The Innovation Challenge

• To help fund your startup, the total cash to be awarded in the 2023 Challenge is $10,000.00. Coordinators and judges will determine the amount to be divided among the winning teams.

• Teams will consist of 1-4 undergraduate students from Manhattan University
• The competition is open to all Manhattan University students. Students are encouraged to team up with students studying other majors.
• Entries may be submitted by teams of no more than four students.  Submissions by individuals are also welcomed.

• The Innovation Challenge entries must be submitted through the google form link in the Registration section. 
• Make sure that your entry represents an innovative yet practical idea.  The winning ideas will have judges react by “Why didn’t I think of that?”  
• Make sure that your narrative is well organized, well written, and addresses all the key points above
• If possible, back up your claims with research.

• A percentage of the entries submitted will be selected to prepare a presentation on and model/example of their innovation.
• The competitors should be able to answer questions from Expert
  Entrepreneurship Judges.  
• The presentations may be modeled after the TV show Shark Tank, and must include a business plan and budget for the innovation.
• All presentations must be submitted in powerpoint.

The innovation challenge brings on talented, accomplished business professionals as judges every year. The judges for the 2024 Innovation challenge included:

Mike Kelly
Managing Partner of Yellow Thread Ventures, which funds early-stage and other growth-oriented companies. He is also a member of the screening committee of the Delaware Crossing Investor Group. He graduated with a BS in Business from MC in 1980. He founded On Call International in 1995, a leading provider of medical, security and travel assistance. On Call was named to the INC 5,000 Fastest Growing Private Companies List each year from 2012-2016 with a compounded annual growth rate of 48%. In 2016 Mike sold the company to the Tokio Marine Insurance Company, the 7th largest property casualty insurance company.

Michael Partis

Michael Partis is the Executive Director of the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative: a nonprofit focused on increasing shared wealth and community-based planning with working class Bronx residents. Currently, he serves on the Board of Directors for Youth Power Coalition, the New Economy Project, and the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development. He is also co-founder of The Bronx Brotherhood Project, a community-based college success program for Black and Latino teens at the New Settlement College Access Center.

Julia Sutton

Julia served as President and Co-founder of Exhale a wellbeing brand which was recently purchased by Hyatt. She now serves as The Chief Growth Officer for Vitruvia. Julia completed the OPM program at Harvard Business School and is a member of the COO network, American College of Sports Medicine and HBS Club of New York. She currently sits on the Manhattan University O’Malley School of Business Advisory Board. She enjoys hiking, running and biking and surfing.