College » Development » Senior Legacy » Gift
What is this year's gift?
As voted on by the senior class, the 2012 Legacy Senior Class Gift will be an award that will provide seed funding to College of Business students or groups who have either young or fully-developed entrepreneurial startup ideas. In addition to receiving cash, the selected startups will be aligned with mentors and coaches, have access to an enormous network of alumni, investors, and successful entrepreneurs who are all doing their part to give back to the College of Business, and support College entrepreneurs.
LEGACY STARTUP CHALLENGE
Deadline: April 4th, 2012
Have an innovative business idea? Compete for an entrepreneurship award and startup assistance. First prize is a $5,000 award and participation in the Illinois Launch accelerator program.
Second prize is a $2,500 award.
The College of Business has a long history of graduating successful entrepreneurs. Albert Goldstein (Finance, ‘02) founded CashNet USA in 2004, and sold it for $265 million in 2006. Albert and his brother Alexander started the Illinois Launch accelerator program with a gift to the College in 2009. Since then, the Illinois Launch accelerator program has helped more than 50 startups raise over $1.3 million in seed stage funding. Several College of Business undergraduates have participated since the program started in June of 2010:
Dan Klein (Finance & Entrepreneurship, ’10) founded Tiesta Tea with help from Illinois Launch in March 2010. The tea is now available online and in more than 100 retail outlets in 5 countries.
Ryan and Ashton Clark (both Accountancy, ’10), serial entrepreneurs since childhood, started UTicketIt through the Illinois Launch program. UTicketIt is an online platform for student organizations, clubs and other events.
Arpan Shah (Accounting, ’11) has attracted VC funding for his innovative solution to reduce printing costs and save the environment. PrintEco participated in the first Illinois Launch Bootcamp and recently took first place in the OG25 Start-Up competition.
This competition and award is funded by the 2012 Legacy Senior Class Gift.
Win a $5,000 award to help launch your own startup!
Eligibility:
- College of Business undergraduates enrolled fulltime during the academic year 2012 (December and May grads may apply)
- College of Business students who apply can be part of a larger team; however, only Business undergraduates are eligible for scholarships and prizes
Application process:
- Submit a brief business plan and pitch deck online via the Gust platform used by Illinois Launch, by Wednesday, April 4th, 2012
- Final round pitch presentations will be the week of April 9th, 2012
- Awards will be announced before May 31st, 2012
