Campus 1871: Apply today!

For one weekend a year, 1871 brings together more than 100 students from local universities for the ultimate startup experience. Students come together to share ideas, collaborate and build an original startup business plan with mentoring and coaching from 1871 entrepreneurs. The local weekend, held April 13-15, 2018, concludes with a pitch competition in front of a panel of top leaders in Chicago's tech community for assorted prizes. Students of all majors and years are encouraged to participate! Teams are interdisciplinary and intercollegiate.  

Competition Rules:

• Teams may have a maximum of 10 people.
• The company you develop must be able to be used on a mobile device.
• Your company and app should be made from scratch and not from a device, platform or application you have already started working on.
• You cannot outsource any of the coding or design components of your startup/app.
• You do not have to have a functioning app by the end of the weekend, but you will need to create visual demonstrations of what the app and user interface might look like and how it would work.

Pitching Rules:

• Your presentation must be created and presented in Microsoft PowerPoint
• You have 3 minutes to pitch your company to a panel of judges and 2 minutes for questions from the judges
• You must choose 1 person from your team to pitch
• You will be judged on the following categories: 
• The originality of your idea
• The realistic potential of your business
• Your revenue plan
• How well you pitch
• Overall design

Application Deadline: Friday, February 2, 2018

There is no cost to participate. Food, lodging, and other participatory costs will be covered by 1871. Applicants will be notified of the status of their acceptance by Wednesday, February 28, 2018.