Innovation Challenges: 4 Myths Holding Organizations Back

Open-innovation budgets are climbing again — According to a survey by Mind The Bridge, 86 % of large companies now plan to maintain or raise their open-innovation budgets in 2025. Yet many programs still stall because of myths we’ve watched play out while powering hundreds of challenges on Untap.

If you’re new here, Untap is an end-to-end SaaS platform for running innovation challenges, awards, startup competitions, student programs, and talent acquisition platforms. Over the past decade we’ve processed 100K+ submissions for governments, universities, NGOs, banks, telecom operators, F&B brands, FMCGs, and more—bringing together solvers from all over the world.

Below are six common misconceptions—each answered with data and features from Untap’s own experience.

Why it persists: Flagship examples (Apple, Google, NASA) dominate headlines, so smaller or non-tech firms assume the model is out of reach.

✅  Reality: A well-designed challenge scales to any size when it focuses on problem clarity and structured follow-through rather than prize money alone. Diverse industries—retail, pharma, utilities—run low-cost pilots, gather evidence, and then decide whether to scale. Strategyzer’s research shows that allocating just 10 % of an innovation budget to early experiments can unlock fresh growth options without risky megaprojects.

Untap has delivered challenges for governments, universities, NGOs, banks, and corporates in telecom, F&B, and FMCG, and more. Our subscription plans, drag-and-drop forms, and seamless user experience empower all organizations to start small and scale only when traction appears.

Why it persists: Success stories romanticize the single ‘eureka’ moment.

✅ Reality: Idea collection is cheap; validation is where value emerges. Strategyzer’s guidance on metered funding urges leaders to “start with small bets, then step-up only as evidence builds.” Without staged gates, most submissions die on the shelf.

Nearly every high-impact program on Untap runs multi-round workflows: e.g., a 1-page concept note → a full business case → a live demo. Initial screening, jury assignments, multi-round evaluations, and built-in mentorship sessions help teams refine concepts between rounds, boosting the hit rate of viable solutions.

Why it persists: Many social-media coverage of hackathons centers on campus events and under-25 success stories.

✅ Reality: Professionals routinely dominate large-scale open calls:

• Kaggle’s data-science community now tops 15 million members across 194 countries, with competitions won by PhD researchers, FAANG engineers, and seasoned consultants—not just college teams.
• The $100 M XPRIZE Carbon Removal attracted 1 300 multidisciplinary teams from 88 countries—including venture-backed startups and national-lab spin-offs, far beyond the student demographic.

Clearly, when the brief is compelling, mid-career professionals, founders, and researchers line up alongside students.

Untap puts you in control of who shows up and how you evaluate them:

• Granular eligibility controls – require specific job titles, years of experience, or industry backgrounds right in the application form.
• Platform segmentation – spin up separate tracks (e.g., “Student Sprint” vs. “Professional Deep-Tech Track”) inside the same workspace, each with its own timeline and jury.
• Targeted outreach – import CRM lists or plug in external databases so invitations reach precisely the audiences you want, not just campus groups.
• Rich profiles & filters – sort submissions by role, seniority, geography, or custom tags, ensuring evaluators focus on applicants who meet your criteria.

Why it persists: Marketing teams treat them like campaigns rather than capabilities.

✅ Reality: Organisations that treat challenges as a portfolio activity—multiple small calls, themed sprints, continuous scouting—outperform those betting on a single blockbuster. According to  Strategyzer,  building systematic “gates” to test evidence before escalating funding keeps momentum and institutional learning alive.

Untap’s Spaces & Platforms architecture makes year-round activity painless. A Workspace (e.g., “Corporate Innovation”) can house separate Platforms for hackathons, awards, job posts, or student grants—each with its own brand, timeline, and stakeholders but managed from one admin console.

💡 The truth is: Innovation challenges work — when you have the right partner.

At Untap, we’ve helped governments, universities, corporates, and NGOs run successful programs with just one person or a full team. From startup scouting and employee innovation to hiring campaigns and awards — we’ve got the tools and expertise to help you deliver.

Whether you're looking to launch your first program or build a full innovation ecosystem — we’ll make it easy, impactful, and scalable.

🚀 Let’s build your next challenge or innovation platform.

Visit untap.tech or book a demo.