Collegiate Entrepreneurs Invited to Startup Madness at NC State

Collegiate entrepreneurs from all Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) schools are invited to gather at North Carolina State University for a different sort of competition in March 2013.

Structured somewhat like the March Madness basketball playoffs, teams or individual entrepreneurs in Startup Madness will compete through a series of brackets, pitching not a business plan but a working prototype to a panel of judges.

Now in its third year, Startup Madness 2013 – open to undergraduate and graduate students – will be held at NC State’s new James B. Hunt Jr. Library on Centennial Campus on March 27, 2013. NC State’s Poole College of Management is the Championship Sponsor this year, and The Research Triangle Park is the Final Four sponsor.

“Poole College is excited about sponsoring this event,” said Dr. Ira R. Weiss, dean of the college. “The entrepreneurial spirit is part of the NC State DNA, and hosting this in the most technologically advanced library in the country will add to the excitement of the competition,” he said.

A Chance for Collegiate Entrepreneurs to Pitch Prototypes

“Startup Madness was born from a desire to gather the best university entrepreneurs in the region,” said event organizer Scott Kelly, who launched the competition in 2011 with participants from Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University. In 2012, 11 schools from the ACC participated.

“RTP is often associated with big names – like IBM, Syngenta, Fidelity, Cisco. But it’s the new and creative factors – the small entrepreneurs – that are also vital for fueling continuous growth in the Triangle,” said Bob Geolas, chief executive officer of The Research Triangle Park.

“Small startups become big companies; and, if the environment is right, they tend to stay where they started,” he said. “We need to do our part to ensure that there’s a steady influx of new, regional innovation by showing strong support for our entrepreneurial community.”

Kelly stressed the unique nature of this competition, saying, “This is not a business plan competition. Instead, each entrepreneurial team in the competition will be entering with a working prototype that can be demonstrated, either in a physical display on a table or other surface, or through a projector onto a flat screen.”

Team registration for Startup Madness is now open. Each campus is developing its own process for screening candidates to participate in the competition.

At NC State University, teams or individuals interested in participating should contact Lewis Sheats, entrepreneurship lecturer in Poole College’s Department of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, by email.

Students at other ACC schools should contact Kelly by email for contact information for their school’s entry coordinators.

The competition will kick off with a reception at HUB Raleigh on March 26, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Students are encouraged to arrive by 5 p.m. HUB Raleigh is an entrepreneurial co-working space that provides flexible workspaces for companies at all stages of growth.

The Startup Madness competition will be held on March 27 at NC State’s new Hunt Library on Centennial Campus.

The NC State Poole College of Management is hosting a breakfast for the teams and judges in the morning, and the first round of the competition will begin at 10 a.m. on the second floor of the Hunt Library. In this round, the collegiate entrepreneurs will have three to four minutes to demonstrate their products on stage before an audience of judges, students and invited guests. Teams will be judged based on the execution of their idea and how well the team ‘sells’ its product to the judges.

The NC State campus community and general public are invited to the second round – the Elite 8 Competition – which begins at 5:00 p.m.

“This is the time for all interested parties to join the audience, including investors, business leaders, local entrepreneurs, and anyone else interested in seeing the rising stars of our region,” Kelly said. Each team will have two to three minutes to present its product. The final four winners will be announced at 6:15 p.m.

Tickets are required for entry on the day of the competition and may be purchased online at the Startup Madness website. There is no charge for students, who are encouraged to stop by and watch the competitive rounds throughout the day. A local band will provide entertainment beginning at 4:30 p.m.

Startup Madness is the newest venture led by Kelly, who also launched and manages Startup High, a summer innovation program serving high school students in North Carolina’s Raleigh, Durham and Hillsborough communities. He also is administrator of Incube, a residential student incubator at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

For registration and other information about Startup Madness, view the competition website or contact Kelly by email.