2012 Pitch-it
Winners

Connor Bildfell

Connor Bildfell

Soul/Food Magazine - Soul/Food Magazine is a business that is designed to bring strength, hope, and support to families and patients struggling with eating disorders.

Yana Hempler

Yana Hempler

Club Everything: a retail Club/Points card that combines club/points cards such as Club Thrifty, Safeway, Shoppers Optimum, Petro Points into one card so that you have more room in your wallet and less hassle at the till.

Chase Terron

Chase Terron

Tucked in Technology: this innovation keeps golf shirts tucked in through a thin rubber strip at the waistband

Michael Wilson & Liam Hayes

Michael Wilson & Liam Hayes

Music Promotion:The purpose of our pitch was to create a music promotions company dealing with "electro-house" music.

Graham Cox/Sean Powell

Graham Cox/Sean Powell

(no description available)

Pitch-it
tips and judging criteria

How to prepare a fast pitch for investors

How to prepare a fast pitch for investors

• Putting your deal into a package that can be communicated and shared quickly and efficiently is a critical element of raising funds.
• Your potential investor is likely to make an instant judgment based on the strength of your first spoken sentences or the first few lines in your executive summary.
• So how do you get around this communication problem? First you must disambiguate, or simplify and clarify, what you are attempting to communicate.
• It is this simple: First moments matter most. The whole point of your "fast pitch" is to get investors interested enough in you to get their business cards and to agree to meet with you at a later date, or at least to get them to refer you to someone else who might be interested in your deal.
• Investors know that the way you will engage your initial customer base is through a fast pitch. It is the same for attracting strategic partners and even recruiting executives, which means that in general, the investors know that entrepreneurs best suited for funding can usually articulate their venture's value proposition within a sentence or two.

Questions your pitch should answer:

What is your product or service (concept)? What are the benefits? Briefly describe what it is you sell and its benefits. Do not go into detail. 

Adapted from "The Art of the Elevator Pitch" by Robert Pagliarini.

• Who is your market? Briefly discuss who you are selling the product or service to. What industry is it? What is the market demand? How large of a market do they represent?
• What is your revenue model? More simply, how do you expect to make money? 
• What is your market strategy?
• Who is your competition? Don't have any?  Think again.  Briefly discuss who they are and what they have accomplished. 
• What is your competitive advantage? How is your concept is different and why you have an advantage over the competition. Key partners?  Proprietary technology?
• References: It is important to cite examples and information to add credibility to your deal.

Judging criteria:

Judging criteria:

• Degree of innovation/newness: To what extent is the concept dramatically different from what exists in the market?
• Overt benefit/product-market match: To what extent is there an overt, specific benefit in meeting the needs/solving the pain of an identifiable target market?
• Feasibility/reason to believe: To what extent is the concept believable? e.g. substance, supporting research, a link to 'self' etc.
• Market potential/social impact: To what extent does the concept create economic or social value or otherwise have potential for impact?
• Overall presentation: To what extent was the pitch clear and convincing

Plan-it
tips and judging criteria

Tips

Tips

• Writing the Business Plan by Dr. Brent Mainprize
• Business Models by Dr. Charlene Zietsma
• Social Enterprise by Dr. Ana Maria Peredo
• Marketing and Product Concepts by Dr. J. Brock Smith
• Management Team and Organizational Structure by Dr. Aegean Leung
• Financials Excel Proforma Sample by Mia Maki
• Presentation Template

Resources

Resources

Download the PDF guide to preparing a competition business plan from the Business Development Corporation (BDC). 

Other business plan model:

How to finance a start-up by David Raffa.

Criteria

Criteria

The criteria below will be used for assessing the top three awards. The social enterprize award will consider similar criteria, but will be awarded based on social impact. For example, criteria such as the team members' dedication to the venture will be the same for all four awards, but the social venture award will consider profitability and competitive positioning subordinate to social impact and sustainability. What do judges look for in a plan? The judges consider many different issues when evaluating executive summaries and business plans, including:

• Is the business opportunity as presented both highly attractive and clearly realistic?
• Is the business defensible from competitors?
• What is the business model?
• What comparisons are there to past success stories that indicate this venture will succeed?
• What is the amount of up-front capital investment required?
• Do the market and financial projections demonstrate that the team understands its business?
• How long will it take from the current stage of development to bring this to market?
• Can this venture achieve a leadership position in its market?
• Has the team already gone out to the market to test its ideas? Who will be the first customer(s)?
• Is the team of sufficient breadth, balance and quality to make its ideas happen?
• Is the team focused on its target market? What is the expected time and amount of pay-off to investors?
• Is the plan clear and well-written?
• Does the team have the necessary communication skills to present a compelling story?
• What roles will the team members play in the venture?
• Are the team members dedicated to the venture and their roles in the group?
• Does the team have a clear plan for spending the investment money it receives?
• Why is this business going to be around, and a real world winner, in five years?
• Does the plan and the team promoting it have the entrepreneurial spirit to succeed?

Evaluation

Evaluation

Download a copy of the business plan evaluation form.

Nicol award
 

The Nicol Award Program

Each of the winning teams at participating local competitions and the top two teams from this year's regional are invited to submit their plans for the national award. This process involves:

• Members of the judging panel review the plans and select the top six plans.
• The winner of the national award from the previous year receives an automatic invitation.
• The six finalist teams and their faculty sponsor are invited to Ottawa for the National Nicol Award competition and gala dinner.