The GW New Venture Competition was launched in 2009 by John Rollins and the former dean of the GW School of Business, Susan Phillips. John Rollins directed the Competition until his retirement in 2014. Lex McCusker is the current director.

Initial funding for the Competition was provided by a generous grant from Governor Richard Scott and Annette Scott. Governor and Mrs. Scott have supported the program each year since its inception.

The GW New Venture Competition has grown significantly since it was founded. The cash prizes have grown from $30,000 in 2009 to more than $300,000 in 2017, and the number of competing teams has grown to well over 100. 

The GW New Venture Competition was created to give GW students, faculty, staff and alumni a real-world, experiential learning opportunity in entrepreneurship. It is also designed to foster an entrepreneurial climate at GW and allow Competition winners to actually launch and operate their ventures while maintaining complete control of their ventures through the issuance of non-dilutive cash grants as prize money.

As the Competition continues into 2018, it retains its two overarching goals:

• To deliver an excellent, broad-based learning experience in innovation and creative problem solving for all GW students.
• To nurture sustainable, scalable and profitable ventures that create wealth and have social impact.

For more information please visit the GW New Venture Competition at newventure.gwu.edu.