Student Veterans of America (SVA), the nation’s largest chapter-based organization in higher education, and Student Startup Madness (SSM), a nationwide tournament competition for student startups, are partnering for the second consecutive year to promote student-veteran entrepreneurship.
Austin, TX. 14 November 2018 – The partnership between SSM and SVA brings greater visibility to the innovations student-veterans are contributing to the startup ecosystem. Student veterans have a propensity for entrepreneurship. In 2017, SVA’s groundbreaking research demonstrated that the most frequent degrees student veterans using the GI Bill earn are in business, management, and marketing.
A finalist from 2018’s competition, J Holden Gibbons, cofounder of Librarian AI and U.S. Army veteran, discovered the competition through his SVA Chapter at Stanford University and went on to pitch his startup to investors at South by Southwest during the SSM event.
J Holden Gibbons, co-founder of Librarian.AI
SVA and SSM are partnering again to repeat last year’s success by extending SSM’s early application period for student-veterans. The early application period offers access to 20 reserved slots, out of a total field of 64, for early appliers. The extension will go until midnight, November 19, 2018. Student startup teams can apply here.
“We are proud to have SVA as our partner, and hope that by extending the early admission deadline, we can encourage even more applications from student veteran entrepreneurs,” said Sean Branagan, founder of SSM.
“Higher education is the gateway to entrepreneurial success,” said SVA’s Executive Vice President, James Schmeling. “We’re proud to partner with SSM for the second year to harness the transformative power of higher education, and the peer network of support our over 1,500 chapters provide, to find creative opportunities like J Holden Gibbons discovered this year.”
About Student Startup Madness
The Student Startup Madness concept was developed by Sean Branagan, director of the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, in conjunction with SXSW.
Student Startup Madness, along with its sponsors and host universities, believes in American entrepreneurship and on-campus startups—and wants to help young student entrepreneurs succeed and become a part of the SXSW experience.
For more on Student Startup Madness, visit the website (https://studentstartupmadness.com) and follow SSM on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/StudentStartupMadness and Twitter https://twitter.com/startupmad?lang=en
About Student Veterans of America
Student Veterans of America (SVA) is the country’s premier organization for student veterans. SVA supports all veterans through their transition from the military, educational advancement, and career growth. SVA represents a network of 1,500 chapters on campuses in all 50 states and four countries representing over 700,000 student veterans at those colleges and universities. SVA is Gold Certified by Guide Star and was named Non-Profit of the Year by HillVets. For more information visit www.studentveterans.org.