Applications for five SU business plan competitions are now live.
Applications are now open for five campus business plan competitions, using a common on-line app.
The campus competitions include ‘Cuse Tank, Impact Prize, ACC InVenture Prize, RvD iPrize, and the Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award. Each has different deadlines and criteria, so be sure to follow the LaunchPad on Facebook and Twitter @LaunchPadSYR for details on each event.
Scheduled competitions include:
- ‘Cuse Tank: Applications due Oct. 4, 2019; competition Oct. 18, 2019. Open to Syracuse University undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines, who are working on developing new products, services or technologies in all categories, both for-profit, and nonprofit ventures.
- Impact Prize: Applications due November 1, 2019; competition November 14, 2019. Open to Syracuse University students and SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students taking entrepreneurship courses at SU working on ventures that create a social impact (such as energy, environment, employment, education and training, health and mental health, community and social networks, social inclusion, poverty and literacy, youth empowerment, food, sustainability, access, and ventures that support important public policy goals).
- ACC InVenture Prize: Applications due Feb. 7, 2020; competition Feb. 21, 2020. Open to undergraduate students or recent graduates of ACC universities within one year of graduation from their undergraduate program. This is a prize competition that pits top inventors of the ACC network against each other at a live PBS-televised event in April 2020 at NC State University in Raleigh.
- Raymond von Dran iPrize: Applications due March 13, 2020; competition March 27, 2020. Open to all graduate and undergraduate students working on venture ideas for products, services, technologies and social impact ventures. A pitch workshop will be held on March 6, 2020 in the LaunchPad.
- Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award: Applications due March 13, 2020; competition March 27, 2020. Open to undergraduate and graduate students at Syracuse competing in the iPrize.
Business plan competitions provide critical early stage seed funding to student ventures to work on customer discovery, prototypes, business incorporation and patents, as well as other product and business development needs on the road from concept to commercialization.
The LaunchPad team, mentors, and professional service providers are available to help develop investment-ready business models, create more competitive pitches, and coach teams on the art of successful pitching.
To learn more about the competitions, get details on the schedule, or schedule coaching sessions with LaunchPad EIRs and The Rubin Family Innovation Mentors, email launchpad@syr.edu.