Prizes

Finalist teams in the New Venture Competition can earn a range of cash and in-kind prizes that provide valuable funding and support to grow their ventures.

Track Specific Prizes

Based on last year’s distribution, teams are expected to receive the following cash prizes. Final amounts may be subject to slight changes depending on available resources and sponsorships.

Vertical Tracks:

1st place: $10,000
2nd place: $7,500
3rd place: $5,000

Explorer Track:

1st place: $1,500
2nd place: $1,000
3rd place: $500

Sponsored By: Shaya Reiter & Mandy Reiter

*Winners that receive a cash prize must meet all eligibility and disbursement requirements.

Specialty Prizes

Specialty prizes will reflect the skills and values of the NVC program.
Winners will be chosen by the OIE staff and Round 3 judges.

Best Customer Discovery Prize

The Best Customer Discovery Prize recognizes a team's outstanding customer discovery and engagement in GW Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship programming. This award honors the quality, depth, and strategic application of insights gained from customer interviews.

Best Market Assessment Prize

The Best Market Assessment Prize is given to the team that presents the most comprehensive understanding of their market—its definition, dynamics, and trends—and clearly connects this insight to the development of their value proposition.

Best Financial Understanding Prize

The Best Financial Understanding Prize recognizes a finalist team that demonstrates a clear, thoughtful, and well-structured approach to startup financials, economic principles, and revenue projections. This prize is awarded to the team that effectively showcases a strong grasp of cost estimates, income projections, financial sustainability, and overall economic viability in their NVC application and presentations. The winning team exhibits a deep understanding of their financial model, providing realistic and well-supported financial strategies that set the foundation for a successful venture.

Prize: $5,000

Sponsored by: Strategic Investment Group

Best Storytelling Prize

The Best Storytelling Prize recognizes the team that crafts and delivers a compelling, creative, and cohesive narrative. Honors ventures that effectively communicate their vision, impact, and value proposition in a way that is memorable, emotionally resonant, and aligned with their brand identity.

Viewer's Choice Award

The Viewer's Choice Award recognizes the finalist team whose 30-second video delivers the most creative and compelling visualization of their business thesis. The video should clearly communicate the value proposition, capture attention, and showcase the team's innovation and storytelling abilities. The winner will be determined by the highest number of audience votes—reflecting not only the strength of the video itself, but also how effectively the team marketed it.

Spirit of NVC Prize

The Spirit of NVC Prize recognizes a finalist team that embodies the core values of the New Venture Competition—dedication, curiosity, enthusiasm, evolution, and self-awareness—throughout the competition journey. Selected by the Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (OIE) staff, this award honors a team that demonstrates resilience, a commitment to learning, and a willingness to adapt and grow as entrepreneurs. This prize celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit that drives innovation and success beyond the competition.

Prize: $5,000

Sponsored by: Greg Wong

Global Impact Prize

The Global Impact Prize is awarded to the team whose venture demonstrates strong potential to create measurable and sustainable social impact in an international market. This prize recognizes innovative solutions that address global challenges and improve lives beyond U.S. borders.

Prize: $5,000

Sponsored by: Q Advisors

NextEra Innovation in Sustainability Prize

The NextEra Prize is awarded to the team whose venture offers a promising solution to sustainability challenges such as climate change, waste reduction, environmental preservation, or clean energy. This prize honors innovative ideas with the potential to create lasting environmental impact.

In-Kind Prizes

Arctic Blue AI: ArcticBlue helps leadership teams validate and scale AI initiatives that drive measurable impact, while quickly eliminating experiments that don't. By applying these same enterprise-grade principles, ArcticBlue empowers student founders to bridge the gap between AI theory and real-world execution.
Prize Description: ArcticBlue is awarding three (3) NVC teams a series of three mini workshops on customer development, AI prototyping, and product validation. Winners will learn from founder Thor Ernstsson, a veteran technologist who previously served as the lead architect and studio CTO at Zynga (creators of Words With Friends) and co-founded Rally Health (acquired by UnitedHealth Group). Unlike a traditional consulting firm, ArcticBlue works hands-on with founders to run real-world AI experiments. Winners will participate in an intensive research sprint, testing their prototypes against "gen-pop" (general population) users to see how everyday people actually interact with their product. These sessions help students move from a slide deck to a working system, teaching them how to scale ideas that create impact and quickly "kill" experiments that don't providing the professional tools and speed needed to build a validated, investor-ready startup!

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Blank Rome LLP: Blank Rome is a full-service nationwide law firm with 16 offices and over 750 attorneys. Peter Weissman specializes in patent and trademark law, and has been a long time supporter of the GW New Venture Plan competition.
Prize Description: Blank Rome is awarding a select NVC team up to $15,000 in in-kind legal services for patent and trademark support. Please note that this award covers legal fees only and does not include additional costs such as government filing fees. Additionally, the award cannot be used in cases where a conflict exists with a current Blank Rome client.

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Draper University: Draper University is a world-renowned entrepreneurship program founded by venture capitalist Tim Draper. Its Hero Training program is an immersive, high-energy startup accelerator designed for aspiring entrepreneurs and early-stage founders. Over the course of several weeks, participants gain hands-on experience, mentorship from industry leaders, and the mindset needed to build and scale groundbreaking companies. Hero Training empowers founders to take risks, innovate, and become the next generation of industry disruptors
Prize Description: Draper University, founded by renowned venture capitalist Tim Draper, offers its transformative Hero Training program—an immersive, high-energy startup accelerator designed for aspiring entrepreneurs and early-stage founders. Over five weeks, participants gain hands-on experience, mentorship from industry leaders, and the mindset needed to build and scale innovative companies. As part of this in-kind prize, one team member from each selected startup will be fast-tracked to the final round of interviews for a chance to receive a full scholarship to the Hero Training program.

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Hoplynk: Hoplynk is rebuilding how people and enterprises stay connected on the go and when infrastructure goes down, by intelligently connecting to every available network and keeping sessions alive through disruptions. Our plug-and-play, deploy-anywhere hardware and software give you an AI-network engineer in your pocket to configure, monitor, and optimize performance automatically. And it’s security-first: you get the same trusted security posture you’d expect at home or in the office, anywhere you operate.
Prize Description: Hoplynk is awarding an NVC team a GoLynk Mini, a pocket-sized "autonomous network" that ensures a professional-grade connection anywhere. Unlike a standard hotspot, the GoLynk Mini uses Hydra AI to bond up to six Wi-Fi and Ethernet sources into one unbreakable, 1+ Gbps super-connection.This is a unique opportunity to eliminate the risk of dropped pitch calls or unstable public Wi-Fi. Whether you are presenting to a VC or running a data-heavy demo, this prize gives you the ultimate founder’s peace of mind: a secure, high-speed connection that stays alive even when the infrastructure fails!

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Pitch Labs: Pitch Labs provides a dedicated platform for early-stage founders to master their storytelling before stepping in front of investors. By creating a low-stakes environment powered by community-driven feedback, Pitch Labs helps entrepreneurs stress-test their ideas, refine their delivery, and build the confidence necessary to secure funding.
Prize Description: Pitch Labs is awarding three (3) NVC teams with priority presenting spots at their monthly pitch events, providing a unique platform to gain experience and visibility within the DMV startup ecosystem. Using a 10/10 format, winners present for 10 minutes followed by 10 minutes of direct feedback from an audience of investors, startup enthusiasts, and founders of all stages. In addition to the pitch, teams gain access to extended networking sessions for one-on-one connections with audience members and the Pitch Labs team. This prize is a powerful opportunity to stress-test your strategy, refine your delivery, and access the resources needed to become investor-ready!
The Culture Pro®: The Culture Pro® offers strategic consulting to organizations focused on clarity, execution, and long-term business success. Its Inside-Out Transformation Framework™ helps organizations address mindset, behaviors, systems, and strategy to create sustainable results.
Prize Description: The Culture Pro is awarding two (2) NVC teams with 10 hours of strategic consulting to accelerate their early-stage ventures. These sessions will be tailored to the specific stage of each winning venture. Whether clarifying a new business idea, identifying ideal customers, or strengthening a value proposition, the consulting provides expert guidance through a proprietary Inside-Out Transformation Framework. This framework helps founders examine how their thinking and decision-making directly influence business systems and execution.

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Claiming Cash Prizes

Prize awards are only distributed to teams that meet all eligibility and disbursement requirements. Review the criteria below to ensure your venture is able to receive any prize earnings.

Incorporation Requirements

If you win a cash prize in a Vertical Track, your venture must be incorporated before prize disbursement and within one year of winning.

Explorer Track winners do not need to incorporate to receive their prize funds.

Note: Your venture do not need to be incorporated to APPLY to NVC.

Student Ownership

For-profit ventures: At least 25% ownership must be held by current GW student(s).
Non-profits: At least 25% of the board must be composed of current GW students.

Payee Structure

Explorer Track: One GW student will be designated as the payee (GW does not split payments).
Vertical Track: The incorporated company will be set up as the payee.

Banking & Tax Setup

W-9, banking details, and tax information must be submitted before prize disbursement.
For full guidance on how to receive your award, please review our Cash Prize Disbursement Instructions.

Note: Prizes distributed to international entities are subjected to tax.