Category: Competitions & Contests

The New York Business Plan Competition is the only leading collegiate business plan competition that is a regionally coordinated, collaborative, statewide program. With thousands in prizes, it is one of the largest collegiate business plan competitions in the world.

** THE BUSINESS VENTURE MUST BE AT LEAST 80% OWNED BY A STUDENT

Dates to remember:

• 2/1/19 – Applications Open
• 4/3/19 – Applications Due
• 4/10/19 – Presentations Due
• 4/13/19 – Regional Competition in Binghamton
• 4/26/19 – State Competition in Albany

Open to all current Cornell Undergraduate Students. Eight finalists will be determined by a group of experienced entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, non-profit, and business professionals. Semi-finalists will also receive consultations with a mentor/coach about their idea and ways to improve their submission.

$9,000 in prizes are supported by the Vijay (MEng ’75) and Sita Vashee Promising Entrepreneur Award Endowment Fund.

Business Category:

• 1st Place Business Category- $3000
• 2nd Place Business Category- $1000
• 3rd Place Business Category- $500

Social Category:

• 1st Place Social Category- $3000
• 2nd Place Social Category- $1000
• 3rd Place Social Category- $500

Timeline

• March 8, 2019 Application Deadline
• March 22, 2019  Eight Finalists Announced
• April 12, 2019  BIG Idea Competition Finale –Three minutes to present to live audience of peers, faculty, entrepreneurs, distinguished guests, and public audience this year at eHub Collegetown, Third Floor (305 Multipurpose Room). The winners will be selected based upon a combination of rankings by judges and audience popular vote.

Contest Rules

An idea can be submitted by a “team” (consisting of multiple people), but all team members must be current Cornell Undergraduate Students. Only one person needs to fill out the form and put their name on it.

If you have previously entered The Big Idea Competition (formerly known as The Undergraduate Business Idea Competition), you can re-enter your exact same idea or a different idea. If you previously won prize money from the competition, you are not allowed to enter your previous winning idea.

Entries must be early-stage ideas, and not developed businesses.  As such, an idea that already has a functioning business associated with it will not be accepted. Specifically, the idea:

• • Cannot be generating revenues
  • Cannot already have received funding or financing of any form
  • Must not have previously been accepted into an accelerator or incubator
  • Cannot have any legal form of incorporation

Once submitted the idea is finalized for that round, if the team/individuals advance in the competition the idea may be amended based on comments and feedback from mentor/coach. Although amendments can be made, the fundamental idea cannot change from round to round.

Apply

The BenDaniel Venture Challenge application is now live. For all details and to apply, please visit: http://www.brventurefund.com/bvc.

The Challenge is an annual innovation contest aimed at providing exposure, support, and funding to entrepreneurial Cornellians/NY local startups. The Challenge will help develop business ideas to actionable and high-impact ventures. Last year, this challenge had high-volume participation and received more than 70 qualified business plan demos.

The Challenge will be a half-day event. A select group of participants will have the chance to pitch their business ideas to the judge panel. Prizes will be awarded to the top three finalists, including non-dilutive cash up to $50,000.

Applications are due by March 1, 2019.

Find the details of the finalists from previous years at http://www.brventurefund.com/bvc.

The Cornell Engineering Innovation Award Competition is an exciting opportunity for entrepreneurial students from across the breadth of engineering majors. The Innovation Competition offers student teams that have been working on developing physical prototypes and more fully demonstrated innovations the chance to compete for prizes to support their next stages in the development of their “real world” ideation and concept demonstration experiences. This competition will support will enable students who win the awards to continue with their goal of bringing new products to market.

The Cornell Engineering Innovation Award Competition is a college-wide competition open to all engineering students. Students who have developed business concepts and prototypes in their own “garages” and outside the formal engineering curriculum are encouraged to apply.

The innovation teams may include a broad range of students from across the entire university (for example students with expertise in user interface design) and from all levels (undergraduate to Ph.D.). However, as an undergraduate focused competition, undergraduate students from the engineering college must constitute a majority of each participating team.

One information session will be held January 24, 2019. Another will be held February 21, 2019. Applications due March 14, 2019. Click Innovation Awards for details.

Animal Health Hackathon
January 25, 26, 27, 2019
eHub Collegetown
Limited spots available- Signup Now!
http://animalhealth2019.splashthat.com

For the third year in a row, in partnership with the College of Veterinary Medicine, we bring you the beloved animal health hackathon. With $8,000 in cash prizes for winning teams, students attending from UPenn, NC State, and Virginia Tech, this is one event you won’t want to miss.

Our Sponsors and Partners are sending 40+ mentors and include: Pet Partners, Idexx, Encore Vet Group, Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck, IBM, Zoetis, Nestle Purina, Radio Systems Corp, Ethos Vet Health, Gro Intelligence, Center for Disease Control (CDC), Mission Rabies, and Bark Box

Experience the hackathon in less than 2 minutes: Video

Location: Clark Atrium, Physical Sciences Building
Time: Nov. 30, 2018, 4:30 PM.  –  Dec. 2, 2018, 3:30 PM
You are invited for the Inaugural Digital Transformation Hackathon! Get ready to innovate across business, education and lives. ALL students from any major, degree, and background are invited to participate event is limited to 125 participants!
Open To: ALL Cornell students
Sign Up Here

Location: eHub Collegetown, Ithaca, NY
Date: November 18, 2018, 11:00  AM – 7:00 PM
About: Join over 100 students from all across Cornell in using the design thinking process to develop a product from start to finish at the 3rd Annual Creative Sprint. Creative Sprint is a public, 8-hour, team based competition to develop products with market viability and solutions for social impact. The event culminates in each team’s final presentation to a panel of industry professionals, local entrepreneurs and Cornell’s experienced professors to determine the winner. Register for the event individually or as a group of up to 5 people. Food will be provided throughout the event, as will all necessary materials. Just bring your experiences and strong skills!.

Open To: ALL

RSVP Here

Blackstone Charitable Foundation and Techstars invite you to a reception to celebrate our 2nd Annual LaunchPad Training Camp, an innovative two-day program aimed to supercharge collegiate entrepreneurs from across the Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars global network.

The reception will take place from 6:30 – 8:30 PM on Wednesday November 7th in New York City, and will give attendees a chance to meet students from across the LaunchPad network .

Register here.