UC Davis Big Bang! Competition Helps Blow Up Start Ups
Aspiring entrepreneurs are invited to collaborate, develop and test their business ideas in the 14th annual UC Davis Big Bang! Business Competition. The competition offers workshops, mentorship, financing and networking to kick start student startups.
Student developed businesses are pitched by interdisciplinary teams, bringing MBA students and investors before scientists and engineers who can build on the commercial potential of their research, spawning a new, working business from the ground up.
“We’ve helped many entrepreneurs make critical connections that launched their ventures and their careers,” said Cleveland Justis, executive director of the UCD Child Family Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, who sponsors the competition.
Topics for upcoming workshops and events include: intellectual property and incorporation; writing a successful business summary; and how to pitch a venture. The competition ends with an awards ceremony on May 22.
Along with the UCD Child Family Institute, local corporations and financiers sponsoring this year’s event include Gold-level sponsors Andrew Barkett and DLA Piper; Silver sponsors Akers Capital, LLC, Moss Adams, LLP and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District; and Bronze sponsors CVF Capital Partners and Lamplighter Financial. StickerGiant is providing in-kind support.
“The ideas, energy and entrepreneurs coming out of Big Bang! have been critical to the development and growth of the greater Sacramento business ecosystem,” said David Richardson of DLA Piper. “The competition is a gem for any entrepreneur who yearns to take his or her dream out of the lab and into the real world.”
