🌄PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The Blackstone LaunchPad Ideas Competition is designed to provide students with early-stage ideas to compete for various prizes including cash prizes!
More importantly, participating students will gain access to other LaunchPad programs on their campus and additional support as they develop their entrepreneurial skills.
This signature program supports LaunchPad’s goal in promoting innovation skills like – growth mindset, creativity, critical thinking, and leadership; broadening accessibility; and diversifying engagement with a focus on recruiting underrepresented and under-resourced students to participate.
The competition is powered by the StartupTree platform, and students will pitch their idea to our judging team at a live event. Students will be required to attend a pitch-building seminar prior to the event. Students must have a StartupTree account to participate. You can create your account when you enter the competition on StartupTree.
🚝CHOOSE YOUR TRACK
Participants will need to select 1 of the following 4 tracks.
🏆PRIZES
The winners of each category in the Campus Round will take home $1,000. Furthermore, four (4) finalists from each campus will move forward to the national Network Round competing for $10,000 in additional prize money to further develop your idea.
👤ELIGIBILITY
The applicant must...
Be a current student at UTMB (undergraduate or graduate-level)
Be a founder/co-founder (i.e., the person with the original idea)
Be in the earliest stages - have an idea or have just started building on an idea
Create a profile on Startup Tree and apply as an individual or in teams of 2
📆IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
September 1, 2023, Application for Campus Round Opens
All applications must be submitted by 11:59PM CST on September 24, 2023:
Pitch building workshop - all participants review Pitch guidelines September 26, 2023, 5:00-6:00PM.
October 10, 2023, 5:00-7:00PM: UTMB Campus Pitch Competition
Applicants will pitch their ideas to our judges, followed by a networking event.
October 16th - October 23rd: Campus round winners from each track participate in the finalist network round
If you are selected as a finalist, you will be invited to the Network Round in which you will submit a deck (with a deck template provided) to Blackstone LaunchPad.
More information and the link to apply will be shared with finalists
October 23rd: Network Round Deadline - Final Submissions Due to Blackstone LaunchPad via submission on the Blackstone LaunchPad Startup Tree page.
Week of November 13th - November 17th: Network Round winners announced
Click the “Enter Now” button on StartupTree to submit your application. Please email innovate@utmb.edu if you have any questions, and good luck!