TVL Students

Launch a Startup

Current University of Texas System graduate students can apply for our Investment Competition. You’re eligible to win cash and services for your startup plus receive invaluable feedback from a panel of experts and investors! See more information below in the Investment Competition section. 

The Texas Venture Labs Investment Competition (TVLIC) is designed to mimic the real-world process of raising venture capital.  TVLIC gives away more than $58,000 a year in cash prizes plus a multitude of services during its fall and spring competitions. The public is welcome to watch these aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their ventures.

Not ready to compete? Try out New Venture Creation, a class where you work on your business plan and investor pitch.

Join a Startup

If you want to gain real-world experience working for startups, apply for the JBTVL Practicum class. In that environment, you get course credit for working with Austin-area startups.

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.

Missed the deadline to apply this semester? Contact us to receive advance notice for next semester.

Investment Competition

This semester, Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs held our biannual Investment Competition (TVLIC) online on Friday, May 8, 2020. This virtual competition offers a unique opportunity for graduate students from any UT System school to pitch their startup ideas to a panel of investors and entrepreneurs.

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.

Along with the new format, we debuted an exciting new suite of prizes including:

Check out the complete list of winners.  

TVL Practicum Course

The Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs connects local startup companies with talented and entrepreneurial graduate students at the University of Texas.  A majority of the students come from the MBA, law, engineering, pharmacy, and natural sciences programs but all majors are welcome.

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.

The JBTVL Practicum is a cross-disciplinary networking and learning program with a hands-on approach using the academic foundations of entrepreneurship and business modeling. Students learn valuable skills such as project management, client relations, team collaboration, market validation, competitive research, price modeling and analytics.

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.

Applications for the Texas Venture Labs Practicum Fall 2020 are open.  UT Austin graduate students with a taste for entrepreneurship should apply.  Questions?  Contact us at infoTVL@mccombs.utexas.edu.