PlanIt
Got a winning idea? This is your chance to grow your idea and take the next step in your entrepreneurial journey.
The PlanIt business model competition is open to all University of Victoria students, alumni, staff and faculty. Enter as an individual or put together a team. Pitch your business model to industry experts (including investors), get feedback and compete for up to $8,000 in prizes.
Submit your business plan or canvas/model and executive summary to be considered. The screening committee will choose the 6 strongest business plans to compete. If selected, your team will be asked to present it to a team of experts.
All presentations will require a pitch deck and will be approximately 15 minutes. There will be a question-and-answer period with the judges afterwards.
Upcoming dates
Who can enter
You may participate as an individual or in a team of up to 5 people. The individual or team lead must be a current UVic student, faculty, staff or alumnus. The other team members do not need to be affiliated with UVic.
Teams can have just their team lead deliver the pitch, or up to all 5 members can join in the presentation. All participants must have a Social Insurance Number to compete.
Entered PitchIt or PlanIt with this idea and won a prize in the past? Feel free to pitch again if the business plan or canvas is substantially improved or the business has pivoted between submissions.
You will need to demonstrate that you have used the previous prize money (if applicable) effectively, and you will be held to the standard of what your plan or canvas is for the next phase of development. You must indicate in your submission that you have competed before.
Preparing your submission
Here's what we want to see. You can submit either a business plan or a lean business canvas/model with an executive summary.
We recommend starting with a Lean Canvas. Use the Lean Canvas template to prepare your submission. You do not need to include it in your submission if you are submitting a full business plan.
Once you’ve created a Lean Canvas to capture your business model, take those key aspects and expand on them in a 10-12 page PDF document. Embed any financial models or charts. You can have an appendix to support your summary that addresses and expands on the questions on the canvas.
Here’s a rough guideline of what your document should include:
Concept summary
What is it? What does it do and how? Who is it for? What are the outcomes or benefits of using it?
Customer segments
- Who are your primary and (if applicable) secondary target customers?
- What do they want to achieve? (jobs) What are the gains sought, pains reduced and why? (motivations)
- Provide a brief profile of these customers. Who are they? When and where do they buy and use this type of good or service? How do they buy and use this type of good or service?
- What evidence do you have that the problem you are addressing is real and important?
Value proposition
- What do you offer your target customers? What evidence do you have that your target customers value what you offer?
- Why is this feasible? Provide evidence.
- Why is this better than competitive offerings?
Key activities/revenue
- What is your business model?
- What key activities are involved? What is required to do those key activities well?
- What are the revenue streams?
Marketing strategy
- Identify customer relationships and channels
- How will you set your value proposition in front of your customers in a way that motivates purchase or adoption?
Key partners
- Why is your team in a good position to take advantage of this opportunity?
- What skill or resource gaps exist and how will you fill them?
- What other partners are needed to create and defend your value proposition?
Finances
- What margins are you expecting?
- Identify cost structure vs price point acceptance (provide evidence where possible).
- What volume are you expecting? What is your sales forecast and rationale?
- What are your financial projections? Cash flow? Profit?
Contact us if you have any questions.
Start by creating a 1-page Lean Canvas using the Lean Canvas template.
Once you’ve created a Lean Canvas to capture your business model, take those key aspects and expand on them in a 3-5 page executive summary PDF. Embed any financial models or charts. You can have an appendix to support your summary that addresses and expands on the questions on the canvas.
Here’s a rough guideline of what your document should include:
Concept summary
What is it? What does it do and how? Who is it for? What are the outcomes or benefits of using it?
Customer segments
- Who are your primary and (if applicable) secondary target customers?
- What do they want to achieve? (jobs) What are the gains sought, pains reduced and why? (motivations)
- Provide a brief profile of these customers. Who are they? When and where do they buy and use this type of good or service? How do they buy and use this type of good or service?
- What evidence do you have that the problem you are addressing is real and important?
Value proposition
- What do you offer your target customers? What evidence do you have that your target customers value what you offer?
- Why is this feasible? Provide evidence.
- Why is this better than competitive offerings?
Key activities/revenue
- What is your business model?
- What key activities are involved? What is required to do those key activities well?
- What are the revenue streams?
Marketing strategy
- Identify customer relationships and channels
- How will you set your value proposition in front of your customers in a way that motivates purchase or adoption?
Key partners
- Why is your team in a good position to take advantage of this opportunity?
- What skill or resource gaps exist and how will you fill them?
- What other partners are needed to create and defend your value proposition?
Finances
- What margins are you expecting?
- Identify cost structure vs price point acceptance (provide evidence where possible).
- What volume are you expecting? What is your sales forecast and rationale?
- What are your financial projections? Cash flow? Profit?
Contact us if you have any questions.
Judging
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 5 years?
- Does the plan and the team promoting it have the entrepreneurial spirit to succeed?
Past PlanIt winners
August 1
- Baski (Yashar Sam) - $3000
- Syko Surf (Morgan Liski) - $3000
- Tyler Burton (Tyler Burton) - $2000
April 10
- Vyzor (Rudra Aryan) - $5000
- Bill Ease (Josh Isakov) - $2000
- ESS (Morgan Bender) - $1000
December 5
- Tool Match (Sierra Arnold) - $3000
- StokedPup (Dylan Gyr) - $2500
- Konbu (Olivia Hall) - $1500
- ReflowCanvas (Aiden Bamford) - $1000
August 7
- Cycle Sync (Madelyn Waldhaus) - $3500
- Pixel Stories (Truman Gao) - $2500
- LampPost Victoria (Simon Larocque and Jared Leary) - $1500
- Integration Genie (Sierra Arnold and Jaden Fath) - $500
April 10
- Happy Prime (Aanchan Mohan and Monideep Chokraborti) - $3000
- Newport Capital (Matthew Sparrow) - $2000
- Hanzsemble (Hong-Chuan Yang and Jinke Jiang) - $1000
- GIVR (Sean Webster) - $1000
- StudentHaus (Julian Wells, Aaron Cohen, Jonathan Cook, Fawzan Hussein and Grace Murphy) - $1000
December 6
- Revyn Medical Technologies (Keeley McCormick and Samantha Sperling) - $3000
- Ocean AID (Andrew Polanyi) - $2000
- Nebulab (Juan Giraldo) - $1000
- Aerial Firefighting Technology (Greg Booth) - $1000
- Beirm Bio (Ryan Suleman) - $1000
August 17
- Intellectulogy (Samira Soltani) - $3000
- Booking Buddy (Bryce Edwards) - $2000
- Salyx (Elaine De la Cruz) - $1500
- Rizado (Valeria del Valle) - $1000
- AIGreening (Yussuf Reza) - $1000
April 13
- RAM (Toby Murray) - $3000
- Inkblot Games (Athena Abbott) - $2000
- 2nd Scan (Yulie Yu) - $1000
- Sutunary (Sutunary) - $1000
- Jordan Morford (Tappen Apothecary) - $1000