Business Plan Competition

CFEE serves as a key sponsor for the GW New Venture Competition. The GW New Venture Competition (formerly the GW Business Plan Competition) provides GW students, faculty, staff and alumni with a real-world educational experience in developing, testing, and launching their own startup ventures.

The Competition is the fifth largest collegiate business plan competition in the country. Each year cash prizes are awarded, with participation from hundreds of students across the ten schools at GW. In-kind prizes worth tens of thousands of dollars are also awarded annually. These include free legal counsel, office space, and professional consultation services.

The Competition fosters innovation and entrepreneurship at GW through workshops, mentoring, non-dilutive cash grants, in-kind prizes, networking opportunities, publicity, and concept validation.

Throughout the academic year, the program provides useful resources to the participants. Dozens of workshops on ideation, customer development, social entrepreneurship, venture creation, fundraising, pitching and other important skills and topics are held. All semi-finalists teams are paired with a mentor, and extensive judges’ feedback is provided to all entrants. This effort would not be possible without the participation of over 100 volunteer mentors and judges.

The initial funding for the competition was provided by a generous grant from Richard and Annette Scott. Richard Scott is the 45th governor of Florida, as well as a successful entrepreneur. Additional funding comes from the deans of the GW schools, corporate sponsors and individual donors.

The GW New Venture Competition is administered by the GW Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

2013 GW New Venture Competition Winner: Sonostik

2012 Pitch George winners Adam Corman and Neal Sikka of Sonostik have won again and are “innovating tools for bedside use of emergency ultrasound to improve patient care.”

CFEE’S 2013 Audience Choice Award Goes to the Smartbrush

Team members Travis Gonzales, Sina Aghli, and Genki Kondo were awarded $3,000 courtesy of CFEE and Dr. George Solomon. “The SmartBrush is the first app-connected toothbrush that allows you to brush your teeth through interactive gaming all while providing the user with an optimal teeth cleaning experience.”

Congratulations to WiseAgg, 2012 first place winner: “WiseAgg is the Google for analysts.”