It’s time to nominate your favorite entrepreneurs and innovators for the 2025 Entrepreneur Awards. The awards are hosted by the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), and are designed to celebrate notable accomplishments from the state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and the UNL campus. Nominations are open to the public until March 24, and winners will be recognized during the New Venture Competition on April 15. 

Award categories range from the Emerging Venture Award — honoring a company that is less than five years old is making strides in growth — to the Student Entrepreneur Award for a student who has demonstrated advocacy for entrepreneurship, innovation and collaboration. You can see a full list of awards and how to nominate individuals on the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship website. 

Student Engagement and Recruitment Coordinator for the Center for Entrepreneurship Mallory Krenk said the awards are a way to honor all of those who have put their time and energy into assisting UNL’s efforts in achieving one of the top 50 entrepreneurship programs in the world. She said it’s also an opportunity for the center to hear about interesting work going on in the state that they can potentially tap into for their programming. 

“At our core, we serve students, but it takes a village to make sure that they have a great experience,” said Krenk. “We have to lean on our community a lot for that.”

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The awards will be presented at the Rococo Theatre during the final day of the New Venture Competition, a two-day, bracket-style competition of more than 48 student teams pitching their business plans to a panel of judges. The winner receives a grand prize of $15,000. 

Bulu Co-founder and CEO Paul Jarrett is a past winner of the Emerging Venture Award. In an email to SPN, he said that recognition like this helps prove a company’s significance to potential customers, investors and even the team building it. 

“Most founders don’t take the time to step back and recognize how much ground they’ve covered because they’re too busy running forward,” said Jarrett. “Awards like these remind you that all those late nights, pivots and problem-solving sessions pay off.”