Student teams vie for $50K in ‘Duke Start-Up Challenge’

A Duke University student team has the chance to win $50,000 in the 14th annual Duke Start-Up Challenge on April 11.

A total of 13 teams will participated in the competition, which will be held in Geneen Auditoriumm at the Fuqua School of Business. The competition is open to the public. The top three teams will have the chance to give an eight-minute investor pitch before a live audience. The remaining 10 teams will give one-minute elevator pitches.

Participants in previous Start-Up Challenges have gone on to form Triangle companies including Oncoscope, Precision Biosciences and Centice.

The keynote speaker for the event is David Cummings, a 2002 Duke graduate who recently sold one of his companies for almost $100 million. Eric Toone, director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative at Duke, will address the audience. Doors open at 7 p.m.

The event will also be streamed live on Duke’s YouTube page.