CU Boulder: New Venture Challenge Championships

Entering its 9th year, the CU New Venture Challenge (NVC) has created a reputation as the go-to program for aspiring entrepreneurs across the CU Boulder campus. There has been a 300% increase in participation since the first Challenge in 2009. The NVC is CU Boulder’s entrepreneurial “flight simulator,” giving teams the chance to build a startup with support and mentorship from across campus as well as many of the area’s most important entrepreneurs, startups and established businesses.

The NVC is divided into industry-specific “tracks” targeted to help specific business types including General, Information Technology, Research and Development and Performing Arts. The Social Impact Prize encourages teams to take into account social and environmental responsibility and the Women’sEntrepreneurship Prize encourages and promotes female entrepreneurs. In NVC8, about one quarter of all teams had woman founders or core members.

Participants in the NVC represent various majors and departments, including: computer science, law, environmental design, music, business, engineering, ATLAS, and more. From undergraduate to graduate and PhD to faculty and staff, everying across campus is encouraged to participate.

The NVC is a hub for an immense amount of talent because of its location at the intersection of a top research university, an internationally recognized startup community and one of the nation’s best cities in which to live.