Looking back at a year of impactful growth and accomplishments

Your support—whether as a volunteer, mentor, judge, partner or advocate—has been instrumental in helping us build a vibrant, inclusive and thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem across campus and beyond the community.

Over the past academic year, we’ve launched and expanded several impactful programs that continue to shape the future of innovation at CU. The New Venture Challenge (NVC) remains our flagship program, bringing together student, faculty and staff founders to pitch their ventures before a live audience. This year’s NVC Finals at the Boulder Theater highlighted the depth of talent and creativity emerging from CU Boulder in two categories (Deep Tech and Open) and showcased just how far we’ve come as a community—this year was the largest prize pool ever with $325,000 in funding (thanks to our two investing partners D4 and Kickstart).

We also proudly introduced and grew specialized competitions that elevate underrepresented voices and address pressing global challenges. The Women Founders Competition provided funding and visibility for women-led startups. The Sustainability Hackathon and the Social Impact New Venture Challenge competitions invited students from across disciplines to develop bold, actionable solutions to sustainability challenges. And, the High School New Venture Challenge (HSNVC) gave young innovators a platform to explore entrepreneurship early, creating new pathways for future Buffs to connect with the university.

None of this would be possible without you—our community of volunteers, mentors and judges. Hundreds of mentors and nearly 160 judges donated their time and expertise this year to guide, challenge, and inspire our ventures. Your commitment fuels our momentum and helps ensure that every participant feels seen, supported and set up to succeed.

Thank you for being such an essential part of the CU Boulder innovation journey. We look forward to building on this progress and growing our impact even further in the year ahead.