彩民宝典

CU-Boulder as startup incubator? You can take that to the bank. Six student entrepreneur teams are vying for a shot to advance to the national New Venture Challenge. But first they鈥檝e got to get past an all-star investor panel.

A record 60 teams entered the campus competition last fall with dreams of startup rock stardom and $30,000 in cash prizes to build the next great company in one of four specialized tracks: clean tech, IT, music or social impact, and an open-ended grab bag theme with demonstrated customer need.

For Alison Peters, Boulder鈥檚 infectious startup spirit is on full display at CU. 鈥淲ith all of our cross-campus programs, we鈥檙e seeing that students from every discipline, from fine arts to engineering, want to understand business creation before they graduate,鈥� notes the Managing Director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship.

Now, six months and 40 teams later, the business plan challenge peaks on April 5 with an open community demo night judged by Libby Cook of Philanthropiece, Foundry Group鈥檚 Jason Mendelson and Glenn Russo of Zayo Group.