Hosted by
Welcome to the 4th Annual Minnesota Cup!
The Minnesota Cup is an annual, statewide competition that seeks out aspiring entrepreneurs and their breakthrough ideas. We are looking for the next great entrepreneurial success story in our state.
This competition is for all entrepreneurs, whether your breakthrough idea is high tech or no tech, whether you are just putting your ideas into a business plan or if you've been out building your venture.
To learn more about the Minnesota Cup, there is plenty of information and detail available under About the Competition including News Coverage from KARE 11, Cities 97, the StarTribune and more.
To enter this years Minnesota Cup, follow these steps :
1) Click on "Enter MN Cup" in the top right. This will allow you to create an account with the MN Cup.
2) Once you have completed the account entry form, you will be taken to the contest entry form which consist of four questions asking you to describe your business concept and how you will make it a success.
3) You will also receive an email from support@breakthroughideas.org with your name and password that you can use to login to the MN Cup site on future visits. With this name and password, you can come back to the MN Cup site as many times as you like to edit / revise your entry. Each time you revise your entry, you will receive an email confirmation acknowledging the updates. All entries will be considered final at 11:59 PM on May 23rd.
Good luck in the competition. support@breakthroughideas.org
Minnesota Cup 2007 Recap
The 3rd annual Minnesota Cup launched on March 30th with the first round concluding on May 25th. Since then, members of the review board have read the submissions of nearly 500 entrants. On June 18th, we announced this years semi-finalist who provided amazing plans on their breakthrough business concepts.
Through late July & August, the review board read the submissions of our 30 semi-finalist and on August 20th, we announced this years Minnesota Cup finalist (to learn more, read the MN Cup Finalist Announcement).
On September 6th, the 2007 Finalists presented their plans to an esteemed panel of judges at the McNamara Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota. After these presentations, an awards event was held at the Alumni Center that included the awarding of the Entrepreneur of the Year award to Robert Stevens, founder of Geek Squad. As well as naming the MN Cup Winner for 2007. (to learn more, read the MN Cup Winner Annoucement).
Each year, Twin Cities Business provides enhanced coverage of the Minnesota Cup through an 8 page supplement.
Following you can find the supplements for the 2005,2006 & 2007 competitions.
U of M IT Alumns win 2005 & 2006 Contest
What do VAST Enterprises, the creators of Composite Pavers made from 99% recycled material and ArcSwitch, creators of a next generation fiber optic switching technology have in common? Their founders both have been winners of the Minnesota Cup competition and are alumni of the University of Minnesota Institute of Technology.
To learn more about our first two winners, read Breakthrough Ideas (8.5 MB, PDF), from the University of Minnesota, Spring / Summer 2007 Inventing Tomorrow Magazine.
