McGinnis Venture Competition

It is with mixed emotions that we announce the “retirement” of the McGinnis Venture Competition. The McGinnis Venture Competition began as the first graduate-level, new venture competition that focused exclusively on bringing new technologies to the marketplace through entrepreneurship. Since inception in 2003, over $980,000 in cash and in-kind prizes have been awarded to startups in the technology, life science, and cleantech fields. With almost 25% of its participants hailing from outside of the United States, the McGinnis Venture Competition was truly an international event that included top schools from around the world. We are blessed to have been a part of the global competition circuit operated under the Texas Venture Labs umbrella (formerly MOOT Corp competition) for the last eight years, and thrilled to have met and helped some of the best and brightest young entrepreneurs.

The McGinnis Venture Competition was made possible due to an endowment from Gerald E. McGinnis, a successful entrepreneur and founder of Respironics. We owe Jerry a lot for his support, and we also thank our sponsors and judges for their contributions of time and funding. Going forward, we are focused on the development of an annual conference and competition(s) for Carnegie Mellon students, faculty and alumni aimed at accelerating innovation through entrepreneurship within our university community. This is aligned with our overall Tepper School and Carnegie Mellon strategic initiatives and objectives. Our current graduate students will still look forward to participating in the Global Texas Venture Labs competitions.

If you have any questions, please contact Giselle Marino.