Program Overview

Welcome to the New Venture Program & Competition at UC Santa Barbara! Our program is broken down into specific areas of focus for each academic quarter. In the Fall, you’ll focus on developing and brainstorming your business ideas and forming teams through pitch events and student mixers. In the Winter, we offer weekly workshops to help you develop a business model around your idea and introduce you to a roster of industry mentors that can support you through the program. In the Spring, you will learn how to tell the story of your business and prepare for UCSB’s annual New Venture Competition (NVC). All told, it’s an exciting and challenging eight-month learning opportunity.

The New Venture Program is open to all UCSB students, regardless of level and area of discipline. To get started, enroll yourself on our Canvas page so we can contact you and provide program updates. Next, attend one of several information sessions we offer each October where you can learn more about the program and hear from past student participants. Finally, attend our weekly NVP events to learn the formula and process of developing a startup, and to meet industry mentors that can help you through the program.

Complete this Google Form if you're interested, and we'll get back to you as soon as possible!

If you have a business or product idea that you’d like to discuss, or if you just want to learn more about the New Venture Program, I encourage you to book time with me for office hours. During the school year, I post times weekly that you can sign up for through this link. During summer and holiday breaks, feel free to email me at the link below to schedule a time to meet. I look forward to speaking with you.

Connect with the Director

The short answer is no. You can join a team that already has a business idea that you have
interest in or passion for, and contribute to the many other aspects required for a startup to be
successful.

Practically speaking, you will need a team to get through the program and enter the competition, but you do not need to bring a fully-formed team to get started. We hold student mixers and pitch events in the Fall Quarter to help form teams and help existing teams find additional team members.

There is no course credit awarded for participating in the New Venture Program, however,
there are Technology Management courses you can take that will help you through the
program, for which you can earn academic credit.

You may work with students from other schools, however, your team makeup must be at
least 50% UCSB students. Please note that any cash prizes won from the NVC can only be paid
to UCSB students.

NVP is a cocurricular program so attendance at most workshops and events is not mandatory. That said, these sessions are designed to make it easier for you to be successful in the program. You need to do the work anyway; let us help you to do it more effectively and efficiently. Mandatory sessions will be clearly stated in the program calendar.

This varies by the individual, however, most NVP alums say that if you are an effective time
manager you can get the work done alongside your core studies. You can hear directly from
our students on this topic at our October information sessions.

 

Randy Modos – President, Founder of PayJunction, 2001 NVC Finalist

The New Venture Program at UCSB was the proving ground for our early startup. Here, our fledgling idea for a company was nurtured into a viable business model. It was in this environment of innovation and challenge that PayJunction was born.

In 2023, our company processed over $11 billion, a testament to the solid foundation we received at UCSB. Our growth from a small startup to a leader in the payment processing industry, coupled with our ranking as the 30th best place to work in the U.S. by Glassdoor in 2020, highlights the impact of UCSB on our development.

Our success is a testament to the importance of programs like UCSB's New Venture Program. It equipped us with the practical skills and real-world experiences critical in the world of tech entrepreneurship. The program was instrumental in shaping our business acumen, fueling our creativity, and instilling a relentless pursuit of excellence.

Kavitta Ghai – CEO, Founder Nectir, 2019 NVC Semi Finalist

Out of all the invaluable experiences UCSB gave me, NVC remains the one that changed my life the most. There is no doubt that Nectir would not be where it is today without the support and foundation provided from the New Venture Program. My co-founder, Jordan, and I joined with absolutely no clue of how to start a company and we left with an incredible network of mentors, investors and customers that allowed us to go on to receive VC funding within a year after graduation.

It’s been over 4 years since we left the program and we still talk to the people we met through NVC on a nearly daily basis. We look back at the experience with a great deal of gratitude for Dave and his team for giving us what we call “an MBA from the school of hard knocks”. For a campus without an official business school, NVC was able to give us absolutely everything we needed to create the company of our dreams and have the resources necessary to pull it off. My entire life trajectory changed the moment I walked into the first NVC meeting and therefore I always recommend it to every UCSB student regardless of their major or career choices.

Chad Spensky – CEO, Founder Allthenticate, 2019 NVC Winner  

The New Venture Program was a great testing ground for us when deciding whether or not to commercialize our research.  The various activities surrounding the program gave us great exposure, and ultimately the conviction that we had a viable business that was worth pursuing.  The community that has built up around the NVP was pivotal.  I met my co-founder, Rita, through the program and a few of our early investors - without the NVP, Allthenticate would likely not exist today.  Dave and his team did a great job pushing us to explore the numerous options available to us and to ultimately take the leap into entrepreneurship.  I am very happy where I am today as the founder of Allthenticate and forever grateful for the early support we received from UCSB and the New Venture Program.

Kira Wyckoff – CEO, Cofounder Leeta, 2023 NVC Winner  

UC Santa Barbara is building a powerful entrepreneurship ecosystem for students that has hugely impacted our path with Leeta. Dave has been instrumental in facilitating a strong framework and idea development workflow through the New Venture Program and Competition. His leadership and mentor network during this program successfully taught and prepared us through extensive seminars, mentorship, and workshops. The physical infrastructure of the Wilcox Incubator importantly provided a dedicated space to collaborate in. We are incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in these programs and know that this will continue to positively impact many students in the future.

Testimonials from Intrapreneurs

 

Bernie Nguyen - Founder of Silverback Armor Solutions, 2021 NVC Winner

I just wanted to let you know that I accepted a new job at a San Francisco tech startup, I'll be deploying data analytics software to law enforcement agencies nationwide. During the interview process, they wanted to know every detail about my journey in the New Venture Program, and they were fascinated with the whole story. Before that, I was a SaaS product manager, running 3 engineering teams. Our software was used by almost a thousand government agencies in North America and Australia. Decisions I made impacted hundreds of millions of users. For a guy who wasn't even halfway through his twenties it was a pretty insane job to have, and one I couldn't have landed without having participating in the NVP and winning the competition.

It's kind of crazy to think I was a geography major, wondering if I'd one day land a job making maps for local governments. Because of the NVP, my entire career trajectory took a turn towards way more exciting things (no offense to geography), so I wanted to take time to say thank you. I consider the New Venture Program the most important part of my education at UCSB.

Amy Ramirez – Team Member, WaferPath, 2023 NVC Finalist

I wanted to share some exciting news—I've decided to take a job in Denver at a company called Datadog! I believe this opportunity will lead me to a great career path and industry.

I want to express my appreciation for all your guidance and support. The New Venture Program was invaluable in my professional growth, and I am deeply grateful for the impact it had on me. Leveraging my NVP experience greatly helped during my interview process, as I was able to draw examples from every aspect of the program and the competition. Thank you for the opportunities you've provided me and please reach out if I can ever help. Thank you.