LINCOLN- State officials launched a new contest for student entrepreneurs that they hope will lead to creating the “next Hudl,” a sports tech start-up that now employs 3,500 across the world. With about two dozen 20-somethings looking on at Hudl’s downtown Lincoln headquarters, Gov. Jim Pillen pitched the “Governor’s New Ventures Competition” as a way to keep the “best and the brightest” college students in Nebraska from moving away.

The contest will pay $20,000 for the best business idea submitted by Nebraska college students, and $15,000 and $10,000 for second and third place, respectively. “We’re entering into an incredible new economy, and the more that we can do to stimulate students to have the next bold idea that can change the world (the better),” Pillen said.

Bryan Slone, the president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that Hudl was “a model of what’s possible” in the state. “Where is the coolest sports tech company in the world?” Slone asked. It’s here, he responded. Hudl CEO David Graff, a UNL graduate, said that he and partners entered several similar contests 17 years ago when the company was founded.

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