Competitions and Judging

University of Central Florida | StartupTree

By partnering with StartupTree, the UCF Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership was able to consolidate management of multiple IT platforms to just one, while simultaneously increasing engagement and participation in their competitions. UCF now has venture competitions with over 500 competitors and judges.

The Challenge

The UCF Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership was juggling several different IT platforms to manage their ecosystem, which ended up being very costly per individual competition.

The Solution

Implementing an all-inclusive platform with exceptional customer support that enabled their team to have control over all parts of their entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The Results

With a major increase in reliable organization, the UCF Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership’s competitions skyrocketed in engagement with a much cheaper cost.

ABOUT UCF CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP

The UCF Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, directed by Cameron Ford, has helped undergraduate and graduate student entrepreneurs flourish since 2005. Its main mission is to help students succeed by empowering them with entrepreneurial mindsets and skill sets.
UCF has over 65,000 students and the UCF Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership holds an extensive array of resources and opportunities for all different types of students. The hub does its best to meet students wherever they are and work from there.

ABOUT STARTUPTREE

StartupTree is the leading platform used by top universities and organizations, to unlock the potential of ecosystems through data and development of more robust networks. The company powers up mentorship, competitions, events, and networking for participants to join, launch, or scale the next big ideas, while developing skills for their careers. StartupTree is on a mission to democratize access to resources, including for underrepresented students and entrepreneurs.

Contact us: hello@startuptree.co

The Challenge

The struggle to manage and pay for multiple IT platforms shared with hundreds of people across a campus

The UCF Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership needed a feasible, affordable, and efficient solution to manage their network and expand their outreach. The goal was to positively impact more students, without overcrowding their system.
Cameron was looking to expand the competition program, but the cost of doing so with other competition-only platforms was unreasonable given the number of competitions they run.

“We were using another platform for competitions. It was quite extensive -- we had to pay for every single use of it. 
This created a disincentive to produce competitions because right off the bat, we had this overhead cost we had to cover. If the competition didn't impact a lot of students, it was hard to justify the investment.
With StartupTree, I can create a competition with the drop of a hat and as many times as I want."

Cameron Ford

Founding Director, UCF Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership & Executive Director, Blackstone LaunchPad at UCF

The Solution

How UCF's Entrepreneurship Center Boosted Competitions to the Next Level

Cutting Costs

Creating More Competitions for Less
With one yearly cost for a multitude of different features, StartupTree was ultimately the best solution to solve the UCF Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership’s challenges. With the removal of a fee for each competition separately, it created an incentive to expand competitions.

One Centralized Platform

Saving Hours of Manual Work with Platform Consolidation
Implementing a new organizational software can be intimidating for any program. But after the beginning transfer and adjustment period, having one centralized IT platform saved the UCF Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership hours and hours of manual data entry.

Exceptional Customer Support

Never Navigating Alone
The StartupTree team gets customers fully situated and comfortable with using the platform throughout the transition and adjustment period. "The team is always receptive to feedback and there to help and support in any way possible."

The Results

Hundreds of Students Now Involved in UCF's Competitions

After using StartupTree for over two years, the UCF Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership has been able to expand its competition program exponentially.
"At the moment, we have 4 campus-wide competitions that I am involved directly with. I also use the competitions feature in a class that I teach which regularly has 600 students in it.”
With fewer platforms to manage, extra time can be put into work on promoting the Center and drawing more students in.

"500 entries, 500 judges, and it works! It has been very, very reliable -- I haven't had a hiccup. 
With that many students, I wouldn't put myself out there with something like this if I thought I was going to get a whole bunch of emails from students who couldn't get it to work. 
It has worked flawlessly and is now a standard part of my class.”

Cameron Ford

Founding Director, UCF Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership & Executive Director, Blackstone LaunchPad at UCF

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