Northwestern to host business competition launched by Under Armour CEO

With a nod to its reputation as a top-tier business incubator, Northwestern University is set to host the 2017 Cupid’s Cup Entrepreneurship Competition.

College students from around the U.S. will compete for this year’s Cupid’s Cup and more than $100,000 in cash prizes.

Created by Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank, Cupid's Cup aims to reach the nation’s top entrepreneurial minds. The competition is designed to inspire and foster the community of students and recent graduates who’ve already followed Plank's lead and are running their own companies.

The name refers to one of Plank's first businesses - Cupid's Valentine Rose Delivery - an enterprise he started as a student at the University of Maryland to sell roses on campus. Those profits eventually became seed money for Under Armour, one of the world’s largest makers of athletic performance gear.

Scheduled for March 30, 2017, on Northwestern’s Evanston campus, Cupid’s Cup is moving away from the University of Maryland campus for the first time in its 12-year history. The annual event will rotate to other schools in the future, but competition officials called Northwestern the perfect launch point for a new era of growth.

“Northwestern’s interdisciplinary ecosystem and emphasis on collaboration positions us to be a leader in student-founded ventures,” said Melissa Kaufman, executive director of The Garage, Northwestern’s hub for student entrepreneurship and innovation. “From inventive research to big ideas founded in classrooms and brought to life at The Garage, Northwestern values student entrepreneurship and innovation.”