Applications Open for New York Business Plan Competition 2024
The New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC), powered by Upstate Capital, is currently accepting applications through March 1 from graduate and undergraduate students across Central New York colleges and universities for the regional qualifier in Central New York. This year the Regional Competition will be held at SUNY Oswego's downtown Syracuse campus on March 22. The two top regional teams, as selected by regional business and community leaders, will progress to compete in three rounds of Finals, leading to the Final Competition on April 25 in Albany.
The competition promotes entrepreneurial opportunities for college students from across the state who pitch their business plans to seasoned investors. They also receive the opportunity to engage with mentors and judges from the business community. The Finals event connects students with business professionals, provides experiential learning opportunities through competitions, connects entrepreneurs with resources at the Entrepreneurship Expo, and awards up to $100,000 in cash prizes to help seed new ventures.
Students will compete in one of the following tracks: Food and Agricultural Technology; Health and Wellbeing; Learn, Work and Live; Safety, Power and Mobility; Products and Hardware; and Software and Services.
Aditee Malviya G’25 (Engineering and Computer Science) was selected as a Student Ambassador to share entrepreneurial resources at the Blackstone LaunchPad and spread the word on the Syracuse University campus about the competition.
Students from regional colleges and universities should apply here for the Central New York competition and indicate Central New York as the region.
Josh Aviv ’15, G’17, CEO of Sparkcharge, the 2018 NYBPC Grand Prize winner, said “...Through winning the New York business plan competition, we were able to develop one of our first ever prototype charging stations that has now evolved into a multimillion-dollar business. We also received a ton of mentorship guidance... We now have offices across the United States..."
Since 2010, the NYBPC has helped to launch more than 200 student-led ventures and generated more than $150 million in economic impact.
About the Blackstone LaunchPad at Syracuse University Libraries:
The Blackstone LaunchPad is Syracuse University’s innovation hub, connecting the campus resource-rich ecosystem with a global network that provides support for aspiring entrepreneurs, inventors and creators. The program serves faculty, staff, students and recent alumni across all disciplines who are interested in entrepreneurship, venture creation and innovation careers. The program supports a key pillar of Syracuse University’s academic strategic plan to give students experiential opportunities that help prepare them to be trailblazers in an entrepreneurial world.