| UNC-CH
Fall applications open Aug. 15 and close Oct.1. Spring applications open Jan. 1 and close Feb. 15.
If you’re a Carolina student who has a promising idea for a startup, the 1789 Student Venture Fund can help you get your concept up and running – and help you make an impact faster than you may imagine.
The 1789 Student Venture Fund provides Carolina students with critical seed funding to explore, test and launch commercial startups or social ventures at their earliest stages. This fund allows students to focus solely on growing their own ideas, exploring how their venture can make the greatest human, social or economic impact possible.
As a participant, you must use funding to develop some aspect of your actual venture, not for purely individual education, skill development or career preparation purposes.
For instance, possible uses of funding include prototyping, product development and testing, company app and website development, customer discovery, software development, licensing fees, supplies, or advertising or marketing your venture, etc.
Because the fund is operated by Innovate Carolina and the 1789 Hub, students receive more than just funding. Their ideas are bolstered by additional resources that include entrepreneurial mentors, professional service providers, networking opportunities, and other tools and activities. Student Venture Teams are eligible to apply for funding once per academic year for up to three years.
Process Overview
- The 1789 Student Venture Fund is open to current undergraduate and graduate students at UNC-Chapel Hill who have an existing venture or an idea for one they want to create. At least one member of an application team must be a current UNC-Chapel Hill student.
- 1789 Student Venture Fund application opens twice a year. The fall application opens Aug. 15 and closes Oct. 1. The spring application opens Jan. 1 and closes Feb. 15.
- Applications are reviewed by a team of UNC faculty, Innovate Carolina Staff and Chapel Hill Business owners.
- Students can expect to hear back regarding their application status five weeks after the application deadline closes.
- Venture teams are eligible to receive funding once per academic year for up to four years. If a team applies for and receives funding in the fall, they are not eligible to receive funding in the spring. If a team applies for funding in the fall, but does not receive funding they are eligible to receive funding in the spring after updating their application.
Application Overview
>>View the 1789 Student Venture Fund question list.
The 1789 Student Venture Fund provides financial support for UNC-Chapel Hill students to use to build commercial and social startups. Too often, the promising ideas that students have for building ventures are never given the opportunity to take off because they lack the early-stage funding needed for initial testing, development and growth. The goal of the 1789 Student Venture Fund is to provide students with the seed funding they need to ideate, create ventures and move them from concept to reality. Award funding ranges based on the stage of each venture and the needs of specific projects. All students who receive funding must use the funding to create, develop or grow an early-stage venture.
- App and website development
- Software
- Customer discovery
- Prototyping and concept testing
- Licensing fees
- Venture-related travel and events
- Advertising and marketing
- Supplies
- Publishing
Criteria
The committee will consider each of the following three criteria when reviewing applications. Ideal applications should reflect the following:
- Proof of Concept: The team should have engaged in a range of early-to-late customer discovery and market research activities. The venture is in the process of defining customers and end users, or may have validated initial customers with a value proposition. Planning to build – or may have made progress on building – a proof of concept or prototype. Financial support may be beneficial or required for such efforts to proceed.
- Idea: The idea may or may not be novel, but there is potential for revenue or to solve a social problem. The team may either have an early plan to earn revenue or address the problem, or it may already be in the revenue-generation/problem-solving phase. The team plans to (or has measured) impact and recognizes the importance of being able to articulate its theory of change.
- Team/Founder: The team has a demonstrated passion and commitment to its idea. Members should have plans for connecting or be already connected to the UNC I&E ecosystem (courses, funding, program participation, etc.). The team should be able to describe the current stage of its idea and how it could use other UNC I&E resources along with 1789 venture funding to reach the next milestone.
Budget preparation
The student venture must show a compelling need and use for funds. The amount requested in your application should reflect what your team sees as instrumental for the next step in your venture. There is no minimum or maximum. Instead, prepare and share a budget with the 1789 Student Venture Fund Committee, explain progress made so far (with little or no funding) and request an amount that covers the necessary expenses to reach your goals. Please be ready to answer questions such as the following questions related to your budget:
- What budget needs are associated with your venture’s three-month goals? Six-month goals?
- Have you received budgetary estimates from any third-party partners, vendors or collaborators?
The goal is to award funding when money is instrumental in creating or furthering a learning experience for the student venture. Teams are expected to request the amount they need now for their ventures to take the next step. Student ventures are encouraged to reapply when they make progress.
Venture spotlights
Previous Recipients
The following are a few of the student ventures that received funding from the 1789 Student Venture Fund during previous rounds to help develop their companies and nonprofits. The 1789 Venture Fund supports a highly diverse set of student ventures. A large number of teams funded by the 1789 Student Venture Fund are women- and minority-owned organizations.
Founder of 1789
Jim Kitchen, the founder of 1789, is working with Innovate Carolina to bring this funding opportunity to students and help them use their ideas for ventures to make a positive impact on a local, national and global scale. Jim Kitchen is professor of practice at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and also serves as a mentor at Launch Chapel Hill.
As an active angel investor and entrepreneurial mentor, Jim supports the growth of Triangle’s entrepreneurial community. His collaboration with Innovate Carolina on the 1789 Student Venture Fund is aimed at filling the early funding gap that many student entrepreneurs face when trying to launch a venture.
Support the program
For our aspiring student startup founders, every dollar goes a long way toward moving their ventures one step closer to social and economic impact. If you’d like to make a gift or support the program in other ways, please contact sheryl.waddell@unc.edu to find out how you can get involved.
