For ten years, the Yale Entrepreneurial Society (YES) has hosted the Yale Venture Challenge (formerly the Y50k)to educate Yale students, faculty, and staff about entrepreneurship and encourage them to create new ventures.

The competition starts with teams submitting their business plans to YES in mid-March. The judging committee will  evaluate these business models and assign scores to determine the final six teams selected to compete at the Yale Innovation Summit in late April.

Prizes in the past have included startup capital, office-space, free legal and professional counseling, and premium entrance to the MassChallenge competition.

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YVC 2012 Timeline

What is a Business Model Competition?

In traditional business plan competitions, teams are judged on plans that are built on a multitude of untested assumptions.  Teams can spend months putting together plans that have little basis in reality and then launch their business ill-prepared for the real world.

A business model competition judges how well teams formulate their business model hypotheses and then test and iterate them as they learn by working with potential customers, partners, and distributors.

The difference between business plan and business model competitions is that the latter rewards proven execution and assumption testing.  There are several advantages:

• Judging is based on the model and how the team got there, recognizing that the learning process is key to new venture success. This avoids the “beauty contest” aspect of business plans – where judges resort to choosing the best assembled plan rather than the best business or the team that has made the most progress in figuring out product-market fit.
• Teams, whether they win or lose, finish the competition significantly more prepared to launch their business in the real world.  The competition includes education and networking events to help the teams identify and test the key assumptions of their business.

Who Can Compete?

The majority of the founders of a team must be students of Yale College or any Yale Graduate School or faculty of any of those institutions. At least one of the principal founders must be a student.

How Can I Join a Team?

If you have an idea or want to lend your skills in an existing team, start by subscribing to the YES newsletter and looking around the YES website for events to meet entrepreneurs and find openings in start-ups. You can also email the YVC director at Competitions@YESatYale.org