Startup Challenge Monterey Bay Prepares for 10th Annual Competition

SEASIDE, Calif., March 4, 2019– California State University, Monterey Bay’s (CSUMB) Institute for Innovation and Economic Development (iiED) is set to host the 10th annual Startup Challenge Monterey Bay this spring.

The challenge, offering a total of $65K in prizes across four divisions of competition, has seen more than 600 companies participate over ten years and has awarded more than $300K in prize money.

Startup Challenge Monterey Bay is a new business competition and accelerator program that supports the founding, funding and growth of new and innovative businesses in the Monterey Bay region. It offers workshops, feedback, and mentoring to empower entrepreneurs in a competitive process while empowering entrepreneurs to communicate their ideas effectively to investors, customers and employees.

In ten years of competition, Startup Challenge Monterey Bay has trained 2,200 aspiring entrepreneurs from 620 participating companies who have gone on to create more than 150 jobs and raise more than $10 million in capital.

 

The startup challenge new venture competition is an opportunity for people to start a business and to receive some coaching and mentoring to help them understand how to start their business.”

— Brad Barbeau, iiED executive director and associate professor at CSUMB's College of Business.

Cruz Foam took the top prize of $20K in the Venture division in 2018 and previously won $1,500 in the Student division in 2017.

“The startup challenge new venture competition is an opportunity for people to start a business and to receive some coaching and mentoring to help them understand how to start their business,” said iiED executive director and CSUMB College of Business associate professor Brad Barbeau. “The goal of the startup challenge isn’t so much to crown a winner as it is to encourage people to go after their dreams to start a business.”

Applications to the competition are due by March 11, 2019 while the competition officially kicks off with a qualifying round April 6th and culminating with the final round and venture showcase May 10th at the Embassy Suites Monterey Bay in Seaside.

This year’s challenge offers four divisions – Venture, Social Venture, Main Street and Student. The Venture division is for businesses that are intended to scale into large enterprises and that can provide venture-capital level returns to investors; The Social Venture division is open to nonprofits and companies who make social enterprise a significant part of their company mission statement; the Main Street division is for small businesses and the Student division is for students in graduate, undergraduate, junior college or high school levels.