EAST LANSING—The Burgess New Venture Challenge (BNVC) has announced 15 finalists for its first annual venture competition at Michigan State University.
BNVC finalists will pitch their ideas to a panel of expert judges on Wednesday, April 17 at the Jackson and Christman Lounges of the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts in East Lansing. Teams will compete for more than $40,000 in cash. The competition’s top prize, sponsored by the Michigan State University Federal Credit Union, is $15,000.
“BNVC is more than a competition,” said Ken Szymusiak, managing director of the Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the center for entrepreneurship activities in MSU’s Broad College of Business. “Our goal is to create a valuable learning experience for student entrepreneurs here at Michigan State.”
The competition is a collaboration between the Burgess Institute and Spartan Innovation, the agency that provides educational and financial support to turn MSU research into successful Michigan businesses. It’s an early-stage pitch competition bringing together student entrepreneurs and small business supporters from across Michigan’s entrepreneurial community to celebrate MSU’s entrepreneurial spirit and highlight top talent.
Merging two pitch competitions, GreenLight Michigan and the Broad Business Model Competitions, BNVC requires interested students to complete a battery of workshops, receive feedback from business leaders and mentors, and form teams around submitted ideas.
Paul Jaques, director of student and community engagement at Spartan Innovations, has been helping Michigan State University students build their businesses for nearly a decade. “We wanted to create a program that culminates in a competition, where students spend time refining their ideas, building their skills, and taking interesting risks that lead to innovation,” he said. “The Burgess New Venture Challenge celebrates a year of hard work for these finalists.”
The teams to be showcased at the event are: click Here to find out.
