NJCU Institute for Dispute Resolution Announces Inaugural Entrepreneurship Pitch Competition on April 26

The New Jersey City University (NJCU) Institute for Dispute Resolution (IDR) has announced it will partner with Mission 50 in Hoboken to host an entrepreneurship pitch competition on Tuesday, April 26 at 4 p.m.

The inaugural entrepreneurship pitch competition is open to all students. The successful pitch will have an opportunity to win $5,000 to launch a business idea.

Professor David Weiss — the founder and director of NJCU’s IDR — said the goal of the program is “to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation culture throughout the university by unleashing our students’ ideas. Programs and Initiatives that create a startup ecosystem environment at NJCU work to advance a robust STEM and STEAM launch pad to support our students’ creative potential.”

The pitch competition builds upon NJCU’s partnership with Mission 50, which launched an Innovation and Commercialization Lab on November 8 to support entrepreneurship programs at Hudson County’s four colleges.

In November, Gregory Dell’Aquila, the founder and CEO of JDA Group LLC (JDA), the parent organization of Mission 50, committed $25,000 toward innovation on Hudson County’s college campuses, which included $5,000 to fund university-led student business pitch competitions. He also announced that the winners from each school will be invited to compete in a countywide pitch competition hosted by Mission 50 in the spring, with an additional prize of $5,000.

During the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Innovation and Commercialization Lab At Mission 50 in November, Dell’Aquila said “It has also been our company’s mission to support the entrepreneurs of tomorrow by working hand-in-hand with Hudson County’s institutions of higher learning.”

NJCU students interested in participating in the inaugural Pitch Competition can register their participation and utilize a resource to assist in building a pitch deck.

For further information on the competition, its submission process, or scheduled workshops to aid in preparing a pitch, contact Dr. Michael Arbitblit at marbitblit@njcu.edu.