VTKW_Challenge2016

Global Entrepreneurship Challenge Semifinals March 30, 2016 Alumni Assembly Hall at 1:15 p.m.

The Global Entrepreneurship Challenge Semifinals, which is in its eighth year, encourages students to develop their entrepreneurial ideas, enhances their understanding of the requirements for a successful business venture, and showcases the creativity of Virginia Tech students.

Key team members must be full-timeVirginia Tech students. The competition is focused on supporting technology concepts at their early stage of development. Therefore, applicants must not have received cash investments from private investors, government agency funding beyond research grants, nor offered product(s) for sale as of February 5, 2016. Finalists are chosen through a phased judging program. Initially, participants submit a one-page summary of their business concept idea for review by a panel of faculty and local business leaders. From these, semifinalists are selected who then submit a 3-5 page summary of their concept that identifies the compelling customer need being met by their proposed product or service, the potential market size for the product or service, its expected competitive position in the marketplace, the proposed business model for financial success, and how the team plans to enter the market.

From those submissions, seven finalists were chosen to present before a panel of angel investors and business leaders as well as attendees at the Global Entrepreneurship Challenge Semifinals.

The teams will compete for the chance to win one of three scholarship prizes, including the Plastics One Advanced Manufacturing Award of $5,000 for the most outstanding tangible product, the $5,000VT KnowledgeWorks Information Technology Award for the most outstanding intangible product or service, and the $5,000 People’s Choice Award, sponsored by theVirginia Tech Pamplin College of Business. One of the two teams that receive the Advanced Manufacturing or the Information Technology award will earn the grand prize and receive an additional $10,000 in scholarship assistance, workspace in theVirginia Tech Corporate Research Center for summer 2016, and the opportunity to compete on a world stage in the $25,000VT KnowledgeWorks Global Student Entrepreneurship Challenge this August.

New this year:Teams chosen as semifinalists for the Global Entrepreneurship Challenge Semifinals and consisting only of undergraduate students were entered into the inaugural ACC InVenture Prize @Virginia Tech competition, March 3, 2016, at The Inn at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg,Virginia.

The winning team,Yard Mapper, selected by a panel of local business leaders, will compete against the other six Virginia Tech finalist student teams on March 30, 2016, at theVT KnowledgeWorks Global Entrepreneurship Challenge Semifinals. Yard Mapper will then advance to the ACC InVenture Prize competition at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 5 and 6, 2016, where they will deliver a 3-minute pitch to compete against other Atlantic Coast Conference universities for $30,000 in prizes.

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