VentureStart Competitions

The Lavin VentureStart Competition

Uniting Entrepreneurs at SDSU

During fall and spring semesters, the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center hosts the Lavin VentureStart Competition. A collaborative and team-based competition, all done in less than four hours, that pushes teams to be innovative and practical in formulating business ventures as solutions to a given problem. We invite local entrepreneur judges to evaluate and question the team's solution. The reward for the winning team is $1,000!

VentureStart Competition Fall 2022: Combining Entrepreneur Society and TAMID

For the Fall Semester in 2022, the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center will be merging two of San Diego State University’s student organizations, Entrepreneur Society and TAMID, to work together to solve an issue revolving around sustainable products for college campuses. Each team is tasked to identify a problem worth solving within one of the following themes including:

Retail (apparel, school supplies, student jobs, etc. ),
Technology
Housing
Networking tools
Health
Automobiles (transportation, dining, etc.)

Teams of four, two students from each organization, will combine their unique skill sets to identify a problem, perform research, create a prototype of their solution (i.e photoshop, drawing, etc.), and finally pitch to three judges who specialize in entrepreneurship. The winning team will receive $1,000 cash.

Entrepreneur Society and TAMID Team Up For Success in Fall 2022

Our latest VentureStart competition brought together Entrepreneurship students to create diverse teams. In just 90 minutes, students had to focus on a technology or security problem and a potential solution related to Retail (apparel, school supplies, student jobs, etc.), Technology, Housing, Networking tools, Health , Automobiles (transportation, dining, etc.).

Winner

The prize amount $1000 was divided 4 ways between the 4 winners.

THE VENTURESTART FALL 2022 WINNERS are:

Roan Weston
Bernadette Solares Bolanos
Roxanne Fournier
Chansen Saw

Contact Sarah Ainsworth at [email protected] for more information.

Overview

The Lavin VentureStart Competition is designed to unify multidisciplinary students whose talents, ideas, and energy may operate tomorrow’s leading firms. Our goal at the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center is to identify and nurture outstanding teams of student entrepreneurs who are able to develop a business model canvas that showcases the new venture’s ability to pivot in response to customer input and interaction. This business model competition cultivates ideas around lean startup and business model development to reward SDSU students for innovative ideation.

The Lavin Center will provide teams who enter The Lavin VentureStart Competition with valuable resources in the following areas crucial to successful entrepreneurship:

Networks of world-class entrepreneurs, investors, and potential partners
Mentorship by successful and seasoned professionals
Education on the Business Model Canvas as well as entrepreneurial insight
Content-rich feedback on their business model from world class entrepreneurs, investors, professors and professional service providers on our Judging Panel
Team building opportunities to create a winning team of founders

Students from all seven (7) colleges at SDSU at the undergraduate and graduate levels may enter the Lavin VentureStart Competition. Multi-disciplinary teams that combine members from technical disciplines with members from the business school may prove to create the most successful competitors.

Confidentiality

Access to submitted executive summaries is only granted by Lavin Entrepreneurship Center organizers to the members of its judging panel. The Lavin Center and the Judging team members are the only other individuals who may be provided with the submitted executive summaries. Reasonable steps are taken to limit access to the submitted executive summaries.

The judges of The Lavin VentureStart Competition are venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, professors and lawyers who deal with confidential material on a regular basis. There will be no confidentiality obligation by any recipient of your summary for information which: (a) is publicly available prior to the time of its disclosure to the Competition or becomes publicly available thereafter through no wrongful act of the recipient, or (b) was known to the recipient prior to the date of disclosure or becomes known to the recipient thereafter from a third party having an apparent bona fide right to disclose the information, or (c) is disclosed by recipient in accordance with your approval, or (d) is disclosed by you or any member of your team without restriction on further disclosure, or (e) is independently developed by a recipient; or (f) the recipient is obligated to disclose to comply with applicable laws or regulations, or with a court or administrative order.

Intellectual property

Before submitting your executive summary, The Lavin VentureStart Competition urges you to confirm with appropriate advisors or legal counsel that any intellectual property described in your summary is protected; (i.e., by appropriate intellectual property filings, notices, patent, copyright, etc.) by the owning institution and/or individuals. We also recommend that you determine in advance whether your summary describes a technology, invention, copyrightable work or other intellectual property owned by SDSU in accordance with SDSU Policy. The Tech Transfer Office is available to answer your questions.

If you are not sure about the legal status of your own or third party intellectual property or any other aspect of your plan, The Lavin VentureStart Competition urges you to seek independent legal counsel.

Judging Criteria

A panel of judges from SDSU and the San Diego venture communities, including experienced entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, professors, legal professionals, and patent experts review and vote on all entries submitted by the student finalist teams. The following are some of the general criteria considered by the judges during the Lavin VentureStart Competition. These criteria are similar to those used by industry professionals, private investors, and venture capitalists when evaluating the attractiveness of new venture opportunities:

Minimize cost to maximize learning
Identification of opportunities validated through hypothesis testing
Product/service prototype ideation and development
Customer interaction
Pivot in response to customer interaction

Liability Information

You agree that you will not use the name of "San Diego State University" or any variation, adaptation, or abbreviation thereof, or of any of its trustees, officers, faculty, students, employees, or agents, or any trademark owned by SDSU in any advertising or publicity without the written permission of the Bernhard Schroeder, Director of Lavin Entrepreneurship Center Programs.

SDSU MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE SDSU LAVIN VENTURESTART COMPETITION EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. IN NO EVENT SHALL SDSU, ITS TRUSTEES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, STUDENTS, THE SDSU LAVIN VENTURESTART COMPETITION JUDGES AND MENTORS, AND AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR ANY ADVICE, INFORMATION OR DECISIONS MADE FOR OR ON BEHALF OF THE SDSU VENTURESTART COMPETITION, OR FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING ECONOMIC DAMAGES OR INJURY TO PROPERTY AND LOST PROFITS, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER SDSU SHALL BE ADVISED, SHALL HAVE OTHER REASON TO KNOW OR IN FACT SHALL KNOW OF THE POSSIBILITY OF THE FOREGOING.

Programs