About Us

The Carolina Challenge is a Business and Social Venture Competition designed to promote entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We are a student-led program supported by UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School's Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.

Top prizes for the competition are provided by the John Stedman Endowments.

Forbes and The Princeton Review have previously ranked UNC as the #1 entrepreneurial campus in the nation. The Carolina Challenge continues to foster this entrepreneurial tradition by hosting an annual competition open to any UNC-affiliated person or persons.  See Past Winners

Each Challenge team must include at least one UNC student, faculty or staff member. Finalists present their plans to a panel of judges comprised of successful entrepreneurs and business people as well as community and university leaders.

The Carolina Challenge is designed to identify and support outstanding entrepreneurial ventures, including those in the emerging area of social entrepreneurship, from all schools and departments throughout the University.

Activities span the academic year, beginning in the fall with recruitment and team-formation activities to attract the best ideas and demonstrate the value of participating in and winning the competition.

Emphasis is placed on forming multi-disciplinary teams that have the right combination of skills and knowledge to successfully implement the venture idea. Once teams officially enter the competition in January, they gain access to a wide range of resources to help them learn how to turn their ideas into viable business plans

Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right.
 -Henry Ford