# How to Apply to the Burton D. Morgan Competition — Fall 2026

> A practical Fall 2026 guide to the Burton D. Morgan Venture Concept Competition application, judging criteria, customer discovery, and what to work on before the final.

By buildpurdue Team · September 28, 2026 · 5 min read

Source: https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/burton-d-morgan-application-guide-fall-2026

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The **Fall 2026 Burton D. Morgan Venture Concept Competition** accepted early venture concepts through **September 27, 2026 at 11:59 p.m.** Applications are now closed. Purdue describes that preliminary submission as an expression of commitment to go through the process, not as the final judged pitch.

For the full semester record, use the [Fall 2026 cycle guide](/blog/burton-d-morgan-venture-concept-competition-fall-2026). The first section below records Purdue's official application requirements; the strategy sections after it are **buildpurdue guidance**, not additional Purdue rules.

## Official Fall 2026 application facts

For the Fall 2026 cycle, Purdue published these entry rules:

- **Deadline:** September 27, 2026 at 11:59 p.m.
- **Form:** [official preliminary venture concept form](https://airtable.com/appbOLgMKkZ9qAMxR/pagddradTeIElFEUK/form)
- **Who could enter:** Purdue students with an eligible early-stage concept
- **Funding limit:** no more than **$10,000** previously received from any source
- **Revenue limit:** no more than **$5,000** in market revenue
- **IP restriction:** the concept could not be based on **Purdue-owned intellectual property**
- **Initial assessment:** Purdue explicitly said the preliminary submission would **not be assessed**; it was the starting point for the venture-building process
- **Track selection:** applicants did **not** choose one of the two tracks at submission; Purdue said tracks would be determined after concepts were received

Entered participants then received access to workshops, Brightspace materials, office hours, assignments and feedback. Purdue's published Fall 2026 schedule lists workshops on Sept. 24, Oct. 8, Oct. 22, Nov. 5, Nov. 19 and Dec. 3, with the final scheduled for Dec. 11.

## Start with the problem, not the pitch deck

Purdue's Fall 2026 judging criteria emphasize:

1. the importance and clarity of the target customer's unmet job or problem;
2. the clarity and differentiation of the value proposition;
3. the size of the market opportunity; and
4. market, technical, and execution risk.

The first question is therefore not "How do I make this sound impressive?" It is: **Who has this problem, how painful is it, and what evidence says they care?**

## What to put into an early concept

Even a lightweight concept becomes clearer when five things are legible:

- **Customer:** the specific person, team, or organization experiencing the problem.
- **Problem:** what repeatedly costs them time, money, risk, or opportunity.
- **Current behavior:** how they handle it today.
- **Proposed value:** what becomes materially better.
- **Open questions:** the assumptions you most need to test.

Avoid using most of the response on features. The early-stage work is about learning whether the opportunity itself is real.

## Customer discovery before you build

Useful interviews are not product demos. Instead of asking "Would you use this?", ask:

- Tell me about the last time this happened.
- What did you do?
- Who else was involved?
- What did it cost?
- What have you already tried?
- Who makes the buying decision?
- What would make this urgent enough to change behavior?

The goal is evidence about **existing behavior**, not compliments.

For a broader guide, see [How to validate a startup idea at Purdue](/blog/validate-a-startup-idea-at-purdue).

## Make the customer specific

"College students," "small businesses," and "manufacturers" are usually too broad.

A stronger starting segment sounds more like:

- residential HVAC companies with repeat truck-roll problems;
- plaintiff law firms losing intake opportunities after hours;
- pharmaceutical teams trying to monitor freeze-drying quality in real time.

Those examples mirror the specificity visible in documented Fall 2025 finalists such as [PipeLine](/blog/pipeline-burton-d-morgan-finalist-fall-2025), [Litmetrics](/blog/litmetrics-burton-d-morgan-finalist-fall-2025), and [LyoOptic](/blog/lyooptic-burton-d-morgan-finalist-fall-2025).

## Show what is different

"AI-powered," "easy to use," and "all-in-one" are not differentiated value propositions.

Explain what changes for the customer: fewer repeat visits, faster qualification, less downtime, a shorter campaign turnaround, better process visibility, or fewer manual coordination steps. Then compare that outcome with the current alternative.

## Treat market size as a decision tool

Start with the segment you can actually describe:

- how many plausible customers are in it;
- how often the problem occurs;
- what the problem appears to cost;
- whether a buyer already has budget around it; and
- what adjacent segment becomes reachable if the first one works.

That is more useful than a giant industry number unrelated to your first customer.

## Be explicit about risk

Purdue's criteria include market, technical, and execution risk. List the assumptions that could kill the concept:

- Will the buyer pay?
- Can the technology work in the real environment?
- Can you access the required data?
- Can you reach the customer economically?
- Does the workflow require behavior change customers will resist?

Then design the next experiment around one of those risks.

## Use the workshops as a forcing function

A strong cycle looks like:

**Before each workshop:** arrive with one important unresolved assumption.

**After each workshop:** turn feedback into one concrete customer or product experiment.

**Before the next milestone:** collect enough evidence to update your view, even if the evidence says the original idea was wrong.

The point is improved evidence, not loyalty to the first version.

## Fall 2026 checklist

Before submitting or entering the first serious workshop, make sure you can answer:

- Who exactly is the first customer?
- What happened the last time they experienced this problem?
- How do they solve it now?
- What evidence says this matters?
- What assumption are you least confident about?
- What experiment reduces that uncertainty?
- What does the concept do materially better?
- What would make the opportunity large enough to keep pursuing?

For official requirements, return to the [Fall 2026 cycle guide](/blog/burton-d-morgan-venture-concept-competition-fall-2026) or Purdue's [official competition page](https://business.purdue.edu/centers/communication-center/case-competitions/burton-d-morgan-business-concept-competition.php).