Tulane Business Model Competition announces big changes for 20th anniversary

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Lydia Winkler (MBA/JD '19), left, and Marco Nelson (MBA '19), founders of 2019 Tulane Business Model Competition grand prize winner RentCheck, pitch the company to judges at last year's finals.

The Tulane Business Model Competition celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2020, and to mark the occasion, the competition has some big changes in store.

Hosted by the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Tulane University’s A. B. Freeman School of Business, the competition rewards student startups that demonstrate a market-tested ability to adapt to customers’ needs.

Thanks to the generosity of the Tulane community, the total prize pool for this year’s event has been increased from $40,000 to $125,000, an all-time high. Also new this year, both the semi-final and final rounds will take place during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, giving participants a chance to attend the event and connect with mentors and investors.

“The Tulane Business Model Competition is one of the nation’s leading events for student startups, and New Orleans Entrepreneur Week is one of the region’s premier entrepreneurship celebrations,” says Rob Lalka, executive director of the Lepage Center. “For our 20th annual competition, we wanted to up the ante and bring these two great events together.”

The competition is open to early-stage ventures that include at least one degree-seeking undergraduate or graduate student. Applications for the 2020 competition opened on Dec. 3, 2019, and the deadline for submissions is 11:59 PM CST Friday, Jan. 27, 2020.

For more information and to see the complete rules, visit https://freeman.tulane.edu/lepage/tulane-business-model-competition or contact Emily Egan at eegan@tulane.edu or 504-865-5462.