The Big Bang! Business Competition provides a forum for innovators to collaborate, develop and test business ideas.
Sharpen Your Business Skills:
Watch a Big Bang! Workshop
Join us for a series of five insightful workshops that will help you launch a successful venture. Led by industry experts, these sessions offer best business practices and valuable knowledge, no matter what your field. These workshop videos are free for viewing.
2025 Workshops are available on YouTube:
- Legal Foundations: Understanding IP and Venture Law
- Business Canvas: Framing Your Approach
- Market, Business and Technology Validation: Building Your Commitment
- The Pitch: Telling Your Story
- Business Model: Defining a Sustainable Enterprise
These challenging times call on us to create new solutions to our world's complex problems.
The Big Bang! competition helps you to grow as an entrepreneur and as a leader. You'll find opportunities to connect with fellow innovators, learn and apply business concepts in educational workshops, build your team, grow your network—and compete for cash prizes.
The Big Bang! awards prizes for the competition's top innovation overall, as well as for winning ventures in the following sectors:
- Animal Health + Industry
- Education + Educational Tools
- Energy + Sustainability
- Food + Agriculture
- Human Health + Industry
- Social Entrepreneurship
Competition Overview
The Big Bang! Business Competition runs from March to May and is held in conjunction with the Big Bang! Workshop Series.
Events and competition deadlines are noted below. The Big Bang! culminates with the annual Awards Ceremony, where we announce the winners and award prizes.
To participate in the Big Bang! Business Competition, at least one of your team or venture's founders must be affiliated with a California-based institution of higher education. Refer to the competition overview, eligibility and requirements on the Rules and Tools page for details.
All Big Bang! teams must register and submit deliverables through the competition platform, StartupTree, by the designated deadlines. We cannot accept emailed submissions.
Questions? If you have a question that isn't answered here, check out our FAQ page.
Meet the 2025 First Place Team
A team of four undergraduate students from California Institute of Technology won this year’s $25,000 first prize for an innovation that provides real-time data on livestock health, helping farmers prevent costly disease outbreaks. Pasadena-based Nexa Labs has developed a subcutaneous biosensor that monitors herd health by tracking heart rate, respiration rate, blood oxygen and temperature. Farmers receive continuous data, including alerts for any potential disease outbreaks.
Nexa Labs’ technology targets bovine respiratory disease, the most common cattle health issue. Future versions of the technology will detect a wider range of health concerns and may eventually be available for use with humans. CEO Zarif Azher (pictured) said Nexa Labs will use the Big Bang! prize money to increase the scale of their technology validation trials, set to begin at partner universities in the coming months. Read more.
Big Bang! Fast Facts
- The Big Bang! Business Competition runs March through May.
- The competition is designed for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs.
- Our online Big Bang! Workshop Series is a powerful complement to the business competition. Build your skillset, grow your network.
- You don’t have to enter the competition to participate in the workshops.
- Teams must have at least one founder affiliated with a California-based institution of higher education.
- Competition finalists compete for cash prizes.
- You may participate in the Little Bang! Poster + Pitch Competition concurrently with the Big Bang!
Helpful Links
Workshop Series
The Big Bang! Workshops Series runs in January and February each year. It offers the knowledge and skills you need to move from concept to company—and to effectively compete in the Big Bang! Business Competition. Big Bang! workshops are open to anyone and are free of charge. Participants learn to:
- Understand IP and venture law
- Develop a business canvas and elevator pitch
- Evaluate the potential market
- Create a pitch presentation
- Develop a business model
Watch the 2025 Workshop Videos
While participation in the workshops is not required to enter the Big Bang! competition, we encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to grow your entrepreneurial skillset and your network—and to help your venture thrive.
2025 Events and Timeline
The 2025 Big Bang! is now complete. The 2026 Big Bang! schedule will follow the same approximate timeline as the 2025 dates, which are listed below for reference. The official 2026 Big Bang! schedule will be released soon, so check this page again or email us for more information.
| Event/Deadline | Date/Time | Link to RSVP / Details |
|---|---|---|
| Final Registration Deadline (Round 1) | March 3, 2025 1 PM | Deliverables: executive summary and team bios. Learn more. Top teams advance to Round 2. |
| Round 2 Submission Deadline (Semifinals) | April 7, 2025 1 PM | Deliverables: customer call summary, video pitch and detailed pitch deck. Learn more. Top teams advance to Round 3. |
| Dry Run Presentations (optional) | May 6, 2025 4–8 PM | Virtual |
| Round 3 Submission Deadline (Finals) | May 12, 2025 1 PM | Deliverables: additional customer call summary; presentation pitch deck. Learn more. |
| Final Presentations and Judging | May 14, 2025 | Finalist teams (in-person attendance required) |
| 25th Annual Big Bang! Awards Ceremony | May 20, 2025 | Finalist teams (in-person attendance required) |
Thank you, Big Bang! Sponsors
Thank you to our generous sponsors. Learn more and meet our prize sponsors.
It’s amazing to see how far our teams can go. In October many of their ideas are just that: ideas. By May, with a ton of hard work, support and mentorship, many of these ideas are ready for prime-time as companies, licensed technologies or nonprofits.
—Professor Andrew Hargadon