UWM Startup Challenge

Hey Future Innovators, the UWM Student Startup Challenge is not just a competition; it’s your runway to launch those brilliant ideas into the stratosphere of real-world innovation! With over 300 participants so far, this challenge is UWM’s longest-running program, designed to fuel your entrepreneurial spirit and bring your ideas to life.

Whether it’s birthing a business, nurturing an idea, or kickstarting a new phase of life outside the university, “starting up” at the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center (LEC) is all about designing your own path, career, and the world you want to inhabit. It’s about recognizing your potential and finding paths toward work that is both joyful and impactful.

Embark on a two-semester journey where your ideas are not just heard but celebrated, nurtured, and guided towards realization. The fall semester of 2023 brings you three co-curricular workshops aimed at honing your skills in entrepreneurial thinking, research, and development. Dive into the realms of business modeling, market discovery, and storytelling to ensure your startup doesn’t just start but soars!

Spring 2024 offers a for-credit class that applies design, innovation, and entrepreneurship to life and career planning skills. It’s not just about your business; it’s about YOU. Navigate through ambiguity, leverage impact networks, and indulge in personal prototyping to design not just a career, but a future that resonates with your passions and values.

The Startup Challenge is not just a competition but a community where you’ll interact with fellow participants, UWM professors, staff mentors, and Milwaukee business professionals. It’s a melting pot of ideas, guidance, and potential collaborations that could elevate your startup journey.

At LEC, students own everything they create. While the challenge is designed to foster decision-making through varied interactions, confidentiality and intellectual property protection are paramount. Your ideas are safe, celebrated, and wholly yours.

Whether it’s a product, service, social venture, or a non-profit idea, all ideas are welcomed and encouraged. From engineered products and computer hardware to yoga studios and coloring books, if you’ve got an idea, the UWM Student Startup Challenge has a space for it.