Launch a Startup

UT System Graduate Students:  Pitch your startup to a group of investors to win cash prizes and services. The Texas Venture Labs Investment Competition (TVLIC) simulates the real-world process of raising venture capital.  Register to compete in the Friday, December 4, 2020 competition by November 15.

Early applicants will be eligible to attend a Pitch Prep Workshop where they will learn tips and receive coaching from industry experts. This is a great opportunity to take your presentation skills up a notch and get some feedback on your pitch before TVLIC.

To learn more, sign up for a virtual Info Session held Nov. 4, 5 and 6, check out the Rules and FAQs or email us.

Invaluable Feedback Plus
Along with invaluable feedback, the winner receives a suite of prizes: $15,000; A seat in the Company-in-Residence Program; Golden Ticket to Capital Factory; Access to the LeanStack.com tools and a personalized coaching session with the creator of the Lean Canvas, Ash Maurya and $5,000 in Amazon Web Services Credits valid for two years; one year of AWS Business Support (up to $1,500) and 80 credits for Self-Paced Labs.

And there's more:  cash prizes for second and third place. Three $1,000 Nemec Elevator Challenge winners for the best three minute elevator pitch. Veteran-owned ventures are eligible to win the $1,000 James D. Pippin Student Veteran Award . New this year, a health-related company will be given the Health Innovation Award of $1,000 plus six month ScaleHealth membership.  

Even more:  One finalist will be selected for six months mentoring through Austin Technology Incubator. Another finalist will win a Golden Ticket to the Blackstone Launchpad SEAL summer program

Deadline for submittal of competition materials is Nov. 15, 2020. 

Join a Startup

Gain real-world experience and course credit working for startups in the JBTVL Practicum class. All majors are welcome with a good many from the MBA, law, engineering, pharmacy, and natural sciences programs.

Graduate students enroll in the JBTVL Practicum to experience the startup reality. They solve meaningful cross-disciplinary problems and learn to apply academic principles in the real world. They build valuable job skills and strengthen their resumes with proven experience. Not to mention the ability to network with top-tier startups, founders and investors and possibly find a job, raise funding or identify team members.

The JBTVL Practicum offers students the chance to participate in semester-long consulting projects solving important problems alongside the company’s founders. If admitted to the program, students will work closely with two startup companies on: market validation, competitive analysis, financial analysis, and business model assessment. Practicum students also receive extensive funding guidance from professors and entrepreneurs.

Applications for the Texas Venture Labs Practicum Spring 2021 are open until Oct. 25, 2020.  UT Austin graduate students with a taste for entrepreneurship should apply.  

Questions? 
Register to attend an Info Session held Sept. 30 through Oct. 22. Contact us at infoTVL@mccombs.utexas.edu.

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Investment Competition

TVLIC is the real deal. Past participants, such as the founders of uShip, BeatBox Beverages and Ordoro to name a few, have gone on to do great things after launching their startups at TVLIC. Many other participants have leveraged their TVLIC experience and feedback from the judges to accelerate their careers outside of entrepreneurship.

Oxymoron Ink won first place in the first ever virtual 2020 Spring TVLIC on May 8, 2020. Millions of people around the world are interested in tattoos, but avoid them because they know they might regret their decision later in life. Oxymoron Ink solves this problem by offering inks that disappear after six months, nine months or one year. The company manufactures the world’s first semi-permanent tattoo ink. These biodegradable, patent-pending inks were developed at UT Austin by CEO Matthew Miller, a NSF Graduate Research Fellow in Chemical Engineering.

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TVL Practicum Course

We leverage the Austin ecosystem with unique, hands-on programs that extend across graduate programs on campus and the greater Austin startup community. Since 2010,  775+ Master’s and PhD students have gone through the JBTVL Practicum.

JBTVL Practicum students work with a wide range of startups both pre revenue and post revenue.  Since 2010, students have worked with more than 230 startups.  Check out the list of this semester's cohort of companies. 

Applications for the Texas Venture Labs Practicum Spring 2021 are open.  UT Austin graduate students with a taste for entrepreneurship should apply.  Questions?  Register to attend an Info Session held Sept. 30 through Oct. 22. Contact us at infoTVL@mccombs.utexas.edu.