Elevator Pitch Competition

 

Purpose of Elevator Pitch Competition:

To allow participants an opportunity to orally present their ideas to people who would potentially be funding the idea.

Overview and Structure of Competition:

The elevator speech will allow judges to assess the commercial strength of the new idea by listening to the content and persuasiveness of the speaker. The analogy was derived from the short duration of an elevator ride; what would you say if you happened to get into an elevator with someone who could buy or fund your idea? The goal would be for your Elevator Pitch to get you an opportunity to make a formal presentation.

Each participant will have a maximum of two (2) minutes for their elevator pitch, which should answer several key questions:
 

• What is your vision?

• What is your vision?

• What is new or unique about this idea?

• Who are your customers and why will they want this?

• Why is your idea going to be successful?

• Who else is doing it?

• Why should an investor be interested?

• What specifics do you have to support your case?
   

For useful tips on how to present an elevator pitch, please visit.

http://faculty.babson.edu/academic/sye3/RocketPitch/Student/index.htm
 

Participants will be rated by an interdisciplinary panel of industry professionals.

Watch Sample Elevator pitch (Video taken from SVNIF, 2004 Competition)
 

Criteria for Judging:

Quality of the Headline: How well did the headline encapsulate the essence of the idea? Did the headline make the listener want to hear the rest of the pitch? The benefit must be clear and catchy, but extra credit can be given if competitiveness and execution are also hinted at. Ideally, a basic Value Proposition was given, stating both benefit and price elements.

Quality of Presentation: How well was the whole pitch presented? Quality is judged by a presentation that was concise, clear and enthusiastic, yet relaxed. An elevator pitch can be down-graded if presented in machine-gun fashion. Also, there must be a memorable invitation to learn more.

Quality of Benefits: Is the idea providing a clear and useful benefit? Benefits can take on many dimensions - financial, time or effort saved, emotional, entertainment, medicinal, knowledge, etc. A benefit answers the question "what is in it for me?" Level of quality is judged by how much perceived value and uniqueness there is.

Quality of Competitiveness: How will this idea hold up against competition over time? Competition may come from alternative ways to get to the same benefits, or a more direct assault on the idea itself by copycats. An idea is judged as more robust if it provides a higher level benefit/cost ratio than alternatives, and if the idea has a defensible barrier to entry by copycats.

Ability to Execute: What are the chances that such an idea can be delivered? Execution includes the ability to produce the product or service at a reasonable cost/unit, and the cost of developing and marketing the product or service. Judging should be done based on the team's ability to explain their execution plans.