Deadline: February 12, 2020 00:00 CET| Apply here
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Dates: April 16-18, 2020
Eligibility: The competition is for student-created, managed, and owned ventures. Teams of 2-5 students of which least one member of the team is required to be enrolled in a graduate program are encouraged to apply
Location: Portland, the United States

New Venture Championship 2020

Presented by the University of Oregon’s Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship, the New Venture Championship (NVC) is the Pacific Northwest’s original six-round business competition, setting the standard followed by others.

Teams from elite universities come to Portland every year to pitch their venture plans and vie for more than $50,000 in total cash awards.

Competition guidelines

• Students have played a major role in conceiving the venture by having key management roles and owning significant equity in the venture.
• 50% or more of the equity is allocated to the student management team and key advisors.
• Ventures and the concept on which they are based may compete for only one academic season in venture competitions.
• Ventures that have generated revenue or raised equity capital from sources other than the members of the student team before the current academic year are not eligible to compete.
• Ventures that are actively seeking outside capital in the form of grants, loans, or equity financing are eligible to compete if they receive such funding during the academic year of the competition.
• The objective of this rule is to exclude ventures formed and managed by non-students who have token student representation to compete for prizes on the competition circuit.
• Ventures and their base concepts may compete for only one academic season in venture competitions. Ventures that have generated revenue or raised equity capital from sources other than the members of the student team before the current academic year are excluded.

Team Composition

The team must be comprised of 2-5 students, prepared under faculty supervision. The team may consist of graduate and undergraduate students. At least one member of the team is required to be enrolled in a graduate program.

Students from any graduate program (not just MBAs) are eligible to participate, including executive and evening format programs. Non-students may be members of the venture’s management team and may participate in planning the venture, however, only students may participate in the competition.

Students applying from academic institutions that do not have graduate education programs may apply for the competition without a graduate student team member. Such institutions include US Military Service Academies and other speciality institutions.

Companies must intend to be operating companies with corporate structures and financial statements that reflect real operating revenues and expenses. This requirement is intended to exclude investment vehicles, partnerships, licensing and other pass-through entities where returns are measured for investment value versus operating earnings.

The competition focuses on new, independent ventures in the seed, start-up or early growth stages. In addition to what is outlined in the above paragraph, generally excluded are the following: buy-outs, expansions of existing companies, roll-ups, real estate syndications, tax shelters, franchise-based outlets, licensing agreements for distribution in a different geographical area and spin-outs from existing corporations.

Ventures focused on licensing technologies from universities and/or research labs is encouraged assuming there has been no previous commercialization. Key in these types of ventures is demonstrating significant added value to the technology through the efforts of the management team.

All ventures must be seeking outside equity capital.

Interested in applying for the New Venture Championship 2020? Register your participation by following the registration link and taking the suggested steps.

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