📋 Coach's Corner: January 2022
Start your New Year off by exploring over $2 MILLION in student startup funding opportunities
We made it!
2022 is now upon us. And while it may not feel remarkably different from 2021 yet, I come bearing good news to kick off the year: it's officially student startup grant season.
There are currently 13 nationwide competitions open collectively worth over $2 million in funding/grants. Some of these are local (I’m looking at you, California + the PNW) and while I’m not posting them below, you can find them in this Airtable of Open Opportunities. Most of these competitions are open to any enrolled college student, so I encourage you to check ‘em all out and see which ones you’re best suited to apply for.
And on a personal note, I just wanted to thank all of the university students + staff in the e-ship ecosystem who read this newsletter. This will be the third year that I’ve published some sort of Coach’s Corner newsletter and the support I’ve received from this community has kept it going all this time.
Here’s to many more years 🥂
Now let's dive right into all of the possibilities to get your venture funded in 2022.
In order to receive these e-mails directly to your inbox at the start of each month, just drop in your favorite email below. It’s the best way to keep an eye out for future funding opportunities.
Table of Contents
💰 Student Funding Opportunities
🏄Surfs Up - Get Paid for Your Data
💼 Internships/Jobs Board
🌯 Wrap-Up and Feedback (quick link)
💰 Student Funding Opportunities
Check out this non-exhaustive list of funding opportunities that are accepting applications RIGHT NOW. These are only the ones that most - if not all - university entrepreneurs are eligible for. Definitely check in with your own university e-ship center to see if there are any specific opportunities available to you.
Eligibility: The entry must involve a technology, product, service, or process aimed at solving a problem related to the world’s water challenges. The water space has numerous opportunities and challenges to solve related to policy, technology, data sensing, analytics, implementation, financing, end-to-end solutions, etc. A team must be comprised of at least one student who is fully enrolled at any college or university, and it must be a student who presents the pitch.
Grant Funding: The winners of the MIT Water Innovation Prize will be awarded innovation grants of up to $50,000.
Eligibility: Competing teams should consist of at least one and no more than five degree-seeking college students who are enrolled part-time (minimum of 6 credit hours) or full-time in a semester during the competition year. In general, a member of the student team should be CEO, COO, or President of the venture, or members of the student team should occupy 50% or more of the functional area management positions that report directly to the CEO, COO, or President.
Funding Amount: Unclear, but in 2021 the 3 finalists split a cash prize of $125,000.
Eligibility: At least one founder must be affiliated with an institution of higher learning located in the U.S. (i.e. student, faculty, staff at a university). Those taking leaves of absence are welcome.
Grant Funding: $1+ million in total cash and prizes, and the grand prize is a $350,000 convertible note.
Eligibility: Any student team (at least two people) that are currently enrolled in an accredited collegiate institution. Team captain must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
Grant Funding: $250,000 in total cash prizes
Eligibility: Only currently enrolled undergraduate college students taking classes during the 2021-22 academic school year (August 2021 – May 2022) are eligible. Students who completed their studies and will graduate in December 2021 are also eligible, provided they have not started graduate school or are taking graduate-level courses at the time of the competition.
Grant Funding: Unclear for this year, but last year there was a grand prize of $40,000, along with second/third/honorable mentions.
Eligibility: Currently-enrolled students working on a science or engineering based venture.
Grant Funding: Up to $25,000 in grant funding between Stage 1 & 2.
Eligibility: Each team must have at least one eligible Team Member (see below) who is an undergraduate woman at any accredited not-for-profit college or university located in the United States. An existing business is eligible only if, as of 11:59 p.m. on December 31, 2021, it has received less than $25,000 in funding and earned less than $100,000 in gross revenue.
Grant Funding:
Grand Prize: $25,000 + scholarship to Draper University Heroes Training
2nd Place: $15,000 + scholarship to Draper University Heroes Training
3rd Place: $10,000 + scholarship to Draper University Heroes Training
Honorable Mentions: $5,000
Track Pitch Winners: $2,500
Other prizes as determined by Competition Judges
Eligibility: The University of Oregon New Venture Championship is open to university student teams with 2-5 members that have at least one graduate student involved with their venture. Students should be enrolled in a degree program or have finished their studies in the current academic year.
Grant Funding: Students will compete for their share of at least $50K in prizes. Grand prize in 2021 was $20,000.
Eligibility: The competition is for student-created, managed, and owned ventures. Students must play a major role in conceiving the venture by having key management roles and owning significant equity in the venture (50 percent or more of the equity allocated to the management team and key advisers). This is a competition for graduate students; however, teams with a minority of undergraduate students can also compete.
Grant Funding:
1st Place - $50K
2nd Place - $25K
3rd Place - $10K
4th Place - $5K
Elevator Pitch Competition (audience vote)
1st Place - $3K
2nd Place - $2K
Startup Expo Award
$5K
🏄 Getting rewarded to Surf online?
I’m normally not one to promote outside apps or services, but I recently caught the Surf wave and think it would be relevant to a lot students/educators. Surf is a chrome extension that allows lets us finally get rewarded from all the data that websites are already collecting from us.
You don’t have to do anything other than download a Chrome extension – just use the Internet as you do normally and get rewarded for it. How? Surf anonymizes and cohorts user data for brands. They don’t give access to specific browsing data - they will see only high-level browsing trends for a cohort (ex. Popular publications visited by 18-24 males in Los Angeles). It also works on top of any ad blocker or VPN that you might already use.
Essentially you get points for doing what you already do, which can be redeemed for digital gift cards from top brands or donations to the charity of your choice.
So if you’re interested in catching the Surf wave as well, just downloaded the Chrome extension in a few seconds and get rewarded for what you’re already doing (as a disclaimer, these are affiliate links. Help me & help you.)
💼 Internships/Jobs Board
I’ll be honest, Justine and Olivia Moore (twin sisters at VC firm CRV) do a fantastic job curating internship opportunities through their Accelerated Substack newsletter. Highly recommend you get that coming your way ASAP. The below list is primarily their list with a few ones I’ve heard about sprinkled in.
XRC Labs - Student Analyst (Remote)
Coinbase - Community Analyst (Remote)
TCG - Summer Investment Analysts and Strategy & Ops Analysts (Remote)
Smartsheet - PM Intern (Remote)
Club Feat - Ops Project Intern (Remote)
Mailchimp - Market Research Intern (Remote)
Canal - MBA PM, Biz Ops, and Marketing Interns, Undergrad PM Intern (SF, NYC)
Tinder - Strategy Intern (LA)
Datadog - Summer Deal Desk Intern (NYC)
Alinea - Business Strategy Intern (Remote)
Morning Brew - Commerce Intern (Remote)
OnDeck - Scale Intern (Remote)
Recharge - Biz Dev Intern (Remote)
AptDeco - Marketing Intern (Remote)
Blend - PM Intern (Remote)
Uber - Strategic Finance Development Intern (SF)
Lyft - Data Science Intern (SF)
Meta - MBA Business Product Strategy Intern (Menlo Park)
🌯 And that’s a wrap
Thank you to everyone who made it to the not-so-bitter end of this newsletter. I’d love to know what you think of it. If you feel so inclined, please take a minute to submit a (very brief) feedback form to help this take shape.
Till next time.
- Kevin “Coach” Carter