- Who is eligible and other rules?
- Eligibility and Rules
- Applicant must be an HBS Alumni from an alumni status granting program.
- Alumni who won the student New Venture Competition must wait one year after graduation
before applying to the alumni New Venture Competition.
- HBS Alumni must be a founder and have an active daily leadership role in the company.
The HBS Founder must be represented at all events and be the pitch lead.
- HBS Investors are not eligible to submit companies unless they are identified as a
founder and have an active daily leadership role in the company.
- Applicant must be a first- or second-time founder/co-founder only.
- No Subsidiaries are eligible to apply.
- Outside funding must be less than $2.5M total debt/invested equity capital. Invested
capital is defined as funding appearing on the plan's balance sheet at the time of
submission, which is no later than January 31, 2025 at 12pm noon ET (Boston time).
Teams will disclose any prior funding received at the time of registration.
- Revenue must be less than $2M as of January 31, 2025.
- Must have business model validation, traction, revenue, or customer commitments.
- Past aNVC regional winners are not eligible to apply.
- All applications must be submitted in English.
- Applicants can apply to one region only.
- If selected to compete in the regional competition and travel is required, the applicant
will cover their own travel to the regional competition.
- If too few applications are submitted to a region, HBS has the right to cancel the
regional competition.
- The HBS Rock Center for Entrepreneurship reserves the right to disqualify any entry
that violates the rules or spirit of the competition. The decision of the Rock Center
is final and binding.
- What are the prizes?
- Prizes
- $75k Global Winner
- $25K Runner-up
- $5k Crowd Favorite
- What is the process?
-
- Apply to a region in the Reviewr app between October 1, 2024 - January 31, 2025.
- Pick a region where you or an HBS Co-founder is located, or where your business is
located. Here’s the list of states/countries and associated regions.
- Regional Leaders will review applications and contact applicants.
- Judges will review applications in each region and recommend those who should move
on to the regional live judging rounds. Some regions have multiple rounds of judging
and will notify applicants describing the details of their regional competitions.
- Each region will hold their regional finals between the end of February and Mid-March.
The winners of those finals will be invited to pitch virtually at the Global Finals
Judging round, hosted be the HBS Rock Center for Entrepreneurship on Tuesday, March
25, 2025.
- The top 4 finalists will be invited to pitch in person or virtually at the NVC Finale,
for the crowd favorite vote. Pitches will be kept to 90 seconds long.
- The winner, runner-up from the Global Finals Judging round and the Crowd Favorite
will be announced the night of the NVC Finale on March 27, 2025 as part of the Alumni
Track.
- Prizes will be distributed by Alumni Relations in the weeks following the Finale.
- What are the important dates?
-
- 10/1/24 Applications open
- 12/5/24 Past winners’ panel
- 1/31/25 5 pm ET Applications close
- 2/3/25 Regions start outreach to applicants, regional judging starts
- 2/24/25 Regional finals start
- 3/15/25 All Regional final events completed
- 3/20/25 Regional Winners Announced
- 3/25/25 Regional Winners Compete in the virtual Global Final Judging
- 3/27/25 NVC Finale/hybrid with 3 tracks, Student Business, Student Social Enterprise,
Alumni
- What do I need to submit with my application?
-
- Details about you, the company, team, your alumni directory link.
- Pitch deck.
- An optional 3 to 5 minute video in additiona to your pitch decks.
- You can update the content of your application until the application deadline, January
31, 2025 at noon ET.
