UMW’s College of Business is taking its annual Eagle Innovation Startup Pitch Competition to the next level this year with the addition of the Eagle Egg Innovation Fund. Photo by Norm Shafer.
Plenty of promising business ideas have been floated and funded at the University of Mary Washington’s annual Eagle Innovation Startup Pitch Competition – a kid-friendly dental flosser, a mobile coffee café, an all-in-one wellness app.
The new Eagle Egg Innovation Fund promises to take this spring’s event to the next level, with a top prize of $10,000 to help the winning team get its proposed venture off of the ground. The increased monetary support for the pitch competition – which also includes cash prizes for second- and third-place finishers, plus four $500 Concept Awards – is designed to pump up the entrepreneurial spirit on campus and bring more students’ business ambitions to life. And the Eagle Egg Innovation Fund is expected to continue to grow as it attracts additional supporters.
Applications for the $500 Concept Awards, giving four student teams a financial headstart on perfecting their business plans, are due by midnight on Friday, Feb. 27. First held in 2019, the Eagle Innovation Startup Pitch Competition is scheduled for Thursday, April 23, from 5 to 8 p.m., in the Hurley Convergence Center’s Digital Auditorium. It’s open to Concept Award-winners and all full-time UMW students across disciplines.
“Small awards create excitement. Larger awards create traction,” said Filiz Tabak, dean of the College of Business, which hosts the competition. “For many UMW students, even a few hundred dollars for prototyping can be transformational.” Read more about the Eagle Egg Innovation Fund.
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