Applications are now being accepted for the 2016 Cupid's Cup Entrepreneurship Competition, presented by Under Armour Founder and CEO Kevin Plank. After ten years, Cupid’s Cup enters a new chapter by partnering with a consortium of more than 20 top universities, business schools and entrepreneurship centers from across the country. The involvement of these institutions elevates Cupid’s Cup “to a new level of prestige, as it continues to attract the brightest and most ambitious young minds.”
The name of the event is a nod to one of Plank’s first businesses Cupid’s Valentine Rose Delivery an enterprise that he started as a student at the University of Maryland to sell roses on campus. Those profits eventually became the seed money to launch Under Armour.
“Nothing energizes me more than meeting passionate young innovators who have the entrepreneurial drive and conviction to take a risk and start a business,” said Plank. “I am excited to expand the Cupid’s Cup competition to include some of the world’s best thinkers and to provide even more resources to help the next generation of leaders reach their potential.”
Cupid’s Cup aims to reach the top entrepreneurial minds in the country, and more importantly, to inspire and foster the community of college students and recent graduates who have already followed Plank’s lead and are running their own companies.
In addition to the longstanding partnership with the University of Maryland, the academic institutions participating in the new consortium include: Auburn University, Babson College, Boston College, Clemson University, Duke University, Georgetown University, Harvard University, James Madison University, Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Temple University, Texas Tech University, University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA), University of California – Berkeley, University of Cincinnati, University of Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, University of South Carolina, University of Texas at Austin, University of Tennessee and University of Virginia.
The Cupid’s Cup participants will be competing for $100,000 in total cash prizes, access to Plank’s professional network and the prestigious Cupid’s Cup title.
The competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled at accredited colleges and universities, or recent alumni of those institutions who are 30 years old or younger. Applicants must be running a legal business entity that has demonstrated proof of traction. There is no fee to apply.
The application deadline is January 5, 2016. Validation Day (semi-finals) will be held on February 19, 2016 at Under Armour’s global headquarters in Baltimore, MD, with the final competition scheduled for April 7, 2016 at University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.
To apply and learn more about Cupid's Cup, please go to http://www.cupidscup.com.
