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Battle of the Business Plans

The concept is simple. The NFL wants to see promising startups and technology that will advance the stadium experience, enjoying the game at home, and the performance and safety of athletes. TechCrunch is bringing its experience with Startup Battlefield, one of the world’s premier startup competitions, to recruit and train contestants. Stanford’s Graduate School of Business is providing its expert knowledge of the startup scene, as well as an ideal location to bring these groups together — the CEMEX auditorium. The result is 1ST and Future, a startup competition on the morning of Feb. 6 — the day before Super Bowl 50 — that will provide a disruptive view of the future. The audience will be NFL team owners and executives, in addition to the circles of Stanford and TechCrunch. TechCrunch will stream the entire event so everyone can follow along. The three competition themes are:

The Future Stadium

Startups that will have the biggest impact on the experience of attendees at live, stadium sports events.

Bringing Home The Game

Startups that will alter in some fundamental way the enjoyment of live sports broadcasts in the home.

Tomorrow’s Athlete

Startups that will have the biggest impact on the performance and safety of athletes in competition and in training.

For more information about the pitch-off competition and FAQs, click here.

Time To Get On The Field

Apart from pitching in front of NFL team owners and executives, the winner of each theme will receive a $50,000 check from the NFL Strategic Investment Fund and an invitation to meet with top NFL executives. Air and travel expenses for two members from each winning team are included. Oh, one other thing: Each winning team wins two tickets to the Super Bowl. Yep. Pitch-Off Applications are now closed but you can watch the excitement on TechCrunch.com starting at 8:30am PT on Saturday, February 6.

Location

Stanford Unversity CEMEX Auditorium
655 Knight Way
Stanford, CA 94305

Map