From the Judge’s Table: What Notre Dame’s Top Founders Taught Me About the Future of Innovation

Three weeks ago, I had the opportunity to serve as a judge at the McCloskey New Venture Competition hosted by the IDEA Center at the University of Notre Dame.

As Co-Founder and COO of CrunchAtlas and an Executive MBA student at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, I was invited to evaluate early-stage ventures alongside a group of operators, investors and alumni. The experience was both energizing and instructive, offering a front-row seat to how the next generation of founders is thinking about building companies.

What stood out was not just the quality of the ideas, but the clarity, discipline and direction behind them.

The Challenge of Saying Something Real in Six Minutes

Startup founders are often told they need to “tell a compelling story.” That’s true, but it’s incomplete.

What they are really being asked to do is far more difficult:
communicate a real business, with real constraints and real opportunity, in a matter of minutes.

From the judge’s table, the difference becomes obvious very quickly.

The strongest teams did not rely on buzzwords or overly complex narratives. They focused on a clearly defined problem, demonstrated a deep understanding of their customer and communicated how their solution fit into a real-world context. Within the first minute or two, you knew whether you were evaluating something tangible or something still searching for direction.

Speed of understanding matters. If it takes too long to grasp what a company does and why it matters, the opportunity to build conviction is already slipping away.

Patterns That Separate Strong Founders from the Rest

Across dozens of pitches, a few consistent patterns emerged.

First, the best teams were not pitching ideas, they were solving specific, well-defined problems. They understood the environment in which their solution would operate and they could clearly articulate why their approach was necessary.

Second, customer insight was a decisive factor. Teams that had spent time engaging with real users, understanding pain points and validating assumptions stood apart immediately. In contrast, teams relying on hypothetical demand or generalized market narratives struggled to maintain credibility.

Third, clarity consistently outperformed complexity. Founders who could simplify their message without diluting its substance were far more effective than those who attempted to cover too much ground in too little time.

These are not new principles, but seeing them play out repeatedly, in a compressed and competitive setting reinforces how fundamental they are to building a viable company.

A Shift Toward Building for Consequence

Perhaps the most encouraging takeaway from the competition was the direction many of these founders are heading.

There is a noticeable shift away from building purely for convenience and toward building for consequence.

More teams are engaging with problems tied to infrastructure, systems and mission-critical environments. These are not easy problems to solve. They require technical depth, domain understanding and a willingness to operate in complex, often regulated spaces. But they are also the areas where innovation can have the greatest impact.

This shift matters.

The next generation of meaningful innovation will not be defined by incremental improvements to existing consumer experiences. It will be defined by founders who are willing to engage with the underlying systems that enable modern society, from energy and water to transportation and digital infrastructure.

Why This Matters to Us at CrunchAtlas

At CrunchAtlas, this is exactly where we operate.

Our focus is on securing the systems that underpin critical infrastructure, environments where failure is not an inconvenience, but a risk to operations, safety and national resilience. The problems are complex, the stakes are high and the solutions must work in real-world conditions, not just in theory.

Seeing early-stage founders begin to move in this direction is a strong signal. It suggests that the next wave of companies will be built with a deeper appreciation for the environments they are entering and the consequences of getting it wrong.

The Value of the Ecosystem

The McCloskey New Venture Competition is more than a pitch competition. It is a structured environment designed to surface, challenge and refine early-stage ventures. The support provided by the IDEA Center, combined with the engagement of alumni and industry leaders creates a high-quality pipeline of emerging companies.

For founders, it offers an opportunity to test ideas under pressure.
For judges and mentors, it provides visibility into where innovation is heading.
For the broader ecosystem, it reinforces the importance of connecting talent, capital and real-world problems.

Looking Ahead

Serving as a judge was a reminder of how difficult it is to build something real and how important it is to get the fundamentals right early.

It was also a reminder that the next generation of founders is not just thinking about what can be built, but what should be built.

That is a meaningful shift and one worth paying attention to.

I appreciated the opportunity to be part of this process and look forward to staying engaged with the Notre Dame ecosystem as these companies continue to evolve.