What makes a good startup pitch?

This is the second year that Spectrum hosts the Student Startup Competition. Beginning in February, over 50 startup teams submitted an application explaining their company, team, idea, marketplace demand for their product, and how the prize money would drive their startup success.

21 semi-finalists were selected to move on to the next round where each made a five minute pitch in front of a camera and their score was combined with their application score to determine the top 10.

The final round of the competition takes place at McMaster University on March 31 in the Student Centre CIBC Hall and will determine the top four winners. The 10 finalists will have three minutes to make a company pitch in front of an audience and panel of judges.

The company pitch can only be made by one student from each team and must be a McMaster student.

Teams will be judged on their knowledge of the need for their product, the long-term effectiveness of their solution and their overall creativity. The teams will need to have a good understanding of the other competing startups and how their own team will work together on their endeavour or how they will fill potential gaps in resources or skills to advance their product. Finally, they are judged on the presentation itself, their communication and ability to answer questions.

The score from their application, camera pitch and final presentation are combined and weighted to decide the winning teams who will each receive $25,000 cash, for a total prize pool of $100,000, with the addition of a $5,000 People’s Choice award.

McMaster’s startup incubator, The Forge, has two locations within the city of Hamilton: a revitalized furniture building on James Street North in Hamilton, and at McMaster Innovation Park. The first place team will be given a space to work in either location and be setup with everything they need to start their business off on the right foot.

Leading up to the competition Spectrum offers training for startups and workshops beginning in September and that leads up to the competition where students put their hard work on display. It’s a competition that encourages extra-curricular achievement.

McMaster Startup Competition sponsored in part by McMaster Engineering. 

“We have partnered with Spectrum to try and achieve our mutual goal of enhancing student entrepreneurship on campus,” said John Preston, McMaster Engineering’s Associate Dean, Research & External Relations.

On Wednesday, March 16 McMaster Engineering partnered with The Forge to host So you want to be an entrepreneur for aspiring student entrepreneurs. 

“We hope to build the start-up culture and enhance the entrepreneurship ecosystem in a way that is meaningful for students who dream of starting their own company or launching a product.”