Services Targeted sourcing services to pinpoint and motivate highly relevant applicants for client programs. Includes scouting for targeted profiles, audience reach campaigns, and applicant recruitment leveraging YouNoodle's network of 190,000+ entrepreneurs.
- Judge Recruitment Services Recruitment, training, and management of external experts from YouNoodle's network of 60,000+ judges. Includes judge recruitment, judge training and webinars, and judge management to ensure fair and qualified evaluation of applications.
- Marketing Services Marketing and applicant sourcing services to engage with qualified applicants, including digital marketing, outreach campaigns, and channel partnership services to maximize program visibility and applicant engagement.
- Best Practice Advisory Expert consulting to help clients outline the best application process, judging criteria, and overall program framework. Includes application form design, program timeline planning, and evaluation form development.
Quantifiable outcome
- Startup grant winners generate one new job per $9,000 received
- +9 more outcomes
Companies that use YouNoodle
Customer profileNamed customers13 records
Segments6 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
YouNoodle technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration11 records
AI capability1 record
Feature6 records
YouNoodle partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- University of California at BerkeleycoreDEI research project with UC Berkeley students redesigning YouNoodle's evaluation criteria to include diversity and inclusion metrics, creating a public ranking of programs with highest DEI scores.
- InnovupminorProgram partner that helps bring organizations together to amplify program promotion and visibility. Innovup shares opportunities with their audience to increase participation in YouNoodle programs.
- StartupbootcampminorGlobal accelerator network serving as a program partner to expand reach of innovation programs through Startupbootcamp's ecosystem of startups and mentors.
- Mobility MakersminorProgram partner focused on mobility innovation, helping promote programs to their network of entrepreneurs and startups in the mobility sector.
- Fundación Entre Soles y LunasminorFoundation program partner supporting entrepreneurship in Latin America by connecting programs with their ecosystem of impact-driven entrepreneurs.
- Universo MolaminorProgram partner helping expand program visibility to their audience of entrepreneurs and innovators in their network.
- Ecole Polytechnique Paris (Geoffrey Barrows)coreAcademic research partnership conducting analysis on over 20,000 startups to examine the relationship between evaluation and future startup success. Research validates YouNoodle's methodology and provides key outcome metrics.
- Schoolab / Equitable Design LabminorDesign thinking partnership exploring how to restructure YouNoodle's evaluation criteria to include diversity and inclusion using human-centered design methodology.
Scale indicators17 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
YouNoodle competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Submittable: Submittable is a direct competitor providing application management software for awards, grants, contests, and publishing — serving similar enterprise, nonprofit, and government customers with overlapping feature sets around application collection, review workflows, and reporting.
- WizeHive: WizeHive offers a directly comparable application management platform for scholarships, grants, and awards programs, with configurable forms, review workflows, and reporting — competing for the same foundation, university, and nonprofit customers as YouNoodle.
- SurveyMonkey Apply: SurveyMonkey Apply is a direct competitor in the application management space, leveraging SurveyMonkey's brand and broader survey platform to serve organizations running scholarship, grant, and award programs with similar application and review functionality.
- Foundant Technologies: Foundant Technologies provides grant management software to foundations, nonprofits, and community foundations — competing for the same foundation and government grant program customers with workflow, application review, and reporting capabilities.
- Fluxx: Fluxx is a grant management platform serving foundations and nonprofits with application intake, review workflows, and reporting — directly overlapping with YouNoodle's foundation and government customer segments in innovation grant programs.
- OpenWater: OpenWater is a direct competitor offering application and review software for awards, scholarships, grants, and innovation programs — serving overlapping university, association, and nonprofit customers with comparable judging workflow and reporting features.
Broad incumbents
- Smartsheet: Smartsheet is a broad workflow and project management incumbent that can be configured for application intake and review processes — a horizontal platform threat that competes for enterprise innovation program management budgets.
- Salesforce: Salesforce's App Cloud and Experience Cloud offer application management capabilities that large enterprises could leverage to replace dedicated competition platforms — a broad incumbent threat with deep enterprise relationships and large R&D budgets.
- Typeform: Typeform is a leading form-building and survey platform whose customizable, branded forms can replicate YouNoodle's application collection layer — a horizontal threat targeting the same SMB and enterprise customer base.
- Jotform: Jotform is a broad form-builder with approval workflows and table features that can replicate core application collection and basic review flows — a horizontal incumbent competing for the same SMB entry-tier customers as YouNoodle's Starter plan.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
YouNoodle social profiles
Digital presenceYouNoodle compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
YouNoodle financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
YouNoodle leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles8 records
YouNoodle funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors3 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
YouNoodle M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about YouNoodle
What does YouNoodle do?
YouNoodle provides a cloud-based SaaS platform called YouNoodle Compete that enables organizations to collect applications, manage evaluation and judging processes, track live metrics, and select winners for startup competitions, innovation challenges, grant programs, and awards. The platform is complemented by add-on professional services for program management, applicant sourcing, judge recruitment, marketing, and best practice advisory. Customers include corporations, governments, universities, and foundations running entrepreneurship and innovation programs globally.
Is YouNoodle a public or private company?
YouNoodle is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was YouNoodle founded?
YouNoodle was founded in 2010. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is YouNoodle based?
YouNoodle is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does YouNoodle make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Software Subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are professional Services.
Who are YouNoodle's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Submittable, WizeHive, SurveyMonkey Apply, Foundant Technologies, Fluxx and OpenWater. Broad incumbents are Smartsheet, Salesforce, Typeform and Jotform.
Does YouNoodle have an API?
Yes. YouNoodle offers API documentation for developers at https://developer.younoodle.com/api/. The API enables developers to access and integrate YouNoodle's platform capabilities for application management, evaluation, and judging processes. Developer documentation is at developer.younoodle.com/api.
What industry is YouNoodle in?
YouNoodle's product category is Startup Competition Management Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEALAA, IT Service Management (ITSM) Platforms, with a secondary code of BPACAPAD, Talent Acquisition (Recruiting) & Applicant Tracking (ATS). Its NAICS code is 518210 and its SIC code is 7372.