Rejection, Reconsidered: When Feedback Fuels Reapplication

Our portfolio of Solvers is diverse: over 460 teams supported to date, headquartered in 68 countries. But the journey to become a Solver begins the same way for everyone, with the decision to apply to a Solve challenge. 

Of the nearly 26,000 unique individuals or teams that have submitted an application to a Solve challenge, 10% have applied more than once. 

Among the over 460 Solvers selected in our portfolio, the reapplication rate is even higher: about 25% have applied more than once. Of this group, 40% were selected as a Solver on a repeat application to a Solve challenge. If at first they didn’t succeed, they tried again, and it paid off. 

What keeps them coming back? We think the applicant experience we build, from our custom platform for submitting an application to the feedback we give to applicants during the selection process, has something to do with it. 

The platform behind the experience 

In 2024, our team began an overhaul of our applicant portal, aiming to streamline the process for all applicants, especially those re-applying to Solve challenges. We refreshed the website, updated the application dashboard, and introduced a new feature that allows users to save their answers to a core set of common Solve application questions. Now, users can re-apply to Solve challenges more easily, allowing them to focus on writing strong answers to challenge-specific questions later in the application. Since the feature has gone live, 11% of all applications have used it. 

Beyond the scorecard 

It’s not uncommon for applicants to hear nothing back beyond a yes or no. We do it differently.

Solve provides substantial feedback wherever possible throughout the application process so innovators can improve their applications for future competitions, whether with Solve or elsewhere. From review rounds onwards, we provide applicants who are not selected with qualitative and quantitative information about how they performed relative to advancing solutions. This includes their average score on each criterion, benchmarked against the average score of advancing solutions. We also share a detailed, criterion-by-criterion guide for improving applications going forward. 

At the finalist stage, we go further. We compile comments from our expert judges and tech vetters and summarize them for applicants so they can hear from the panel beyond, not just a scorecard. 

What our applicants say

Does it work? Applicants say yes. Since adopting our current feedback model: 

• 90% of survey respondents agree or strongly agree that completing the application was a useful learning experience for them and/or their team

• 85% agree or strongly agree that the process made them feel Solve valued the time they spent on their submission, up from 79% before the platform overhaul 

We share applicant feedback by email, and the replies keep telling us the same thing—that this level of detail is rare and valuable: 

Applicants pour hours into the work they’re doing and the process of applying to tell us about it.

Concrete, actionable feedback drives progress, even without funding. And who knows? The next application may be the one that gets selected.