Blackstone LaunchPad Ideas Competition

The Blackstone LaunchPad Ideas Competition is designed to provide students with early-stage ideas to compete for cash prizes!

More importantly, participating students will gain access to the LaunchPad program on their campus, to get the support on their entrepreneurship journey and skill-building.

This signature program supports LaunchPad’s goal in de-risking entrepreneurship, broadening accessibility, and diversifying engagement with a focus on recruiting underrepresented and under-resourced students to participate.

The competition is virtual, hosted on the StartupTree platform.

COMPETITION TRACKS

Participants will need to select 1 of the following 4 tracks.

  • Social and Climate Impact
  • Health & Life Science
  • Consumer Products & Services
  • General 

PRIZES

The winners of the [Campus Round] will take home $1,000. Furthermore, four (4) finalists from each campus will move forward to the [Network Round] competing for $10,000 in additional prize money to further develop your idea.

  • ELIGIBILITY

    The applicant must...

    • be a current student (undergraduate or graduate-level) ​
    • be a founder/co-founder (i.e., the person with the original idea)
    • be in the earliest stages - have an idea or have just started building on an idea
    • create a profile on Startup Tree and apply as an individual or in teams of  2​
  • IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
    [September 6]: Application for Campus Round Open
    [October 21]: Deadline for Campus Round
    All applications must be submitted by 11:59pm on October 21st:
    [October 21 -28th]: Campus Round Deliberation Period
    Applicants will be evaluated and scored
    November 1st - November 16th: Winner from each track across each school invited to finalist network round
    If you are selected as Finalist, you will be invited to the Network Round
    November 16th: Deadline for Network Round Finalist Participation
    More information and link to apply will be shared with Finalists
    December 6th: Network Round winners announced

  • APPLICATION QUESTIONS

    (All questions have a 1750-character limit)

    1. What is your idea? Be specific on what exactly your venture/organization is going to make or do.
    2. How did you come up with the idea, what problem is it solving, and why are you uniquely passionate or qualified to take this solution forward?
    3. What is the business model and how do you plan to sell to customers?

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