2024 Winning Teams!
The 2024 Carleton Impact Challenge $10,000 fellowship was awarded to the team “Persimmon”!
The second place team is “Sportslink: Modernizing the College Recruiting Landscape”!
1st place: Persimmon offers an app that empowers consumers to gather and sell their own digital data in competition with corporations (e.g., Amazon) that harvest consumer data and sell it without compensating the users whose data is being sold.
2nd place: Sportslink will build a portal for prospective student athletes to connect with college coaches and firms seeking to engage student athletes through name, image, and likeness (NIL) agreements.
Congrats to both teams! All of the teams’ entrepreneurial ideas were amazing. Also, a huge thank you to the alumni judges, mentors, coaches, panelists and those giving financial support to this challenge.
This year’s Carleton Impact Challenge (formerly known as Startup Competition) student team pitches will be held on Saturday, February 10, 2024 in the Cinema of the Weitz Center for Creativity. The event schedule is as follows:
1-3:00pm – Student team pitches and judging (Weitz Cinema)
3:00-3:30pm – Alumni conversation (Weitz Cinema)
While judges deliberate, Prof. Nathan Grawe will lead a conversation with Catherine ‘89 and Curt ‘89 Gunsbury about their paths from Carleton to entrepreneurial careers.
3:45pm (approximate) – Reception & prize announcements (Weitz Commons)
2024 Carleton Impact Challenge Program
Carleton Impact Challenge details: Teams of students compete for prize money to support their entrepreneurial ventures. A team of Carleton alumni judges select winners based on a written proposal and oral pitches.
The first-place team will receive a $10,000 team fellowship, individual Career Center experiential learning fellowships and MN Cup finalist bid. The second-place team will receive individual Career Center experiential learning fellowships.
We invite you to celebrate the great entrepreneurial spirit on campus by attending this event. Following the team pitches, Nathan Grawe will lead a discussion with alumni entrepreneurs. A reception follows in the Weitz Commons space where the winning teams will be announced.
Contact Nathan Grawe (ngrawe@carleton.edu), Professor of Economics, with any questions.
Additional information about Carleton’s 2024 Impact Challenge may be found on the Career Center’s webpage.
The Impact Fellowship Challenge team pitches and reception were held on Saturday, February 4, 2023. Teams of students once again competed for the $10,000 fellowship to support their entrepreneurial ventures! The six student teams who competed were:
- Dou Read – Tan Zhou ‘25, Kevin Bui ‘24 and Tim Zhang (WINNING TEAM)
- CheckMate – Sam Zacks ‘25, Asher Stolberg ‘25 and Zach Gordon ‘25
- Mini Crosswords Unlimited – Billy Bratton ’25, Isaac Van Orman ‘25 and Clay Haddock ‘24
- Flyer – Kyosuke Imai ‘23 and Ayman Rahadian ‘23
- Petner – Hank Zhao ‘25, Austin Zhang ‘26, Ray Wu and Bill Qin
- Northfield Biggabed – Chuck Sweat ‘24, Kevin Tran ‘25 and Brandon Ekow Anderson ‘26
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