Applications open Jan. 1 to Feb. 15.
If you’re a Carolina student who has a promising idea for a startup, the 1789 Student Venture Fund can help you get your concept up and running – and help you make an impact faster than you may imagine.
The 1789 Student Venture Fund provides Carolina students with critical seed funding to explore, test and launch commercial startups or social ventures at their earliest stages. This fund allows students to focus solely on growing their own ideas, exploring how their venture can make the greatest human, social or economic impact possible.
As a participant, you must use funding to develop some aspect of your actual venture, not for purely individual education, skill development or career preparation purposes.
For instance, possible uses of funding include prototyping, product development and testing, company app and website development, customer discovery, software development, licensing fees, supplies, or advertising or marketing your venture, etc.
Because the fund is operated by Innovate Carolina and the 1789 innovation community, students receive more than just funding. Their ideas are bolstered by additional resources that include entrepreneurial mentors, professional service providers, networking opportunities, and other tools and activities. Student Venture Teams are eligible to apply for funding once per academic year for up to three years.
Jim Kitchen, the founder of 1789, is working with Innovate Carolina to bring this funding opportunity to students and help them use their ideas for ventures to make a positive impact on a local, national and global scale. Jim Kitchen is professor of the practice at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and also serves as a mentor at Launch Chapel Hill.
As an active angel investor and entrepreneurial mentor, Jim supports the growth of Triangle’s entrepreneurial community. His collaboration with Innovate Carolina on the 1789 Student Venture Fund is aimed at filling the early funding gap that many student entrepreneurs face when trying to launch a venture.
How to apply
Innovate Carolina only accepts applications during specific time periods each year: typically spring and fall. Send any questions or comments to Anise Robinson, student engagement and events manger, at Anise.Robinson@unc.edu.
Key dates
1789 Student Venture Fund applications opens Jan. 1 and closes on Feb. 15. If you would like to begin preparing your application before submitting the online form, please see the 1789 Student Venture Fund question list. For more information, please email Innovate@unc.edu.
Support the program
For our aspiring student startup founders, every dollar goes a long way toward moving their ventures one step closer to social and economic impact. If you’d like to make a gift or support the program in other ways, please contact sheryl.waddell@unc.edu to find out how you can get involved.
Award overview
The 1789 Student Venture Fund provides financial support for UNC-Chapel Hill students to use to build commercial and social startups. Too often, the promising ideas that students have for building ventures are never given the opportunity to take off because they lack the early-stage funding needed for initial testing, development and growth. The goal of the 1789 Student Venture Fund is to provide students with the seed funding they need to ideate, create ventures and move them from concept to reality. Award funding ranges based on the stage of each venture and the needs of specific projects.
All students who receive funding must use the funding to create, develop or grow an early-stage venture. Specific uses must be approved by the 1789 Student Venture Fund advisory board, which consists of 1789 founder Jim Kitchen and several members of the Innovate Carolina team. Uses of the funding include, but aren’t limited to:
- App and website development
- Software
- Customer discovery
- Prototyping and concept testing
- Licensing fees
- Venture-related travel and events
- Advertising and marketing
- Supplies
- Publishing
Criteria
The committee will consider each of the following three criteria when reviewing applications. Ideal applications should reflect the following:
- Proof of Concept: The team should have engaged in a range of early-to-late customer discovery and market research activities. The venture is in the process of defining customers and end users, or may have validated initial customers with a value proposition. Planning to build – or may have made progress on building – a proof of concept or prototype. Financial support may be beneficial or required for such efforts to proceed.
- Idea: The idea may or may not be novel, but there is potential for revenue or to solve a social problem. The team may either have an early plan to earn revenue or address the problem, or it may already be in the revenue-generation/problem-solving phase. The team plans to (or has measured) impact and recognizes the importance of being able to articulate its theory of change.
- Team/Founder: The team has a demonstrated passion and commitment to its idea. Members should have plans for connecting or be already connected to the UNC I&E ecosystem (courses, funding, program participation, etc.). The team should be able to describe the current stage of its idea and how it could use other UNC I&E resources along with 1789 venture funding to reach the next milestone.
Budget preparation
The student venture must show a compelling need and use for funds. The amount requested in your application should reflect what your team sees as instrumental for the next step in your venture. There is no minimum or maximum. Instead, prepare and share a budget with the 1789 Student Venture Fund Committee, explain progress made so far (with little or no funding) and request an amount that covers the expenses that are necessary in order to reach your goals. Please be ready to answer questions such as the following questions related to your budget:
- What budget needs are associated with your venture’s three-month goals? Six-month goals?
- Have you received budgetary estimates from any third-party partners, vendors or collaborators?
The goal is to award funding when money is instrumental in creating or furthering a learning experience for the student venture. Teams are expected to request the amount they need now in order for their ventures to take the next step. Student ventures are encouraged to reapply when they make progress.
Special financial note
Your financial support is a training grant award and paid through your student account. If you are a financial aid recipient and enrolled in courses when you receive the award, this counts as a resource toward your financial need and is factored into your aid package. All awards will show on your Student Center account in Connect Carolina. If your Connect Carolina account shows a balance when the award is processed (because you owe money for tuition or fees), the award will be applied to that deficit and in most cases, reduce your loan deficit. If/when financial aid is processed or you make a payment and your account shows no balance or an excess of funds, that excess will be sent to you. If your aid has already been awarded, the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid will send a revised award letter. We recommend you consult with the Office of Financial Aid and a tax advisor before accepting to understand any potential implications of receiving these funds.
Venture spotlights
Fall 2023 Recipients
The following are a few of the student ventures that received funding from the 1789 Student Venture Fund during previous rounds to help develop their companies and nonprofits. The 1789 Venture Fund supports a highly diverse set of student ventures. A large number of teams funded by the 1789 Student Venture Fund are women- and minority-owned organizations.
AidFinder
Carolina Composites
Carolina Kick Supply
Chapel Thrill Escapes
Classmate
Doing Doorstep Better
DormEase
EcoTech Robotics
Gliocision
HANDS (HIV/AIDS Network for Disaster Survivors)
Impulse Wellness
IRI-Sys (International Regulatory Ingredients Systems, Inc.)
PermaHC
Skalara
Songcraft
Switchback Gear Collective
The RAAM Effect: Rural Academics, Advocacy, and Mentorship
WhoThrowin
Qualifications
The 1789 Student Venture Fund is open to undergraduate and graduate students at UNC-Chapel Hill who have an existing venture or an idea for a venture that they would like to create. At least one member of an application team must be a current UNC-Chapel Hill student. You do not need to be a member of the 1789 community to apply. However, upon receiving funding, you will be expected to then join and participate in 1789 programming. Your participation will be determined through communication with the fund’s advisory board based on your application and the specific needs of your venture. Your participation may include:
- Attending 1789 events
- Participation in 1789 workshops
- Attending 1789 office hours
- Meeting with an entrepreneurship mentor
Beyond joining 1789 and participating in programs, funding recipients are also required to provide regularly scheduled progress reports to the advisory board.
Note: Whether selected for funding based on their initial application or not, students may submit applications for funding during future application rounds. This allows students with the earliest ideas to apply for smaller amounts of funding initially and then position themselves to apply for larger amounts of funding as their ideas advance.
Timing
The application window will open in September 2022. Decision letters will be sent to student venture teams a few weeks after applications are submitted.
Application best practices
Please include as much detail as possible, including specifically what your request would cover (prototyping plans, website/app development, travel details and purpose, etc.) and how you will fund the remaining portion of cost if your request is not awarded in full. Please include a detailed budget along with other supporting documentation that will allow the advisory board to understand the need for funding. Please submit only one application per venture during each application window. You may submit additional funding requests for the same venture during future application rounds.
Email any additional questions or items related to the application process to sheryl.waddell@unc.edu.
Information sessions
If you student venture or club would like an information session about the fund, email Innovate@unc.edu for more details.