New Venture Championship

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The New Venture Championship (NVC) is an international entrepreneurial business plan competition for graduate students presented by the University of Oregon’s Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship.

Teams from all over the world come to Portland, Oregon, United States to present and defend business plans to a panel of judges with the possibility of winning the grand prize of $25,000. All NVC competitors receive cash awards and receive advice and counsel from business executives in the Northwest.

The 2008 New Venture Championship will be held April 10–12.

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[edit] History

The first NVC was held in 1992 in a university classroom at the University of Oregon campus. Only three teams participated, competing for $300 in cash prizes.

In 2008, over 70 teams submitted entries to compete for more than $70,000 in prizes and for a spot in both the 2008 Global Moot Corp.[1] and the 2009 NVC Competition. Only the top 20 teams of about 60 applicants are selected to compete each year.

In April 2007, Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle and his wife, Mary, donated a total of $5 million to the University of Oregon. $3.5 million went to the New Venture Championship. [2]

[edit] Past winners[3]

In 2007, Mullis Enterprises won $50,000 as the first place winner.[4] This team from the University of Georgia went on to win the 2007 Global Moot Corp Competition with a concept involving the producing, marketing and selling of environmentally friendly pest control products.

Currently, the team has renamed its venture Green Dragon Roach Kill and is awaiting approval from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, as well as a pending patent on the environmentally friendly formula. The company currently has approximately $200,000 worth of orders from pest control firms in the southeastern states. In Oct. 2007, it placed first in Fortune Small Business’ annual business plan competition.[5]

The second place winner, Frontier Sciences, won $10,000. This early stage medical device development company in the orthopedic industry was represented by a six-person team from the University of Manitoba, Canada. The third place winner of $5,000 was the Power Prawns Producer Co. from Thammasat University in Thailand. The team’s winning concept involved exporting freshwater prawns to world markets.

In 2008, TakeShape from the University of Oregon and Klymit from Brigham Young University shared the top prize, with each receiving $30,000.[6] Other winners came from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Boise State University, and the University of Manitoba among others.[6]

[edit] Structure

Teams of graduate students come from across the nation and from around the world to participate. The ventures are created, managed and owned by students.

Judges are a mix of business professionals, many from sponsoring companies. The judges offer constructive feedback to the competitors.

Sponsors for NVC have changed and the number increased during the 17 years of the competition. The 2008 sponsors include Columbia Sportswear, Intel, Tektronix and Aequitas Capital Management.

[edit] Other achievements

In 2004, Business Week rated NVC as one of the top three university-based business plan competitions in the world.[7]

[edit] Prizes

The New Venture Champion team wins $25,000 and automatic berth in both the 2008 Global Moot Corp Competition and the 2009 NVC Competition.[8] The second place winner is awarded $10,000. The third place winner is awarded $5,000. The runners up (2) are each awarded $2,500.

Other awards include:

  • IPC- Original Innovation Award of $2,500
  • Palo Alto Software Best Written Plan of $1,500
  • Tektronix Trade Show Award of $1,000
  • Tektronix Elevator Pitch Award of $1,000
  • OEN Lightning Round Awards has a prize pool of $17,500 that is distributed among 15 winning teams

All prize awards total more than $70,000.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Global Moot Corporation. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  2. ^ Boyles donate $5 million to University of Oregon. Inside Oregon (April 17, 2007). Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  3. ^ NVC Winners (2007). Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  4. ^ University of Georgia Wins University of Oregon New Venture Championship, $50,000 Prize. Business Wire (April 16, 2007). Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  5. ^ Gray, Patricia B. (October 17, 2007). Showdown: Killer Startups: First place: Green Dragon Roach Kill. CNNMoney.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  6. ^ a b University of Oregon's venture contest has two winners. Portland Business Journal, April 14, 2008.
  7. ^ Business Plan Competition Ranks with World's Elite. Oregon E-News. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  8. ^ NVC Prizes (2007). Retrieved on 2008-03-07.

[edit] External links