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Burton D. Morgan Venture Concept Competition at Purdue: Complete Guide
An evergreen guide to Purdue's Burton D. Morgan Venture Concept Competition: what it is, how it works, who can enter, how the format has changed, and where to find each semester's archive.
The Burton D. Morgan Venture Concept Competition is one of Purdue's longest-running student entrepreneurship competitions. It began in 1987 with support from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation and has changed names and formats several times as Purdue's venture-building programs evolved.
This page is the evergreen hub. For semester-specific deadlines, prize pools, finalists, and results, use the archive links below instead of assuming one cycle's rules apply to another.
Competition archive
| Cycle | Guide | Finalists | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2026 — 38th | Fall 2026 guide | Not announced as of September 28, 2026 | Final scheduled for December 11, 2026 |
| Fall 2025 — 37th | Fall 2025 archive | Fall 2025 finalists | Fall 2025 results |
| Spring 2025 — 36th | Spring 2025 archive | Spring 2025 finalists | Spring 2025 results |
For the live source of truth, see Purdue's official competition page.
What the competition is
The modern competition is more than a single pitch day. Purdue has used it to move students through customer discovery, problem framing, value proposition design, market analysis, and venture validation before a final event.
The exact format changes by cycle. Spring 2025 was a nine-week Business Concept Competition. Fall 2025 became the 37th Venture Concept Competition. Fall 2026 expanded again with a $100,000 prize pool, two tracks, workshops at Purdue HIVE, and new follow-on opportunities.
Who can participate
Recent cycles have been open broadly to Purdue students across degree levels and colleges. The Fall 2025 final-event page reported participants from Engineering, Business, Science, Polytechnic, and other disciplines.
Always check the current Purdue page because funding, revenue, intellectual-property, or other early-stage restrictions can change.
How the name changed
The program has appeared under several names:
- Business Plan Competition — used for many earlier editions.
- Business Model Competition — Purdue publicly shifted toward business-model development around 2017.
- Business Concept Competition — used through the 36th edition in Spring 2025.
- Venture Concept Competition — used beginning with the 37th edition in Fall 2025.
The underlying purpose stayed recognizable: give Purdue students a structured process for turning an idea or problem into a stronger venture concept and presenting the result to experienced judges.
Prize history
Prize pools have varied. Spring 2025 and Fall 2025 each advertised $50,000. Fall 2026 doubled that to $100,000.
Purdue reported in 2020 that the competition had awarded about $2 million in total cash prize money since 1987. See Purdue's 2020 recap.
How it fits into Purdue entrepreneurship
Depending on the cycle, top teams have been pointed toward programs such as Venture X, Purdue Innovates' New Venture Challenge, and national competitions.
For a direct comparison with buildpurdue's ongoing community, see buildpurdue vs. the Burton D. Morgan Venture Concept Competition.
How to prepare
For the Fall 2026 application record and preparation guidance, use our Fall 2026 application guide.
Across recent cycles, the recurring theme is that a strong concept is not merely a clever idea. Teams are pushed to identify a real customer, understand an important problem or job, test assumptions, and show evidence that the opportunity is worth pursuing.