Top 20The New Venture Challenge (NVC)—a signature program of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative—is CU Boulder’s “flight simulator” for students and employees driven to create real-world impact through new startups, organizations and endeavors. NVC gives aspiring problem-solvers and creatives a chance to build up these impactful ventures through entrepreneurial events and programming, community support, mentorship and—ultimately—the opportunity to compete for funding.


Participants represent majors and departments from across the university. From undergraduates to graduates, PhD candidates to postdocs, and faculty to staff, everyone is invited to pitch their idea.

With a world-class community of entrepreneurs, startups and established businesses in our backyard, Boulder is one of the best places to launch ideas because it resides at the intersection of a top research university, an internationally recognized startup community and one of the nation’s best cities in which to live.

Key Initiatives for NVC
  • Lift our funding prize pool for the NVC Finals to $500K
  • Create a world-class mentorship program
  • Focus on collapsing the campus and getting all students involved
  • Creating a stronger pipeline of support for teams after the NVC Finals