Duquesne University is readying the launch of its fourth Duquesne New Venture Challenge (DNVC) for entrepreneurs, a competition that offers over $100,000 in cash and service prizes to its finalists.
The university's Palumbo-Donahue School of Business will open applications for the upcoming challenge on Aug. 30 at 8 a.m. Interested entrants will then have until noon on Nov. 14 to submit an application for their innovative venture ideas that have a commercial and/or social mission.
Individuals and teams of up to four people can participate in the challenge. Entities associated with an entry cannot be legally registered for any longer than four years as of the application submission deadline.
Following the application submission period, Duquesne will select up to 20 semi-finalists to advance beyond the first stage of the competition, which is comprised of a one-minute pitch video and a short summary of their venture. The top three winners of this round will also share a cash prize of $5,000.
For the second stage of the competition, semi-finalists will submit an executive summary, a short business plan and a five-minute video pitch that further explains their venture. Each of these teams will receive a cash prize of $1,000, with the total awarded at this point in the competition capped at $20,000.
A panel of judges will then pick up to five teams to advance to the third and final stage of the competition, when each team will share in the collective $50,000 worth of service prizes before competing for the $35,000 in cash prizes that remain.
That third and final round requires finalists submit an executive summary and a full business plan before a panel of judges. They will also give a live slide-based presentation before the judges. The top three winners in this round will enjoy legal services via the Duquesne University School of Law, business consulting services from Duquesne’s Small Business Development Center and meetings with School of Business faculty in addition to the splitting of the remaining cash prizes.
"In just a few years, the DNVC has grown into one of the premier business-plan competitions in our region, offering another much-needed source of support for early-stage ventures with promising futures," Dean McFarlin, dean of Duquesne's business school, said in a prepared statement. "Since we launched the DNVC in 2019, the quality of entrants has increased dramatically, and it has been a wonderful experiential platform for our students and alums with terrific new business ideas."
More information on the challenge can be found here.
In May, DisSolves, a Pittsburgh startup that has developed an edible, water-soluble packaging material for food products, won the 2021-2022 Duquesne New Venture Challenge, which at the time came with a $15,000 award and other perks.
