Up-Start! Competition 2012 Eligibility and Rules
To register for this year’s competition, click here.
About the competition
The Up-Start! Competition is a business pitch competition open to participants in the Entrepreneurship 101 lecture series. Individuals, or teams of individuals, must give a ten-minute presentation on an idea for a business in the following industry categories:
1. Information technology, communications and entertainment (ICE)
2. Cleantech
3. Social Venture
4. Life Sciences
The business must be one that they wish to implement or have already started. Entrants are expected to apply the concepts that they have learned from the course to their business idea and to make a compelling case that this will lead to a very successful business.
A prize of $10,000 will be awarded for the top business plan presentation. There may also be honourable mentions and a People’s Choice Award winner.
Contestant eligibility
- Entrants must have received no more than $100,000 investment money as of February 3rd, 2012.
- Entrants must have earned no more than $100,000 in cumulative revenue since their inception.
- Entrants must be able to present their pitch in person to the judges to qualify for the competition.
- The individual presenting (or the designated head of the team) must be enrolled in Entrepreneurship 101 and have attended at least 60% of Entrepreneurship 101 lectures in person.
- Entrants’ businesses must fall into one of four categories: ICE, cleantech, social venture, and life sciences.
Competition
The competition will take place in three stages:
Stage 1: Competition Entry – Executive Summaries
Entrants will be required to submit an Executive Summary of their business idea (no longer than three pages) by Friday, February 3rd, 2012 to entrepreneurship101@marsdd.com.
The course coordinator will arrange an interview for each team with a MaRS Advisory Services advisor in February. This group will then select the 10 entrants who will go forward in the competition and all entrants will be notified of this decision by March 9th, 2012.
*Need help writing an executive summary? Click here.
Stage 2: Preparation with MaRS Advisors
All 10 entrants will be assigned a MaRS Advisor to assist them in honing their business plan and preparing their pitch during the two months before the pitch competition.
Stage 3: pitch competition
The competition will take place in May. The 10 entrants will each give a 10-minute presentation to a panel of three or four judges. This will be followed by five minutes of questions from the judges, then the judges will have a couple minutes to write notes on the companies to provide feedback.
Presentations will be made under cover of a non-disclosure agreement that all audience members will be required to sign. The judges will pick the winners on that day and prizes will be awarded to the top presentations at a reception after the competition.
Criteria for judging
At both the Executive Summary and the pitch competition stages the following criteria will be used to judge proposals:
- Has the summary/presentation clearly articulated the value proposition?
- Has the summary/presentation demonstrated competitive differentiation/intellectual capital?
- Has the summary/presentation demonstrated a business model that will make money, or, in the case of a social venture, will have the desired social impact? In either case, these must be sustainable business.
- Has the summary/presentation demonstrated market awareness?
- How effective was the overall presentation?
- Would you invest or back this opportunity?
Judges will give sheets of feedback to all contestants at the end of the competition.
How to enter
As noted above, send a three-page Executive Summary to entrepreneurship101@marsdd.com by Friday, February 3rd, 2012.
Any enquiries about the competition can be directed to the same email address.
2011 Results:
Winners:
The ‘Up-Start! Competition’ prize: $10,000, sponsored by Tricaster Holdings Inc.-Chairman David Campbell, along with $5,000 of in-kind services from Tabrizi Law Office:
The Hot Plate
The Hot Plate is a complete guide to getting steamy in the kitchen on a budget. It is an accessible multimedia platform that delivers quick, simple, gourmet and affordable how-to cooking guides to students and young professionals. The Hot Plate features an online five-minute cooking show, 30-second “how-to” cooking tutorials, photographed step-by-step recipe guides and support for new cooks.
The ‘Best Blended Value Opportunity’ prize: an anonymous donation of $5,000 matched by SiG@MaRS for a total of $10,000:
Eve Medical
Eve Medical is an early-stage medical device company focused on the specific health care needs of women. They are currently developing their first product, a sample collection device that allows women to test for chlamydia, gonorrhea and HPV without a doctor’s exam. This device will reduce barriers that prevent 40% of women from being adequately screened and has the potential to reduce the cost of screening for patients and health care providers alike.
Past winners
- 2010: Shape Collage – Read the blog about winner Vincent Cheung:
Student entrepreneurship at its best - 2009: UiRemote/DreamCube – Read the blog from one of the winning team, John Zhou: “Reflections of an up-start” and the follow-up story, “Up-start competitors: The continuing saga“
- 2008: SWIFTPlate – See the photo and story about Vanessa James
- 2006: Mobile Laboratory Services – Read the press release: “MaRS Entrepreneurship 101 for Researchers: Up-Start Competition winner announced”
