2023-24 Dates & Deadlines
- Jan. 31: Application Opens
- Feb. 7, 5:30 p.m.: Mentor Matching Session*
- Feb. 8, 6:30 p.m.: Kickstart Your Brand With Stephanie Candella*†
- Feb. 15, 5:30 p.m.: Venture Mentor Matching Mixer*
- Feb. 21, 6:30 p.m.: Company Formation Workshop* Watch the Recording
- Feb. 22, 6:30 p.m.: Kickstart Your Brand With Stephanie Candella*†
- Feb. 27, 7 p.m.: Intellectual Property Workshop*
- Feb. 28, 5 p.m.: NVC Rubric and How to Build Your Pitch*†
- March 4, 7:30 p.m.: AI and Your Startup Seminar*
- March 6, 6:30 p.m.: NVC Rubric and How to Build Your Pitch*†
- March 11, 6 p.m.: Pitch Practice Workshop*†
- March 12, 6 p.m.: Pitch Practice Workshop*†
- March 13, 6 p.m.: Pitch Practice Workshop*†
- March 14, 11:59 p.m. MT: Deadline to submit application, executive summary and video pitch
- March 19, 5:30 p.m.: Deep Tech Competition Finals, Galvanize Boulder, 1023 Walnut Street #100
- April 17, 6:30 p.m.: NVC Final Showcase at the Boulder Theater
* optional events and opportunities
† each workshop in these series is a standalone event; attendees should choose one to attend
Eligibility
Outside Funding Limitations
Ventures that have raised more than $500,000 in equity capital from sources other than the founding team or their friends and families before July 1, 2023 are excluded. Equity funding awarded as part of an accelerator/incubator program counts toward funding limits. Startup teams may have raised any level of equity funding after July 1, 2023. While legal entities of any type can participate in the competition, to be eligible for the SAFE investment prize, the company must be a corporation.
The following do not count toward the funding limit: Research and other grants, competition winnings, traditional loans and any friends and family funding.
Revenue Limitations
Ventures with more than $100,000 in revenue in prior academic years (before July 1, 2023) are excluded.
Prior Activity
Both student and other team members may have worked on an idea or new technology in previous academic years, or in the case of the student team members, even prior to entering CU, provided that their venture’s revenues and equity capital raised do not exceed the above limits.
Ventures that make it to the NVC Finals (and win 1st or 2nd place) may not be presented at NVC in subsequent years. Competing team members may participate in the NVC more than once if entering with a new venture or new technology.
Team Composition
As of Feb. 8, 2024, at least one founding team member (at least 25% equity owner*) must:
- be a current student or employee of CU Boulder,
- or graduated from CU Boulder after Nov. 1, 2023,
- or have been a part of the 2023 Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator with an IP Option Agreement signed with Venture Partners.
Additionally, competing ventures must be built around a scientific or technological innovation that has been developed using a profound understanding of fundamental scientific disciplines such as physics, chemistry, biology or mathematics.
*We recognize that the equity structure of some new university-based ventures may not exist for non-profit ventures, or not yet be established for for-profit ventures; the 25% equity ownership rule may be waived in this situation. This waiver will be examined on a case-by-case basis.
Team Size
There is no team size requirement.
Nature of Ventures
The competition is for new, independent ventures in the seed, start-up or early growth stages. Generally excluded are the following: buy-outs, expansions of existing companies, real estate syndications, tax shelters, franchises, licensing agreements for distribution in a different geographical area and spinouts from existing corporations. Technology licenses from the university or research labs are encouraged if the intellectual property has not been previously commercialized. The management team must bring significant added value to the technology (not solely be in business to sell a license with developed technology).
Attendance
To be considered for any award, teams must present, in person at the required competition times and locations. Failure to show up for the designated “pitch time” will result in disqualification.
Copyrights and Permissions
If a team uses copyrighted materials and/or images from a third party in their submissions or presentations, they must obtain permission and authorization in advance from the owners to use this material.
Information presented by the company in the NVC competition is the company’s sole responsibility. CU Boulder and the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative have not taken, and do not intend to take, any steps to verify the adequacy, accuracy or completeness of any information, materials or statements presented by the company. The company, and not NVC, is responsible for ensuring the company’s compliance with all applicable federal, state and other securities laws, and it is solely the company’s responsibility to comply with any of such laws that are applicable. NVC does not give investment advice, endorsement, analysis or recommendations with respect to any securities and is not a broker, venture fund or investment advisor.
Required Forms
To compete in the NVC Deep Tech Competition, you will have to provide a founders’ agreement.
No prizes will be awarded without the required forms submitted.
Competition Format
The NVC is an investment pitch competition consisting of the following components:
First round
Each venture will submit a 2-minute video pitch and an executive summary during the first round. A panel of judges will assess all video pitches and executive summaries.
NVC Deep Tech Competition Finals
The five top ventures will be asked to compete in the finals. Each venture will have a 5-minute in-person pitch and 7-minute Q&A.
Every finals team must have a founders’ agreement in place to compete.
Prize Pool
The Grand Prize Pool will be awarded as follows at the Deep Tech Competition Finals:
| 1st Place |
$50,000 awarded as a SAFE investment |
Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE)
"SAFE" stands for “Simple Agreement for Future Equity” and is a standard, founder-friendly investment instrument created by the renowned startup accelerator and investor Y Combinator. You can learn more about SAFEs in this guide document.
The SAFE offered in the Deep Tech finals prize includes the following key terms:
- $5 million valuation cap
- “Most Favored Nation” provision (if other investors later join under more favorable SAFE or convertible note terms, those terms may be applied to the NVC prize)
- The holder of the SAFE is a 501c3 organization that serves the University of Colorado
If these terms are foreign to you, please check out the SAFE guide linked above.
If the winner of the Deep Tech prize has already executed a SAFE, convertible note or term sheet for a priced financing, NVC will consider a request from the winner to join under the same terms and instrument as the executed agreement.
Submission Guidelines
The first round of the NVC Deep Tech Competition will involve the submission of:
- Executive Summary
- 2-minute video pitch
All other elements of the competition will consist of in-person presentations at CU Boulder. All documents and presentations must be in English.
Executive Summary
Files must be submitted as a PDF and named as follows: ES_VentureName.pdf. Executive Summaries should be submitted as part of the team’s online application.
Format:
- Executive Summaries should be a minimum of 1 and not more than 3 pages.
- Cover page and table of contents do not count toward page total.
- An appendix of up to 2 pages may also be included, as long as it is used to provide detailed financial information or to include materials that support the findings, statements, and observations in the plan.
- Format is 1.5 line spacing with 1-inch top, bottom, left and right margins and 12-point font. This line spacing and font requirement applies to the textual content of the document and not to titles and descriptions accompanying pictures, graphs, tables or worksheets.
- Startup name, team members, and contact information should be listed in the document.
We recommend including the following information in the Executive Summary:
- Opportunity summary: In 1-2 paragraphs, describe the problem the company is addressing, the size and growth rate of the market and your solution.
- Product or service: Describe in more detail what your product does/how it works, the current state of development and any technology validation to date (i.e., the evidence you have that the technology works) and your competitive advantage.
- Competitive differentiation: Explain the competition and show what makes this company better than competitive alternatives.
- Market and customer analysis: Describe trends in the market, targeted customer segments, identified customers, and the value proposition to customers. Describe any customer/market validation (i.e., evidence you have that customers will pay for this product).
- Intellectual property: Provide a status of patents, licenses, or other IP (if applicable)
- Management team/advisors: Show how this team has the expertise to successfully launch this startup.
- Financials: Show 3-5 year projections of revenue, profit and cash. If your team is generating revenue or has received outside funding, please be specific on where your funding has come from (see Section III for funding/revenue limitations).
- Investment: Describe what you would do with the winning investment funds ($50,000) and any additional investment funding you would seek.
Video Pitch
The video pitch should be saved to a Google Drive or another platform, and the file link should be submitted in StartupTree. Be sure to include the venture name in the file name.
Format:
Mentors
Competitors in the NVC Deep Tech Competition are not required to have a mentor.
Slide Deck
Format:
- Your deck must be in PowerPoint
- File name: Venturename.PPT
- We do not recommend using any embedded video or internet functionality in your presentation. Wi-Fi access is not guaranteed during your presentation.
- All presentation technology will be provided—you are not allowed to use your own computer to present.
General Notices
Use of Competition Materials
The University of Colorado, and the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative and their agents may make photocopies, photographs, video recordings and/or audio recordings of the presentations, including the business plan and other documents, charts, media or other material prepared for use in presentation at the New Venture Challenge. The above entities may use the materials in any book or other printed materials and any videotape or other medium that they may produce for promotional and/or educational purposes only. These entities have non-exclusive world rights in all languages, and in all media, to use or to publish the materials in any book, other printed materials, videotapes, or other medium, and to use the materials in future editions thereof and derivative products.
Intellectual Property
Teams requiring non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) may not want to participate. NDAs can be signed by first and semifinal rounds if needed. The finals are open to the public. The competition may be broadcast to interested people through media, which may include radio, television and the Internet. Any data or information discussed or divulged throughout the competition should be considered information that will enter the public domain. If you have questions, you should seek the counsel of an IP attorney.
Decisions Regarding the Competition and the Winners
All decisions regarding the competition rules, procedures and processes are at the sole discretion of the NVC organizers. Changes and/or interpretations of these rules may be made by the organizers at any time even though they may be (or may appear to be) in conflict with previously published information. The selection of the teams to compete and the selection of the winners are at the sole discretion of the judges and the organizers. Best efforts will be made to make decisions in accordance with this Official Rules document.
Registration
⚠ Registration is closed for the 2024 competition.
The NVC uses the Startup Tree platform to manage applications. To enter, each of your team members must create a user profile on the platform. Then, your main point of contact will create the venture profile on the platform and invite all team members to the venture profile.
If you have already registered for the NVC General Competition, please skip to Step 5.
Teams that are applying for the NVC Deep Tech Competition that have not already applied to the NVC General Competition must register their venture on the Startup Tree platform, as shown in Steps 1-4, and then must complete Step 5 to register for the NVC Deep Tech Competition.
There is no cost to apply or to compete.
Step 1: Review competition rules and dates
Ensure you have reviewed all the eligibility requirements, competition rules, and dates.
Step 2: Create your user profile
- Use this link to access StartupTree.
- Input your name and Identikey email address and create a password. The password selected must be at least 8 characters long and have one symbol, one lowercase letter and one uppercase letter.
- Upload a profile picture and specify your gender identity (optional) and your location (optional).
- Select your affiliation with CU Boulder. If you select alumni or student, you will see an additional input area appear, allowing you to specify your graduation year, college and degree type.
- Input any applicable skills. These will appear on your profile, allowing other users to find and understand your background.
- Input your bio. This will help your profile stand out and provide helpful information to users and mentors.
- Please answer the additional questions for the NVC operations team.
Step 3: Create a Venture Profile
- Use this link to access NVC StartupTree.
- We recommend Bookmarking this link for future use as you participate in this year's NVC.
- If you do not already have a venture in StartupTree, follow these instructions on how to add a venture.
- If you do already have a venture in StartupTree:
- Select "My Pages" in the top navigation bar and cselect "+New Venture."
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- OR scroll down to "Last Activity" and select "+ Add Venture"
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Step 4: Add your team members to the venture profile
- Use the StartupTree guide to add team members to a venture.
- All team members must create a StartUp Tree
Step 5: Register your new venture for the New Venture Challenge Deep Tech Competition
- Use this link to register your venture in the NVC Deep Tech Competition.
2024 Judging Rubric
Scale of 1-6: 1, Strongly Disagree; 2, Disagree; 3, Slightly Disagree; 4, Slightly Agree; 5, Agree; 6, Strongly Agree
|
Topics
|
|
| Promising Idea - 30% |
|
| There is a clear need or problem is being addressed. |
Score 1-6 |
| The idea provides a solution to a validated problem being addressed. |
Score 1-6 |
| There is a clear way to make money or create impact. |
Score 1-6 |
| Progress - 40% |
|
| The venture has practical milestones and timelines for executing this company. |
Score 1-6 |
The venture has proven they understand their customer through (10, 100, 1000) customer discovery interviews.
The venture has identified who their first customer is and how they will sell to the customer. |
Score 1-6 |
| The venture has demonstrated traction in the market (prototype, MVP, pilot, website, social media, app, etc) |
Score 1-6 |
| Team – 20% |
|
| The team has the necessary skills to execute this venture. |
Score 1-6 |
| The team has identified uses of funds to move the company forward. |
Score 1-6 |
| Presentation - 10% |
Score 1-6 |
| The company presented a clear, compelling, professional, logical presentation, and answered questions well. |
Score 1-6 |
| TOTAL SCORE |
|
Need Help?
Teams that have any questions about their eligibility should contact Stan Hickory, director of the NVC at hickorys@colorado.edu.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to register or compete in the General Competition to compete in either the NVC Women Founders or Deep Tech competitions?
No! While we encourage anyone eligible to compete, each competition is a standalone opportunity. Please check the eligibility of each competition before applying.
Can non-profit organizations or ventures compete in NVC?
Yes! Non-profit organizations and ventures are strongly encouraged to participate. Some of our strongest teams ever have been non-profits! If you have any questions—for example, about eligibility, company structure, how prizes are awarded—please do not hesitate to contact Stan Hickory, director of the NVC at hickorys@colorado.edu for help.
Are there legal requirements or best practices for drafting a Founders' Agreement?
It is important for a company’s founders to have an agreement among themselves even before creating an entity. Founders’ agreements are the product of conversations that should take place among a company’s founders at the early stages of formation rather than later in the life of a company. Learn more in this resource from the University of Pennsylvania
