Overview
1000 Pitches is an annual University of Michigan entrepreneurial competition hosted by the student-run organization, MPowered Entrepreneurship. The competition is held during the fall term and is aimed at generating over 1000 innovative business and product ideas from the U-M students that fit into 8 main categories. The best pitch in each category wins $1000.
Mission
The 1000 Pitches Competition serves four primary purposes:
- To stimulate entrepreneurial thinking and creative problem solving at the University of Michigan
- To showcase the University of Michigan’s entrepreneurial talent and spirit
- To empower U-M students to pursue entrepreneurial achievements
- To ultimately spur economic growth and social change in Michigan, the Nation, and the world.
History
You don’t have to be an engineer or a businessman to be an entrepreneur, all it takes is the willingness to stand in front of a camera and explain your idea.
Who hasn’t woke up in the middle of the night and thought – I wish this existed. What do you wish was different about the university? What business would you like to open?
What started as a simple initiative to promote entrepreneurship at U-M quickly evolved into the one of the largest entrepreneurship competitions ever held on a college campus. 1000 Pitches sought out students from all over campus to pitch entrepreneurial ideas in one of seven categories for a chance to win $1000.
The simplicity of the entry helped the competition transcend all different colleges and student groups, making this a truly campus-wide endeavor.
In working on 1000 Pitches, it was inspiring to see how alive creativity and innovation are at Michigan. The sheer excitement visible in the face of a student explaining his or her idea was enough to remind us all why we champion entrepreneurship so much – but just in case once wasn’t enough, we got over 1000 reminders. We found that the majority of students were already walking around with many ideas floating in their heads, and not only were we able to get the idea out, but we were also able to show these students that entrepreneurship is not something reserved solely for engineering or business students, let alone something students should have to wait for until after college.
It’s time to THINK BIG!