Competition Open: Thursday, September 01, 2022 at 8:00 AM (US/Eastern)
Deadline: Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 5:00 PM (US/Eastern)

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The Blackstone LaunchPad Ideas Competition is designed to provide students with early-stage ideas to compete for cash prizes!

More importantly, participating students will gain access to the LaunchPad program on their campus, to get the support on their entrepreneurship journey and skill-building. 

This signature program supports LaunchPad’s goal in de-risking entrepreneurship, broadening accessibility, and diversifying engagement with a focus on recruiting underrepresented and under-resourced students to participate. 

The competition is virtual, hosted on the StartupTree platform.

🚝CHOOSE YOUR TRACK

Participants will need to select 1 of the following 5 tracks.  The local track for Texas Southern University, University of Houston Clear Lake and Texas A&M Galveston students ONLY! The Local track is based off selecting an idea from 1 of the top 4 categories.

• Social and Climate Impact
• Health & Life Science
• Consumer Products & Services
• General 
• Local (only open to students of TSU, UHCL and TAMUG)

🏆PRIZES

The 5 winners of the [UTMB Round] will take home $1,000. Furthermore, four (4) finalists from each campus (in the Social & Climate Impact, Health & Life Science, Consumer Products & Services and General tracks) will move forward to the [Network Round] competing for $10,000 in additional prize money to further develop your idea.

👤ELIGIBILITY

The applicant must... 

• be a current student (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, 2022: Application for Campus Round Open
• October 13, 2022: Deadline for Campus Round 
  • All applications must be submitted by October 13, 2022, 5:00PM via StartUp Tree.
• October 14 - October 25, 2022: Campus Round Deliberation Period
  • Applicants will be evaluated and scored 
• November 1st - November 16th: Winner from each track across each school invited to finalist network round
  • If you are selected as Finalist, you will be invited to the Network Round
• November 16th: Deadline for Network Round Finalist Participation
  
  • More information and link to apply will be shared with Finalists
• December 6th: Network Round winners announced

Use the link below to submit your application. Please email innovate@utmb.edu if you have any questions.

http://utmb.startuptree.co/event/s/2v6mwTkWbszQi6AL5UhA2A/2022-Blackstone-LaunchPad-by-StartupTree-Ideas-Competition