Haas Students Set to LAUNCH
More than 200 start-up teams from UC Berkeley and UCSF entered in this year’s LAUNCH competition. On April 22, 38 semifinalists, including 18 UC Berkeley Haas School of Business-affiliated teams, will be put head-to-head, vying for one of the eight spots available to compete in the April 24 final round. Nearly $60,000 in prizes will be awarded to winners of the semifinal and final rounds.
Formerly known as Bplan, the contest and its new name reflect the “continued move away from the use of a long-form business plan to a one-page business model canvas and a 10-slide presentation used by today’s startups,” according to Moses Lo and Kristen Duffel, MBA 15, the student co-chairs of the competition.
“We thought about what this competition is really trying to do: It’s now much more about catapulting and launching companies from ideas to viable businesses over the course of the competition,” Lo says. “LAUNCH exactly describes our aim.”
LAUNCH focuses on startups from energy and cleantech, life sciences, products and services, and IT and Web industries. After teams make their pitches at the private semifinals, judges will select two teams from each track to compete in the final round. First-place track winners receive $5,000 and a chance to pitch their idea during the Spring 2014 application cycle for SkyDeck, UC Berkeley’s startup accelerator. Second-place track winners receive $2,500.
During the private portion of the April 24 finals event, judges will select the $20,000 grand prize winner, who also will receive an automatic six-month spot at SkyDeck. The winner will be announced at the public finals on the evening of April 24.
Each finalist is also eligible to win the $5,000 People’s Choice Award, chosen by an audience vote during the final public round presentation. In addition, the semifinalists who did not advance to the final round are eligible to win the $2,500 Elevator Pitch Award, also determined by audience votes.
Even those teams that won’t win prize money will benefit for the extensive networking and mentorship opportunities the competition presents. This year’s competition even features a networking reception and expo where the 30 semifinalists who did not advance to the finals can set up visuals and discuss their business ideas with attendees of the public final round.
Registration is required for the April 24 LAUNCH public finals, which will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Andersen Auditorium. You can find out more information about LAUNCH here. launch.berkeley.edu.
