B.E.T.A. Challenge 2020: What You Need to Know Now
Want to win $20,000 for your venture?
Now in its ninth year, the Blank Center’s B.E.T.A. Challenge recognizes major milestones Babson businesses have achieved by taking action. Winners of the graduate, undergraduate, and alumni B.E.T.A. Challenge tracks each win a grand prize of $20,000 in cash, plus “services in kind” donations from corporate sponsors. In addition, $2,500 is awarded to each of the finalists.
What you need to know now to apply
We go into detail about the eligibility and guidelines to apply to the B.E.T.A. Challenge on our website, but here are a few things you should know now:
- The B.E.T.A. Challenge is open to:
- All Babson students that were enrolled fall 2019 or spring 2020
- Any alum with an undergraduate and/or graduate degree from Babson.
- Olin College of Engineering or Wellesley College venture that is in the John E. and Alice L. Butler Launch Pad and has submitted a participation agreement.
- Individual students/alumni or groups are eligible to apply. The lead entrepreneur of any group must be a current Babson student, Babson alum, or an Olin/Wellesley venture that is in the John E. and Alice L. Butler Launch Pad. If a group is comprised of both alumni and students, the status of the lead entrepreneur determines which track the group can apply for. A lead entrepreneur is defined as someone who is part of the founding team and/or holds an executive position in the startup. A lead entrepreneur is not an employee, contractor, and/or intern in the startup.
- If you’re a student, you will need a faculty sponsor. The deadline to submit your faculty sponsor through our submission site is Friday, January 31 at 12pm EST. All we need from you is your professor’s name and email. The responsibilities of a faculty sponsor can be found online.
- The deadline to apply is Friday, February 14 at 12pm EST. Our submission requirements are:
- Faculty sponsor (if applicable)
- Executive Summary—two page limit in .doc, .docx or .pdf format.
- Slide deck—maximum 10 slides in .pptx, .ppt or .pdf format. The 10 slide limit includes cover slide. The slide deck must cover the following; emphasis will be placed on actions taken to date, tasks completed, and the steps to move the venture forward:
- Description of venture
- Industry represented
- Target market, include market analysis
- Value proposition
- Backgrounds/roles of team member(s)
- Milestones completed to date (i.e. completed feasibility study, created website, etc.)
- Timeline of future goals.
- Overall potential of opportunity (i.e. has economic and/or social growth potential, can be self-sustainable in current market, can generate revenues from potential/existing customers, etc.)
Interested in support the B.E.T.A. Challenge? There are many ways to get involved:
Participate as an alumni evaluator
If you are an alum of Babson, you can help decide who gets to the semifinals! The evaluation process takes place from February 19 through March 4. All of our evaluators review and score the applications online. Selected faculty will review the top applicants as identified by the alumni evaluations and will narrow them down to the six semifinalists in each of the undergraduate, graduate, and alumni tracks. Sign up now to be an evaluator >>
Attend the Venture Expo (B.E.T.A. Challenge semifinals) on April 1
Set up as a fair, you can meet the semifinalists of the B.E.T.A. Challenge face-to-face starting at 4:30pm on Wednesday, April 1. Each semifinalist will have a booth where they will display their business and chat one-on-one with attendees, including our anonymous judges. As an attendee of the Venture Expo, you get to vote for your favorite undergraduate, graduate, and alumni business with our entrepreneuros!
Attend the B.E.T.A. Challenge finals on April 16
Our finalists will present in front of a panel of judges on Thursday, April 16. Our distinguished judges will decide the winners of the undergraduate, graduate, and alumni B.E.T.A. Challenge tracks. Last year we had some very accomplished judges as part of our panel, including Cait Reimers Brumme, Managing Director, MassChallenge Boston; Jessica Murphy MBA’06, Co-founder, TrueFit; Jason Ruben ’07, Founder, Baguette Atelier; and Ian So ’08, CEO and Co-founder, The Chicken and Rice Guys.
Follow all things B.E.T.A. Challenge on our website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, #babsonbeta.