Overview
The Pilots Venture Challenge is a premier business, social enterprise and invention competition hosted by the Franz Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation at the University of Portland. Underwritten by generous donors to the University, the competition promotes experiential education about entrepreneurship and new business development by focusing on student created, launched, and managed ventures. The spirit of this competition is that current UP undergraduate or graduate students both originate and lead the startup idea.
Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 29, 2023 for this year's Pilots Venture Challenge
Point of Contact: Kay Molkentin, molkenti@up.edu
General Info & Workshops
We offer a General Information Session (see video below), as well as several workshops to help you prepare for participating in the Pilot Venture Challenge.
General Info Video
PVC Workshops - Please REGISTER HERE for the workshops to let us know you are coming, as space is limited. REGISTRATION CLOSED.
Mar. 1st, 5:00-6:00PM - Developing Your Idea (in-person, Franz 121)
Mar. 15th, 5:00-6:00PM - Prototypes & MVPs (in-person, Franz 121)
Mar. 22nd, 5:00-6:00PM - Writing Your Business Plan (in-person, Franz 121)
Mar. 29th, 5:00-6:00PM - Preparing Your Pitch Presentation (in-person, Franz 121)
Important Dates:
Last Day to Register for ALL Tracks - March 31st by 5PM
For-Profit and/or Social Preliminary Rounds (if needed) - April 4th, Time TBD
Upload Business Plans ALL Tracks - April 21st by midnight
Upload ALL Tracks Presentation PowerPoints - April 27th by midnight
Pilot Venture Competition - April 29th, 8:00am-Noon
InventOR Bootcamp & Semifinals - May 4th - 6th
InventOR Finals at Portland State - June 23rd-24th
PVC: The Categories
Students compete in three categories: Iinvention, For-Profit and Social. Please see the Pilots Venture Guidelines for more detailed information. To better help you to prepare your submission here are several checklists and rubrics you can download: PVC Invention Track Submission Checklist, PVC For-Profit/Social Track Submission Checklist, PVC Inventionon Track Judges Rubric, PVC For-Profit Judges Rubric, and PVC Social Judges Rubric.
Students/teams wishing to compete must register here by March 31, 2023 - REGISTRATION CLOSED. Once you register you will be given access to the Pilot Venture Moodle page, where you can find additional information and will upload your materials for the competition.
Cash Prizes In Each Category
Other Opportunities
Students competing in the Invention category will be considered to go on to represent the University of Portland at the InventOR – a state-wide collegiate prototyping competition.
Students competing in all categories and interested in continuing to advance their venture ideas and/or compete in other regional and national competitions can receive continued assistance through the Franz Center.
RESULTS OF PILOT VENTURE CHALLENGE 2022! VIEW HERE >>
Previous Results
University of Portland
5000 N. Willamette Blvd.,
Portland, Oregon 97203-5798
503.943.8000
