Honor Code

All participants and organizers are subject to the Duke University Honor Code, as well as, honor codes and regulations of their individual schools.

Each team must have at least one participating, current full-time Duke student.

The Duke Start-Up Challenge requires that one or more full time Duke students have a significant involvement in the development of the work product created for the competition and be a significant owner of the company created and/or recipient of the prize money awarded. As long as this requirement is satisfied, the remaining team members can be drawn from elsewhere. Entries must be the original work of the entrant and may be entered by a single student or a multi-person team. The size of a team is not restricted and neither is the number of entries submitted by a team or individual. However, most teams have 3-5 members with varying skills and interests. Teams are encouraged to seek the involvement of Duke faculty, alumni, post-docs, researchers and staff.

Companies that exist prior to Duke student involvement, who merely recruit a student to become eligible for the competition, are not eligible to compete. The Start-Up Challenge is an educational experience and teams not working towards this end may be disqualified (e.g. teams that have token students to meet eligibility requirements). The Challenge organizers reserve the right to review companies on a case-by-case basis and make final determinations on eligibility accordingly. Teams that are unsure of their eligibility should contact the Organizing Committee.

Submissions should be entrepreneurial and explore the creation of new ideas.

The Duke Start-Up Challenge is fundamentally an entrepreneurship competition and its goal is to encourage Duke students to explore the creation of new businesses. Therefore, the following types of entries are not eligible to participate in the for-profit tracks of the competition: Leveraged Buyouts, Recapitalizations, Restructurings, Privatizations, Roll-Ups, certain Licensing or Franchise arrangements, Joint Ventures, Alliances and Search Funds. Teams that are unsure of the eligibility of their idea should contact the Organizing Committee.

Concepts must be unique to all previous Phase III submissions.

Business concepts and/or technologies cannot have formed the basis for a previous year’s Phase III business plan. However, previously submitting business plans that did not advance to Phase III of the Duke Start-Up Challenge can re-enter.

Ideas entered cannot have been used to raise risk capital in excess of $100,000.

Risk capital is defined as funding from individuals who are not active members of the team that are investing for the purpose of generating returns on their investment. SBIR, STTR or other grant funds with no obligations to repay or continued interest in the business are not risk capital. Examples of risk capital include moneys invested by the founding team, any equity investment (including sale of preferred or common stock) and convertible note obligations.

Regardless of the purpose, teams that have already secured arrangements for capital from any source in excess of $5,000 must disclose the amounts and sources clearly in their entries. Ideas based on academic research must also indicate the sources of support on their competition forms. This information will not be disclosed.

If a team receives funding for its idea during the course of the competition, it must be disclosed as soon as a commitment to make the investment is secured from the investor. Entrants that have generated cash while in the competition in the form of sales revenues or contracts, research grants and personal or family funds are allowed, but must be disclosed. This information will be kept confidential. Ventures that have received outside investment from venture capital firms, private investors or industry sources may be considered ineligible to compete and should contact the Organizing Committee.

THE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE RESERVES THE RIGHT TO DISQUALIFY ANY ENTRY IN ITS’ JUDGEMENT THAT VIOLATES THE LETTER OR THE SPIRIT OF THE COMPETITION GUIDELINES.