Pitch your venture for a chance to win cash prizes valued at $100,000, and in-kind prizes valued at over $50,000!
Up to 2 women-led teams from each track will receive a one-year membership valued at $924 to WE Global Studio, a full-stack venture studio and digital startup platform for women entrepreneurs!
The Tufts $100k
Hosted by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center, the $100k New Ventures Competition is the flagship venture competition at Tufts. Early stage innovators and entrepreneurs pitch their ideas in three tracks: General Technology, Social Impact and Healthcare & Life Science. We welcome applicants across the Tufts community: Undergraduate and graduate students, recent alumni, faculty and staff across all 11 schools and colleges at Tufts.
Through educational workshops, 1×1 coaching and pitch practice in February and March, you will make rapid progress on your venture and learn to pitch your venture to excite and inspire potential employees, advisors, investors and more.
The competition culminates in live pitch competitions at the virtual semi-finals and finals. Winners will take home prizes valued over $100k in non-dilutive funding and in-kind services.



2022 Dates
Info Sessions: February 2, 2022 @12-1pm and February 3, 2022 @6:00-7:00pm
Applications open: February 1, 2021
Deadline: February 28, 2022
Semi-finals: March 11, 2022
Finals: April 8, 2022
Three Competition Tracks
Prizes
Cash prizes
- General Technologies Track: $25,000 in cash prizes, generous funded by an anonymous donor
- Healthcare and Life Science Track: $25,000 in cash prizes, generously funded by the Hirsch Family Funderpants and Tisch College
- Social Impact Track: $25,000 in cash prizes, generous funded by an anonymous donor
Add-On Prizes
- Ricci Prize: $15,000 awarded to an eligible interdisciplinary engineering team
- Friedman Prize: $10,000 awarded to an eligible team in the area of food, nutrition science and policy
In-Kind Prizes
- Cummings Properties Rent Credit: Free office space for 1 year for one team per track
- WE Global Studio: Two 1-year memberships valued at $924 each to WE Global Studio, an online venture studio and digital startup platform for women entrepreneurs
Eligibility & Applying
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Pitching & Judging Criteria
Pitch Format
- The live semi-final and final pitches will be 5 minutes long with 5 minutes of Q&A from a panel of judges
- In addition to pitch practice, semi-finalists and finalists will be coached on lighting and audio/visual setup for the best virtual pitch possible
Judging Rubric for All Stages
- Problem: Does the team understand the problem and target customer?
- Solution: Does the proposed solution solve the problem in a unique manner compared to the alternative?
- Go to market strategy: Does the team have a credible and thoughtful go-to-market strategy?
- Unit and overall economics: Is the proposed business model financially sustainable?
- Scale: Is the venture capable of scaling up to impact a large number of people?
- Impact: How is the world a better place if the team solves this problem?
- Team: Did the team convince the judges they are the right people to solve this problem?
- Presentation: Was the team effective in presenting their venture?
- Wildcard: Did anything about the team particularly impress you?