About the eSeed Challenge
The eSeed Challenge is a premier funding track within the ASU Venture Devils program’s bi-annual Demo Day competitions. Since 2016, the eSeed Challenge, powered by the Prescott Student Venture Fund, has played a key role in the New American University’s design aspiration of valuing entrepreneurship and providing entrepreneurial experiences to all ASU students. Managed by the Fulton Schools of Engineering, the eSeed Challenge enables students to win seed funding and an all-expenses paid innovation field trip to advance their entrepreneurial ventures. The eSeed Challenge is open to all ASU students who aim to prove or disprove that there is valid demand for a prototyped solution (product or service) beyond an initial beneficiary or customer. Organized by the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute, the bi-annual Venture Devils Demo Day competitions, featuring the eSeed Challenge, aim to strategically develop early-stage student ventures that may be well suited to compete for and win other ASU, local, national, and global entrepreneurship competitions. The eSeed Challenge also helps all supported ventures to develop repeatable and scalable business models, regardless of follow-on funding or support opportunities.
How it works
The eSeed Challenge features three highly competitive phases. In Phase One, 30+ eSeed Challenge student startups are awarded $1,000 or more during the bi-annual Venture Devils Demo Day competitions to validate or reject their key business model hypotheses. In Phase Two, previous eSeed Challenge winners who are selected to compete during subsequent bi-annual Venture Devils Demo Day competitions will be considered for additional eSeed Accelerator grants of $5,000 or more to increase traction within their target markets. Finally, in Phase Three, ASU’s top eSeed-funded venture founders, along with other ASU student entrepreneurs, are competitively selected to represent the University as ASU Tech Devils, also known as Prescott Fellows. These select founders receive an exclusive invitation to participate in an all-expenses-paid innovation retreat, hosted by Mr. Tom Prescott, the eSeed Challenge’s lead benefactor, to Silicon Valley each Spring.
About Tom Prescott
Mr. Tom Prescott, an ASU Engineering alumnus, believes that all ASU students are capable of becoming impactful innovators. Mr. Prescott has catalyzed the eSeed Challenge with a generous gift to the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering to support early stage student ventures.
Tom was the former President, CEO, and Director of Align Technology Inc. Prior to Align, Tom was the President and Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Cardiac Pathways, a pioneer in treating dangerous cardiac arrhythmias with cooled ablation technology. Mr. Prescott led the turnaround, recapitalization and ultimately the sale of this interventional cardiology company to Boston Scientific Corporation.
Prior to Cardiac Pathways, Mr. Prescott held various general management and executive roles at Nellcor Puritan Bennett, a company with nearly $1 billion in revenue and a leader in respiratory products and pioneer of pulse oximetry for patient safety monitoring. Mr. Prescott also held various management positions at GE Medical Systems, a global leader in diagnostic imaging and transformational medical technologies.
In addition, he served in sales, marketing and management roles at Siemens, one of the world’s largest electrical engineering and electronics companies. He earned his Master’s degree from Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University and his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Arizona State University.