Chancellor Launch Grant

With $250,000 in non-dilutional grants awarded annually, the Chancellor's Launch Grants are the penultimate pitch competition at Vanderbilt. Held once in the fall and again in the spring, 10 startup teams pitch their business to a panel of notable alumni founders and investors.

Of these 10 teams, six are selected winners by the judges and receive an initial tranche of $10,000. The judges provide them with a key performance indicator (usually users or revenue) to grow over the remainder of the semester. At the end of the semester, teams provide updates to the judges on their progress against their key performance indictor. The judges then award the remaining $65,000 from that cycle's grant pool to the teams.

To help winning teams in their pursuit of the key performance indicator, the C4E pairs each founding team with a master mentor from the alumni base. This will be an alumna or alumnus with deep experience in the industry of your startup.

Eligibility Criteria

A Vanderbilt University student must serve as the founder or co-founder of the startup.
Vanderbilt University students must control 34% of the cap table for the startup.
The startup must have a functioning product or service.
Startups who have raised $250,000 or more (including via SAFE or similar instrument) are ineligible.
Startups concepts which have won a prior Chancellor's Launch Grant are ineligible.
Vanderbilt students who have won two prior Chancellor's Launch Grants competitions are ineligible.
Only Vanderbilt students may present during the pitch part of the competition.