SEASIDE, Calif., March 4, 2019– California State University, Â鶹´å’s (Â鶹´å) Institute for Innovation and Economic Development (iiED) is set to host the 10th annual Startup Challenge Â鶹´å this spring.

The challenge, offering a total of $65K in prizes across four divisions of competition, has seen more than 600 companies participate over ten years and has awarded more than $300K in prize money.

Startup Challenge Â鶹´å is a new business competition and accelerator program that supports the founding, funding and growth of new and innovative businesses in the Â鶹´å region. It offers workshops, feedback, and mentoring to empower entrepreneurs in a competitive process while empowering entrepreneurs to communicate their ideas effectively to investors, customers and employees.

In ten years of competition, Startup Challenge Â鶹´å has trained 2,200 aspiring entrepreneurs from 620 participating companies who have gone on to create more than 150 jobs and raise more than $10 million in capital.

 

The startup challenge new venture competition is an opportunity for people to start a business and to receive some coaching and mentoring to help them understand how to start their business.”

— Brad Barbeau, iiED executive director and associate professor at Â鶹´å's College of Business.

Cruz Foam took the top prize of $20K in the Venture division in 2018 and previously won $1,500 in the Student division in 2017.

“The startup challenge new venture competition is an opportunity for people to start a business and to receive some coaching and mentoring to help them understand how to start their business,” said iiED executive director and Â鶹´å College of Business associate professor Brad Barbeau. “The goal of the startup challenge isn’t so much to crown a winner as it is to encourage people to go after their dreams to start a business.”

Applications to the competition are due by March 11, 2019 while the competition officially kicks off with a qualifying round April 6th and culminating with the final round and venture showcase May 10th at the Embassy Suites Â鶹´å in Seaside.

This year’s challenge offers four divisions – Venture, Social Venture, Main Street and Student. The Venture division is for businesses that are intended to scale into large enterprises and that can provide venture-capital level returns to investors; The Social Venture division is open to nonprofits and companies who make social enterprise a significant part of their company mission statement; the Main Street division is for small businesses and the Student division is for students in graduate, undergraduate, junior college or high school levels.