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Global Entrepreneurship Challenge Semifinals
March 30, 2016 Alumni Assembly Hall at 1:15 p.m.
The Global Entrepreneurship Challenge Semifinals, which is in its eighth year, encourages students to develop
their entrepreneurial ideas, enhances their understanding of the requirements for a successful business venture,
and showcases the creativity of Virginia Tech students.
Key team members must be full-timeVirginia Tech students. The competition is focused on supporting
technology concepts at their early stage of development. Therefore, applicants must not have received cash
investments from private investors, government agency funding beyond research grants, nor offered product(s)
for sale as of February 5, 2016.
Finalists are chosen through a phased judging program. Initially, participants submit a one-page summary of
their business concept idea for review by a panel of faculty and local business leaders. From these, semifinalists
are selected who then submit a 3-5 page summary of their concept that identifies the compelling customer
need being met by their proposed product or service, the potential market size for the product or service, its
expected competitive position in the marketplace, the proposed business model for financial success, and how
the team plans to enter the market.
From those submissions, seven finalists were chosen to present before a panel of angel investors and business
leaders as well as attendees at the Global Entrepreneurship Challenge Semifinals.
The teams will compete for the chance to win one of three scholarship prizes, including the Plastics One
Advanced Manufacturing Award of $5,000 for the most outstanding tangible product, the $5,000VT
KnowledgeWorks Information Technology Award for the most outstanding intangible product or service, and
the $5,000 People’s Choice Award, sponsored by theVirginia Tech Pamplin College of Business. One of the two
teams that receive the Advanced Manufacturing or the Information Technology award will earn the grand prize
and receive an additional $10,000 in scholarship assistance, workspace in theVirginia Tech Corporate Research
Center for summer 2016, and the opportunity to compete on a world stage in the $25,000VT KnowledgeWorks
Global Student Entrepreneurship Challenge this August.
New this year:Teams chosen as semifinalists for the Global Entrepreneurship Challenge Semifinals and
consisting only of undergraduate students were entered into the inaugural ACC InVenture Prize @Virginia Tech
competition, March 3, 2016, at The Inn at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg,Virginia.
The winning team,Yard Mapper, selected by a panel of local business leaders, will compete against the other six
Virginia Tech finalist student teams on March 30, 2016, at theVT KnowledgeWorks Global Entrepreneurship
Challenge Semifinals. Yard Mapper will then advance to the ACC InVenture Prize competition at Georgia Tech
in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 5 and 6, 2016, where they will deliver a 3-minute pitch to compete against other
Atlantic Coast Conference universities for $30,000 in prizes.