Launch a Startup

The Texas Venture Labs Investment Competition (TVLIC) mimics the real-world process of raising venture capital. Graduate students from the University of Texas System present their ideas for new businesses and receive invaluable feedback from entrepreneurs and investors. Many TVLIC competitors go on to launch their businesses. Successful competitors have included uShip, Ordoro, BeatBox Beverages, Phurnace Software and Qcue among others.

The 2020 Fall TVLIC was held online on Dec. 4. The winning team was FireTeam. For the military community who are experiencing geographically dispersed relationships, low performance and accountability problems, FireTeam leverages the latent power of the service community and existing relationships to bring this community together through a mobile application that allows them to select their own FireTeam to compete on various forms of health to level up on our platform and life.  

The Texas Superstar Award went to  NiSOC in second place and third place GRIT Chew was named the Texas Rising Star. CoverZero Analytics received the James D. Pippin Veteran Award given to the most promising startup in TVLIC with one or more veteran co-founders. The Health Innovation Award was given to GRIT Chew. The E. Craig Nemec Elevator Challenge Award is given to the best elevator pitches delivered by TVLIC competitors. The three winners were NiSOC, Handoff and Root Medical Translation.

The 2021 Spring TVLIC will be held on May 7, 2021. 

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 Fall 2021 are open.  UT Austin graduate students with a taste for entrepreneurship should apply.  

Questions? 
Contact us at infoTVL@mccombs.utexas.edu.

Apply

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.

The 2020 Fall TVLIC winning team was FireTeam. For the military community who are experiencing geographically dispersed relationships, low performance and accountability problems, FireTeam leverages the latent power of the service community and existing relationships to bring this community together through a mobile application that allows them to select their own FireTeam to compete on various forms of health to level up on our platform and life.  The winning team comes from the Masters of Science and Technologyclass of 2021 at UT Austin and include Stephen Hoey, Byron Voneida and Dillon Lesovsky.

The 2021 Spring TVLIC will be held on May 7, 2021.  

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 Fall 2021 are open.  UT Austin graduate students with a taste for entrepreneurship should apply.  Questions?  Contact us at infoTVL@mccombs.utexas.edu.