PSU Innovation Challenge
Your idea could be the beginning of something.
Have you noticed a problem you wish someone would solve? Do you have an idea for a product, app, service, nonprofit, community space, or small business, but aren’t sure what to do next?
The PSU Innovation Challenge (PIC) gives Portland State students the guidance, funding, and support to explore an idea and discover what it could become.
You do not need a business plan, a prototype, or previous entrepreneurship experience to participate, just an idea you care about and the curiosity to test it.
Over 10 weeks, 12 selected teams will develop their ideas through hands-on workshops, one-on-one advising, industry mentorship, and real-world experimentation. Every team will receive a development grant to begin testing and building its concept.
The experience culminates in a live Pitch Competition & Prototype Exhibition, where teams showcase their progress to a panel of judges, fellow students, and members of Portland’s entrepreneurial community, and compete for cash prizes.
Apply to the PSU Innovation Challenge
Choose Your Track
PIC welcomes many kinds of ideas. Applicants will choose one of two tracks based on what they want to create.
Product Track
For teams developing a physical product, invention, or technology.
Six teams will be selected for the Product Track. Each will receive a $1,000 prototype development grant to design, build, and test a physical solution.
The Product Track winner will be invited to represent Portland State University in the statewide InventOR Collegiate Challenge (May–June), where student inventors from across Oregon receive additional mentorship, prototype funding, and opportunities to compete for cash prizes.
Learn more about InventOR
Venture Track
For ideas that are not primarily physical products, including services, apps, nonprofits, creative ventures, community initiatives, third spaces, and other mission-driven or commercial concepts.
Six teams will be selected for the Venture Track. Each will receive a $500 development grant to research, test, and strengthen its idea.
Teams in either track may also have the opportunity to continue developing their ventures through CUBE, the Center for Entrepreneurship’s student business incubator.
Learn more about the CUBE
What Selected Teams Receive
Each selected team will receive:
- A development grant to test and advance its idea
- Five interactive, in-person cohort workshops
- Practical entrepreneurial tools applied directly to its idea
- One-on-one advising from the PSU Center for Entrepreneurship
- One-on-one mentorship from an experienced industry professional
- Individual pitch coaching
- Connections to Portland’s entrepreneurial community
- The opportunity to compete for cash prizes
- Potential pathways into InventOR or CUBE
Learn by Working on Your Own Idea
PIC is not a traditional class or lecture series. Every workshop is designed for active learning and putting ideas into practice.
During each session, you will apply new tools to your own idea, work through challenges with facilitators and advisors, exchange feedback with other student founders, and identify your next steps.
The five-session curriculum introduces the core mindsets and methods entrepreneurs use to turn assumptions into evidence-based opportunities:
- Design Thinking and Customer Discovery
Understand the people affected by the problem, challenge your assumptions, and learn how to gather meaningful customer insights. - Value Proposition and Market Fit
Clarify who your idea serves, what value it creates, and why someone would choose your solution. - Business Model Development
Explore how your venture could operate, deliver value, attract partners or customers, and become financially sustainable. - Feasibility and Competitive Analysis
Evaluate what it will take to make your idea work, understand the existing landscape, and identify your venture’s strengths, risks, and opportunities. - Storytelling and Pitching
Learn how to communicate the problem, your solution, and the potential of your idea in a clear and compelling way.
Each in-person cohort session will last approximately 2–3 hours. Attendance at all five sessions is required.
Pitch Competition and Prototype Exhibition
PIC culminates in a full-day celebration of student innovation.
Teams will pitch their ventures to a panel of judges and showcase their ideas, experiments, and prototypes during an interactive public exhibition. It is a chance to demonstrate how far your idea has come, receive feedback, build connections, and compete for cash prizes.
You do not need to have everything figured out. The goal is to show what you tested, what you learned, how your idea evolved, and where you want to take it next.
Prizes and Opportunities
Teams will compete for the following awards:
- First Place: $1,500
- Second Place: $1,000
- Third Place: $500
- PGE Foundation Special Grand Prize: $2,000
- Product Track Winner: Invitation to represent PSU at InventOR
Learn more about PIC's Judging Rubric & Criteria
Additional opportunities may be available for teams that want to continue developing their ideas after the competition.
Who Should Apply?
PIC is open to Portland State students in every major and area of study.
You might be a strong fit if:
- You have an idea but do not know where to begin
- You have identified a problem you want to explore
- You want to start a business, nonprofit, service, community initiative, or creative venture
- You are developing an invention or physical product
- You want to make a difference but have never thought of yourself as an entrepreneur
- You already have an early-stage idea and want help determining next steps
No previous business or entrepreneurship experience is required. Early-stage ideas are encouraged.
Built on a Legacy of Student Innovation
The PSU Innovation Challenge represents the next evolution of the Center for Entrepreneurship’s Cleantech Challenge and Everyday Entrepreneurs programs.
Building on their history and impact, PIC creates one inclusive pathway for PSU students to explore entrepreneurship, develop solutions to real-world problems, and take the first meaningful steps toward building something of their own.
Explore the history of the Cleantech Challenge and Everyday Entrepreneurs
Start Where You Are
You do not need to call yourself an entrepreneur, or know whether your idea will work. That is what the challenge is designed to help you discover.
Bring us the problem you care about, the idea you cannot stop thinking about, or the possibility you want to explore. We will help you take it from there.
Apply Now