HBS New Venture Competition: Northeast U.S./New York Region
Are you an innovator or early stage entrepreneur?
You’re invited to participate in this year’s HBS New Venture Competition (NVC), brought to you by the Rock Center for Entrepreneurship and the HBS Club of New York.
Open to for-profit and not-for-profit companies, competing in the NVC Northeast Regionals is your chance to showcase your company to a large group of investors and advisors, advance to the NVC semifinals and finals in Boston, and win over $100,000 is cash prizes.
Use the link below to apply by January 27, 2020.
Key Info
- Eligibility & Rules
- Application (*scroll down on page)
- Judging Criteria
- Key Dates
- Prizes
- Northeast Regional Contact
The Northeast U.S./New York regional competition accepts applications from ventures in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Virginia, and West Virginia. We welcome applications from the above states as long as you are able to travel to NYC for the regional events. The deadline to apply is January 27, 2020.
Key Dates
March 4, 2020: Regional Final Competition – Shark Tank-style pitch presentation in front of 3 VC judges and an audience. Regional finals winner will be chosen and move onto the Global Round of the competition.
March 8, 2020: Global finalists are notified and invited to pitch at the NVC live event on the HBS campus
April 16, 2020: NVC Finale – Regional finals winners attend the Finale and 8 global finalists pitch to prominent VCs. Grand Prize, Runner-Up, and Crowd Favorite winners announced
Completed Events/Rounds:
November 1, 2019: Application opens on the HBS Alumni NVC website
November 18, 2019: NVC Kickoff Cocktail Party – Meet and learn from previous regional NVC winners.
January 21, 2020: New Venture Competition Panel Event: Two Entrepreneurs and Two VC’s Discuss the Startup Landscape – Final opportunity to meet our Northeast U.S. / New York NVC Leadership Team and learn about the competition before the application deadline.
January 27, 2020: **Application Deadline at 12:00 pm noon ET**
February 13, 2020: Regional Showcase Competition – Tradeshow of all companies accepted into the competition. Regional finalists will be chosen and move onto the Regional Final Round of the competition.
Prizes & Sponsors
Northeast U.S./New York Regional Winners receive cash and in-kind prizes from our Sponsors:
Northeast Cash Prizes
- 1st Place Prize: $10,000
- 2nd Place Prize: $2,500
- Best Early Stage Startup: $2,500
Platinum Sponsors Google Cloud
- $100K Google Cloud Startup Support package* (Cloud and Firebase Credits) for the 1st and 2nd Place Winners
- $20K Google Cloud Startup Support package* (Cloud and Firebase Credits) for the Early Stage Winner
- Dedicated start-up technical office hours
- In-depth 1:1 architecture reviews with Google engineers
- Invitations to exclusive local Google Cloud events
- A smaller Google, via introductions internally where it matters to startups: Ads, Play, Maps, Chrome, and more
*Cloud Credits are available for startups who have not previously received promotional Cloud credits, and are good for 12 months.
Legal Sponsors Polsinelli
- Pro bono legal services up to $5K for each of the First, Second, and Best Early Stage Startup winners
- “Pitch Perfect” assistance to the First, Second, and Best Early Stage Startup winners, to provide advice and assistance with respect to their pitches at the HBS Alumni NVC
- Free presentations on related start-up legal topics including intellectual property protection and corporate structure matters
Generously provided by HBS Alumni Angels of Greater NY
Winning teams will receive the opportunity to pitch to HBS Angels of NY.
And more!
- Compete for global prizes
Hear From Past Winners
Anna Auerbach '10, 2017 Regional Winner
“HBS has always been a leader in entrepreneurship, and after hearing fellow classmates experience with NVC, I was excited to participate as soon as Werk’s business was officially launched. I appreciated how founder-friendly it was. So many other comparable models make it onerous for the founder to participate – but this was both easy and fun.”
Stephanie Sarka '90, 2016 Regional Winner
“NVC was a great opportunity to gain exposure and receive feedback on 1Atelier. We met quite a few investors through the competition. The ‘NVC Winner’ title makes our business credible and legitimate, especially to other HBS alumni. Overall, it was an incredible experience.”
Melissa Fensterstock '12, 2014 Regional Winner
“Our advisor–whom we met through the NVC-NY mentorship program–has been an amazing resource, eventually becoming one of our board members. The exposure was great for our business, Aromaflage. Being plugged into the network has been the gift that keeps on giving.”
Past Winners
2019 NVC Northeast U.S./New York Regional Winners
-
2019
- Blueland, Gina Pak ’15 (went on to win Global Finals & appear on Shark Tank!)
- PeopleJoy, Emeka Oguh ’11
- Augean Robotics, Charles Andersen ’14
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2018
- Magma Trading, George Hessler ’85 (Runner Up at the Global Finals)
- Mindprint Learning, Nancy Weinstein ’00
- FitSkin,Inc., Sergio Rattner ’01
-
2017
- Werk, Anna Auerbach ’10
-
2016
- 1 Atelier, Stephanie Sarka ’90
-
2015
- BollyX Fitness, Minal Mehta ’11 (which went on to win the $25,000 national award for Most Innovative)
-
2014
- Aromaflage, Melissa Fensterstock ‘12
-
2013
- Bookalokal (now SixPlus), Evelyne White ‘10
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2012
- EnergyGridIQ, Reena Russell ‘03
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2011
- PhytoTEK, Sahil A. Patel ‘05
-
2010
- TwoChop, Mo Lam ‘05