UF AI Days Gator Tank

The top 4 teams qualify for up to $5K of Luby Microgrants.

Registration for the competition is now open!

The UF AI Days Gator Tank was created to help students launch and grow businesses that leverage artificial intelligence. The top 4 teams will compete for a chance to win up to $5K in Luby Microgrants. The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center will offer mentoring and various other helpful resources along the way.

Learn more about UF AI Days and UF AI Initiatives.

Entry Requirements & Registration

The entry period for the Fall 2025 UF AI Days Gator Tank is now open. Please submit your intent to compete by September 19th at 5 pm EST.

• Students can enter the competition individually or form teams.
• The team leader must be an enrolled student at any college or school at UF.
• A pitch is not required to register. You will have an opportunity to develop your pitch prior to the submission deadline (Friday, September 26th).
• The pitches submitted must be the team’s own original work and ideas.
• Have a clear vision of what business you’re trying to create, and have a good idea of the potential as well as the issues of the intended business.
• Register online by 5 pm on September 19th.

If needed, team members can be updated throughout the competition.

Please note that the entrant must certify that at least one member of the team was an enrolled student at the University of Florida during the Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Summer 2025, or Fall 2025 semesters.

Competition Format

Graduate and undergraduate competitors enter individually or in teams to create growth-oriented business models.

Teams will submit their pitch (slides, video, idea summary, etc.) for judging in the preliminary round, which takes place September 26-October 10. On October 10, the Final 4 teams will be announced.

The competitors who make it to the Final 4 will then present their pitch to a panel of judges on Monday, October 27th at 9 am EST. This event will be open to the public.

Prizes

The top four competition winners—those who represent the best potential for growth and for attracting outside financing—will receive up to $5K in Luby Microgrants.

The plans must be successfully presented to a panel of judges. The rules section of this website covers specifics about the competition. The prize money is offered as seed money to promote the pitch’s enactment. The business must actually be started, and prize money checks are written to the new companies, not the individuals.

Judging

Judges review the complete business plans on the following criteria:

• Concept strength
• Market
• Economics of the business
• Operations
• Technical Feasibility
• Management team
• Financing

The completed pitches will be submitted Friday, September 26th by 5 pm EST.

The judges select the Final 4 teams to compete in the final presentation phase. This phase takes place on Monday, October 27th at 9 am EST.

Each team will have 15 minutes to verbally present their plans to judges. Judges then have 15 minutes to question each team.

Note that this is a competition in which both the innovativeness of the business idea and the quality of the pitch are evaluated. The competition rewards creative thinking regarding new markets, products, and services, as well as the team’s strategy to implement its plans.

Rules & Guidelines

In order to enter, the team leader must be a full- or part-time student, undergraduate or graduate level, who is currently enrolled in a degree program, and who is registered at one of the University of Florida campuses for the Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Summer 2025 or Fall 2025 semester. Other team members can be non-UF college students or community members, however, non-student members are not allowed to present as part of the team in the competition.

Only one submission of a pitch per team is permitted.

The pitch should contain the following:

• Company Description
• Product/Service Name and Description/Elevator Pitch (Customer Value Proposition)
• Stage of Company Development (Idea, Seed, Emerging, Established)
• How does Artificial Intelligence create value for your business idea?
• What are the AI techniques/algorithms that make your business ideas feasible?
• What market are you addressing?
• What problems are you trying to solve? (Describe your solution to the problem described)
• What is your unique competitive advantage?
• What are the most important metrics of success in your business model?
• How does your company make money?
• Competitors/Industry Description
• Current Stage of the Business Ide
• Management Team & Advisors

Individuals may be a member of only one team. Teams may be as small as one student, and there is no maximum size, but bear in mind that there are practical limits to the size of any working group.

Ideas submitted as part of a team’s new business venture must represent the original work of the team members. Team members will sign a certification to this effect as part of the initial entry.

If the new venture has already received funding from any outside sources (angel investors, other competitions, etc.), amounts, investors, and dates of funding must be disclosed in the initial entry. This competition is intended only for student teams that have not received any formal outside investment from venture capital firms or other certified investors and that have received $50,000* or less in outside funds by the start of the fall academic semester. Most teams have yet to raise any monies.

Submitted pitches are protected in the spirit of non-disclosure, and all entry materials will be treated as company confidential. The only people with access to the pitches will be judges and select members of the organizing committee. Materials will not be distributed to any other party unless requested by an entrant team. No other provisions are made to protect intellectual property.

Entrants must adhere to all submission deadlines and guidelines. Pitches must be submitted no later than the appropriate due date and time. No late submissions will be accepted and any submissions that do not follow the guidelines and requirements will not be reviewed.

Entries will be judged by a panel of faculty and professionals involved in the entrepreneurship and investment space. Judges may be successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, or professional service providers working with the venture community. Any entry is subject to minimum criteria in terms of market potential, viability, and other factors, as determined by the judging panel’s experience. If no entries meet the minimum criteria, prizes might not be awarded. Throughout any and all phases of the competition, all decisions of the judges are final.

Except as stated below, prize money is granted only to the business entity that the winning team forms, e.g. a corporation or LLC. If the winning teams fail to form the business entity and request the prize money from the UF Entrepreneurship & Innovation Center within one year following the competition, the money remains in the competition fund and is not disbursed. Award money will be granted only to seed the start-up and development of the winning idea (e.g. no substitutions may be made without the approval of the UF Entrepreneurship & Innovation Center). Teams and their resultant business entities are responsible for any tax consequences of the prize.

At least 25% of the winning business entity formed must be owned by one or more of the UF students on the winning team. If at the time of the competition, the venture has already been formed and the student participant(s) hold less than 25% equity, consideration will be given as to whether the venture was conceived and launched with co-founders who were UF students within the past four academic years.

The university reserves the right to disqualify, in its sole and absolute discretion, any team from the competition at any time. Reasons for disqualification may include but are not limited to, plagiarism and any other form of academic dishonesty, misappropriation or infringement of the intellectual property of others, and any failure to comply with these rules and regulations. Disqualified teams shall forfeit any and all prizes awarded to them.

Prize money will be awarded as follows:

The prize money will be distributed to the company or entity that is moving the business plan forward in one increment of 100% of the total prize money after the winners have been announced.