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The Purple Binder team placed first in UChicago's Social New Venture Challenge.
As a part of University of Chicago’s Innovation Week last week, 10 finalists competed in the finals of the famed New Venture Challenge (NVC) and six in its more socially-conscious little sister Social New Venture Challenge (SNVC) program.
Both programs lasted for the full academic year for UChicago students and narrowed down teams (from 100 applications to 10 finalists in NVC’s case) throughout – but each culminated last week during final pitches to a distinguished panel of entrepreneurs and investors. This year’s NVC, organized by the Polsky Center, was the 17th year of the program and offered the highest prize amount in history: $200,000 of cash and services split among the finalists.
Software integration tool matchist took home the first place prize in NVC and has landed itself a spot next to well-known NVC alums such as Braintree, Bump, Grubhub and BenchPrep.
“It's very humbling to be mentioned in the same category as some of the other winners,” matchist CEO and founder Stella Fayman said. “We know we have a lot of work to do!”
With the $30,000 cash prize, Fayman, a Chicago Booth student, said she plans to experiment more with advertising and partnerships so that the company can continue to help its customers simply integrate products.
A $35,000 prize was awarded to Purple Binder, winner of SNVC, for its “one-stop shop” for social workers and health care professionals to find service and make referrals. Purple Binder's Clinical Advisory Board member, Lauren Webb, a School of Social Service student, said that even during final pitches, she gained a better understanding of practical business issues like her business’ financial model and how healthcare reform could impact her company.
The SNVC program and its corresponding New Social Ventures course are aimed at launching non-profit and for-profit businesses with social impact: businesses just like Purple Binder, which will use its prize to further research the needs of healthcare organizations, Webb said.
“As social work students we are excited to blend entrepreneurialism and social workers’ values,” Webb said. “The buzz on campus was that this is exactly the type of company that could help us become better social workers; ultimately, a social worker is only as good as his/her resources. We wanted to make this a sustainable business and SNVC gave us the tools to grow our company.”
Ellen Rudnick, executive director of Polsky, also said that SNVC and NVC truly did help to launch student startups to add to UChicago’s already prominent list: “So many of this year’s startups became real businesses by the end of the competition.”
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