The Moot Corp® Competition — later known as the Venture Labs Investment Competition — was founded in 1984 at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin. For four decades it brought champions of regional and national MBA business plan contests to Austin each spring to present investable ventures to working venture capitalists.

BusinessWeek dubbed Moot Corp the “Super Bowl of world business plan competitions,” and the phrase stuck for a generation. The format has been imitated widely; few competitions have matched its sustained prestige, its global reach, or its insistence on judging the way investors actually do.

What this site is

mootcorp.org is an independent, editorial preservation of the competition’s history — an archive in the open. We publish historical research, alumni dispatches, and essays on the discipline of new venture creation that the competition helped to define. The site is not affiliated with the original organisers or with The University of Texas at Austin; trademarks and registered marks remain the property of their respective owners.

Editorial principles

• Investor-grade seriousness. We write about new venture creation the way competition judges scored it: opportunity, market, model, evidence, ask.
• Primary sources where possible. Programme materials, jury notes, alumni interviews, and published reportage of record — cited where appropriate.
• No promotional copy for active competitions. We cover history, methodology, and alumni outcomes, not current marketing efforts.
• Plain language. Academic prestige is not a licence for opacity. We write for entrepreneurs, students, faculty, and investors alike.

Contributing & submissions

We welcome editorial submissions from former competitors, faculty, judges, and researchers. Pitches should run 150–300 words and include a one-paragraph bio and relevant publication history. Original archival materials — programmes, jury packets, presentation decks — are particularly welcome and will be credited and preserved.

We are also building a fellowship of correspondents across the regional qualifying ecosystems. If you covered or competed in an affiliated competition and would like to contribute, please write to the editorial desk.

Editorial desk

For pitches, archival inquiries, alumni notes, and corrections:
finals@mootcorp.org

Acknowledgements

This archive is a quiet labour of editorial care. Particular thanks to the alumni teams, faculty advisers, and volunteer correspondents who have shared materials and recollections — and to the four decades of competitors whose work made the Moot Corp tradition worth preserving.