With more than $100,000 in cash and service prizes up for grabs, the fourth annual New Venture Challenge is a three-stage business plan competition in which entrants may submit new venture ideas that have commercial and/or social missions.
"In just a few years, the DNVC has grown into one of the premier business-plan competitions in our region, offering another much-needed source of support for early-stage ventures with promising futures," said Dr. Dean McFarlin, dean of the Palumbo-Donahue School of Business. "Since we launched the DNVC in 2019, the quality of entrants has increased dramatically, and it has been a wonderful experiential platform for our students and alums with terrific new business ideas."
Entrants can include teams of one to four individuals that do not have any legally registered entity associated with their entry longer than four years as of the event's Nov. 14 submission deadline.
Details for the stages of the New Venture Challenge include:
- Stage I: Entrants will submit a short summary of their business with a one-minute video pitch. Cash prizes totaling $5,000 will be awarded to the top three video pitches, with the winning pitch earning $2,500. Up to 20 finalists will be selected to advance to Stage II.
- Stage II: Semi-finalists will submit an executive summary, short business plan and a five-minute video pitch. Each semi-finalist will receive a cash prize of $1,000 (up to $20,000 in total) access to the highly regarded LivePlan Business Plan Software from Palo Alto Software. A panel of judges will select up to five finalist teams to advance.
- Stage III: Finalists will collectively receive service prizes worth an estimated $50,000 and will compete for $35,000 in cash prizes. Each team will submit an executive summary, full business plan and PowerPoint presentation, and deliver a live presentation to judges.
The top three finalists will receive additional prizes and support, including legal services via the Duquesne University School of Law, business consulting services from Duquesne's Small Business Development Center and meetings with School of Business faculty.
Visit duq.edu/nvc for more information on the 2022-2023 Duquesne University New Venture Challenge.