McCloskey New Venture Competition

Sunday, November 8 at 11:59 PM ET. You can submit now and keep editing until the deadline, so there’s no reason to wait for a finished version. Get something in, then improve it.

A pitch deck (PDF, 10 slides maximum), a 3-minute pitch video, and the venture details in the application form. Everything is submitted on the McCloskey application page in Startup Forge. You’ll need to sign up for a Startup Forge account to apply.

Yes. Submit first, then keep editing until the deadline.

• It must be a PDF. Canva and PowerPoint files are not accepted. Judges review on phones, laptops, Macs and PCs, and PDF is the one format that opens reliably everywhere. Export your file to PDF before uploading.
• 10 slides maximum. Cover these topics: title, team, the problem, the solution, competition, business model, marketing and sales, traction and project milestones, ND Force for Good and social impact, and challenges. If two topics fit on one slide, combine them.
• Use the Pitch Deck Guide. It’s a guide, not a strict template. You can rearrange it, combine slides and remove the IDEA Center branding. It also includes best practices for each slide.
• Don’t put your video inside the deck. PDFs can’t reliably play video, which is why the video is a separate upload.

• 3 minutes long, uploaded as a .mov or .mp4 file.
• Introduce yourself and the problem (your idea), explain your solution clearly, and convince judges of the impact you could make.
• You must be present in the video. A promotional ad or a slide deck with a voiceover doesn’t qualify.

Tip: Some judges review up to 10 applications, and they often watch a long series of talking heads. Don’t just walk through your slides again, since the deck already covers that. Light editing and a little variety are welcome, and judges appreciate a video with energy.

Each judge scores every team on the same rubric in Startup Forge. Six categories are scored from 1 (does not meet) to 4 (fully meets), plus an X-Factor from -2 to +2 for the judge’s gut feeling about whether the venture stands out exceptionally or raises major concerns. See the full rubric before you submit.

Submit anyway. Round 1 is a low hurdle (about 90% of applicants advance), and you can find teammates later. If you’re applying solo, use the team slide to show your skills and experience and name the gaps you plan to fill.

No. Concept-stage ideas are welcome, and you don’t need traction in Round 1. Traction and the state of your build matter more in later rounds, so by Round 2 you’ll want more “meat on the bone.”

Ventures that have raised more than $500,000 in outside capital, or earned more than $500,000 from customers, are not eligible. “Raised” means equity or convertible investment (venture capital, angel investment, SAFE notes, convertible notes), not loans, grants or prize money. “Earned” means payments from customers (sales, subscriptions, contracts, licensing fees), not grants, loans, donations or prize winnings.

No. What matters is any relevant experience or founder fit you can show: people you’ve interviewed, work you’ve done, and the rest of your deck.

Yes. Submit the ideas you’re most excited about. In the remote rounds (Round 1 and Round 2), no judge will see more than one of your ideas, so multiple submissions don’t count against you. If you reach the semifinals, you’ll need to choose one, because live judging is public and you’ll be asked which one you care about most.

Yes. Alumni and community members can apply by November 8 and don’t need a student teammate for Round 1. Alumni and community teams that advance to Round 2 must have a current Notre Dame student on the team. The student should play an impactful role in the company, must be seen and heard in the Round 2 video, and must be available to pitch in the semifinals and finals. We’ll help you find a student teammate.

We use the South Bend – Elkhart Regional Partnership’s definition of the region: five counties spanning north central Indiana and southwest Michigan. Community members are founders based in one of these counties:

• Indiana: Elkhart, Marshall, and St. Joseph
• Michigan: Berrien and Cass

Notre Dame students, alumni, faculty and staff, Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross students, and regional high schoolers apply under their own categories.

International students regularly reach the final rounds. Later in the process you may be asked about visa status and incorporation, so be ready for those questions, but don’t treat it as a ding against you, and don’t worry about it at the start. ISSA and other campus groups can help with those questions.

Yes. Joiners are welcome throughout the competition. Create a profile in the Startup Forge founder portal and identify yourself as talent, so founders can find you in the public talent directory. You can also browse Openings, which work like job postings from startups (message the founder to apply), and come to the matchmaking event on December 3.

Post a role under Openings in the Startup Forge founder portal (for example, if you have an idea and need a coder), and come to the December 3 matchmaking event.

A speed-dating-style event on December 3, 5:00–6:30 PM at the Duncan Student Center where founders and joiners meet. It’s hybrid, so alumni and students studying abroad can join by Zoom, and computers will be set up in the room for those matchups. RSVP here. Alumni and community teams will need a student by Round 2, so there’s extra energy from people who are looking for students. A second matchmaking event is planned for early spring.

Avoid team bloat. Too many members is disorienting for judges. Make sure each function your business needs has an owner (many startups have a “seller” and a “builder,” and some need a legal or regulatory expert). One person can cover two roles if they truly can. With five or more people, show a hierarchy and how decisions get made.

Yes. Teams can form throughout the process, so you can join another team. Everyone in McCloskey is invited to all McCloskey activities through April, including social events and the April 22–23 semifinals and finals, even if your team doesn’t make it through Round 1 or Round 2. At last year’s semifinals there were over 100 judges, including three unicorn founders, so it’s worth being in the room.

About 90%. Last year 160 teams entered and roughly 140 advanced to Round 2. Round 1 is a low hurdle, and the competition gets more selective from there.

Round 2 submissions are due February 9 at 11:59 PM. Expect more scrutiny of traction, the state of your build, and your team. Use winter break to refine your deck and video. Alumni and community teams need a Notre Dame student on their team by this round.

The grand prize is $50,000, competed for by the five finalists on April 23. There will also be other prizes, such as best undergraduate, best graduate and a national security prize, some more closely tied to a startup’s focus. A team can win more than one prize. We’re recruiting additional prizes now and will announce them as the competition goes on. Not winning the grand prize doesn’t mean walking away empty-handed.

Submit your idea through the idea submission form. About 15 student interns act as startup coaches who will ask thoughtful questions and help you sharpen your idea.

You still have options. Friday Pitches run every week of the year (barring some holidays), and any student idea can apply for up to $1,000. Roughly half of applicants are funded, and smaller asks work well too. Friday Pitches funding is for students only, so alumni need a student co-founder.

Join the McCloskey email list (name and email only). It covers deadlines, social events and the matchmaking event.

To build community. The competition is the front door to a multi-month experience, and the real value is the connections you make with other students and with alumni who come back to support you.

Mike, Notre Dame class of 1999, is co-founder of Runwayz, which helps high school students find paths into the skilled trades. He won the $50,000 grand prize in 2025.

• Treat it as a safe place to learn. Learning is the most important outcome. Use feedback to practice pitching, even if pitching isn’t your strength yet.
• Think like the investor on the other side. People care about your story, but they care more about the outcome you’ll create, your traction and where the commercialization is.
• Bring energy. Judges see a lot of videos. A flat, monotone delivery is forgettable and can affect your score.
• Keep it simple. Avoid cramming slides with numbers. Answer the question plainly.
• Open with an attention step, and bring it back at the end. A stat, a clip or something surprising that gets the judges asking what’s going on, then reference it again to tie the pitch together. His team spent one of its six live minutes on a short 90s-sitcom throwback, and the room remembered it.
• Build connections, not just a pitch. The relationships paid off at later events, not right away. Show up, ask what others do and how you can help, and connect people for the sake of connecting. Don’t go in chasing a meeting or a dollar.

Kristin, Notre Dame class of 2012, is COO of a company that makes bioplastic coatings for paper-based food packaging from agricultural waste. She worked on her application while pregnant, and pitched on campus in April with her 4-month-old daughter there. Her team won McCloskey in 2026.

• Translate technical ideas into plain English. Many judges won’t know your industry, so lead with what matters about the business, not the technical details.
• Test your pitch on people outside your circle. Practice with someone who doesn’t know your field. A friend’s questions helped her spot a technical assumption she’d been relying on without realizing it.
• Beware the echo chamber. Your team and mentors already have context, which can give a false sense that things are clear.
• Talk to everyone you can. One of her best connections came from a judge who sources sustainable packaging, and another from a contact with sugarcane farms and a waste problem. You never know who is in the room.

• Working with students on your team: Ask what they want to get out of the experience and map their work to their goals. Notre Dame’s alumni network is a huge asset, and the team calls using it “alumni hacking.”
• If you can’t work on this full time: Run it like a real business. Test your prices with actual customers or competitors’ price lists instead of putting a number in a spreadsheet.
• Be bold and share your idea. You’ll get a lot of useful feedback.
• Double dip. Reuse class projects or work you’ve already done when you can.
• Aim to find one person who can help you. One connection can be worth more than the prize money.