The New Venture Competition - Rock Business Track
Objective
The Student New Venture Competition aims to provide HBS students with a meaningful, hands-on learning experience in launching new business ventures with significant economic impact, guiding contemplated and embryonic businesses through rigorous feedback, judging, and mentorship.
Description
About the Competition
The Rock Business Track of Harvard Business School's New Venture Competition (NVC) is presented by the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship for new ventures whose economic returns drive substantial market impact.
Eligibility
- Open to HBS MBA students, who must be a co-founder and significant equity holder if equity has been distributed
- Teams may include students from other Harvard schools, other universities, and non-students
- A team may enter only one track (Business or Social Enterprise)
- Seed capital raised limit: 1,500,000 $; revenue generated limit: 2,000,000 $
Format
- Teams register with an application, executive summary, and pitch deck
- Asynchronous first-round judging, followed by selection of top 20 semi-finalist teams
- Semi-finalists submit a 5-minute pitch video, judged remotely to select 4 finalists
- Finalists deliver a live 5-minute pitch to a panel of judges (Super Saturday)
- Winner and runner-up announced at the Finale in Klarman Hall
Judges
Venture capitalists, past winners, serial founders, and angel investors evaluate ideas for potential economic impact.
December 25, 2026
Private
Business School
Entrepreneurship
Finance
Rock@hbs.edu
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School, Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprise Initiative
Grand Prize: 75,000 $
Runner-Up Prize: 25,000 $
Crowd Favorite / Audience Award: 5,000 $