Win Big with VC
​Our variety of partners help us offer exceptional prizes to innovative teams and startups. Elevate your innovation to unparalleled recognition with our distinguished prizes, setting the standard for excellence in entrepreneurship. Seize the opportunity to make a lasting impact, as we celebrate and honor the trailblazers shaping the future of business.
Tiered Prizes in 2024
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$5,000 CASH PRIZE
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$2,500 LEGAL SERVICES
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Pitch to Dorm Room Fund's Philadelphia Team
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Expedited Interview + Various Prizes* from Contrary
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Office Hours with Y Combinator
First Place
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$3,000 CASH PRIZE
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$1,500 LEGAL SERVICES
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Pitch to Dorm Room Fund's Philadelphia Team
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Expedited Interview + Various Prizes* from Contrary
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Office Hours with Y Combinator
Second Place
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$1,000 CASH PRIZE
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$1,000 LEGAL SERVICES
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Pitch to Dorm Room Fund's Philadelphia Team
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Expedited Interview + Various Prizes* from Contrary
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Office Hours with Y Combinator
Third Place
*VARIOUS PRIZES: Access to Premium Figma, Notion, and AWS Credits ($5k)
2024 Finalist Prizes
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Mentorship and Expedited Interview with Dorm Room Fund
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Expedited Interview with Contrary
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Office Hours with Forum Ventures
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Exclusive Hubspot Credits
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Access to Free CRM, Sales, Marketing, Service, and Operations tools
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Access to Startup pricing - up to $20k in savings on Pro Suite*
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Access to HubSpot for Startups Slack Channel
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24/7 Customer Support
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2024 Timeline
February 1, 2024
Applications Open
February 23, 2024
Original Application Deadline
February 26, 2024
Deadline Extended
March 10, 2024
Finalists Announced
March 23, 2024
CMU VC Demo Day
Eligibility
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Submissions should be submitted by an individual or a team of up to five members.​
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The student entrepreneurs pitching their startups at the CMU VC MUST be undergraduate students. Teams are allowed to have non-undergraduates, but the main founders must be undergraduates. Teams with member(s) taking a leave of absence are still eligible to participate.​
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Teams must not have raised more than $500K USD in funding from institutional investors, angels, or competitions.​
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Participants are NOT required to be Carnegie Mellon students. The CMU VC is open to any and all undergraduate students that are currently studying in the United States or Canada.
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Submissions should be the individual's or team's original work.​
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Teams must pitch at the final round to receive any prizes for placing Top 12.
Confidentiality | Non-Disclosure Agreements
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There is no formal non-disclosure agreement in place for the CMU VC. Participants' executive summaries and business plans will only be seen by the CMU VC planning committee and the judging panel. Neither of those documents will be distributed by the Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Association unless explicit permission is received from the team.​
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Teams should be aware that the competition is an open event, and we are not able to require audience members to sign non-disclosure agreements. Confidentiality has never presented a problem in the past, and we don't expect any issues to arise from it in the future. Feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.
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Finalists will be requested to share executive summaries and application information for future exemplary use but this is not mandatory.
Photography / Video Policy
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We love to take photos during our events and feature awesome startups on our website, affiliated websites, social media platforms, email communications, and other affiliated organizations with the CMU Venture Challenge. If you would like you or your team to NOT be photographed or videoed during the event, please let us know. Please note that no notice may result in photos and/or videos taken during the course of the event that may be repurposed and shared on our various platforms.
