VILLANOVA STUDENT ENTREPRENEURSHIP COMPETITION
Do you have dreams of running your own business? Do you have an idea that can make the world a better place? Participate in this year’s Villanova Student Entrepreneurship Competition!
The Villanova Student Entrepreneurship Competition (VSEC) is a semester-long, interdisciplinary entrepreneurship competition for Villanova student ventures with cash awards granted to the top three winning teams. Resources are available to get you on your way, help you develop your startup, and deliver your pitch.
First, you'll complete a business model canvas and a short elevator pitch video (~2 minutes). Next, finalists are assigned to two alumni coaches to refine their pitch deck and practice their pitch. Finally, our top teams present at Pitch Day to a room full of experienced alumni entrepreneurs who will select the best pitches and venture ideas to award over $20,000 in prizes and in-kind services.
COMPETITION PROCESS
PRELIMINARY ROUND
Overview
In the first round of the competition, students create a business model canvas and a short elevator pitch video. The top teams continue on to the semi-final round of the competition.
Spring 2025 Dates and Deadlines
- Sunday, January 26, 2025: Registration Due
- Enter your venture by filling out the form linked above.
- Sunday, February 9, 2025: Business Model Canvas & Pitch Video Due
- You'll submit these materials via the VSEC Portal.
- Pitch videos should be about two minuites in length.
- If you don't know much about the business model canvas, consider coming to our work session.
- Friday, February 28, 2025: Semi-Finalists Announced
- You will receive an email letting you know if you've moved on to the semi-finals round. We will also announce our semi-finalists in the IIE Weekly Newsletter.
- You will receive an email letting you know if you've moved on to the semi-finals round. We will also announce our semi-finalists in the IIE Weekly Newsletter.
SEMI-FINALS Round
Overview
Semi-finalists work with alumni coaches to refine their ideas as they develop their final pitch. On Pitch Day, our judges will select the teams with the most viable venture ideas. These teams will be awarded cash prizes, mentorship and in-kind services.
Information to Submit
- Your pitch deck should include slides on each of the following:
- Company Purpose - define the venture in a single declarative sentence
- Problem - Describe the pain of your customer
- Solution - Demonstrate your venture's value proposition to make your customer's life better
- Why Now - Set up the historical evolution of your category
- Market Size - Identify the customer you cater to and the market size (TAM, SAM, SOM)
- Competition - List competitors and your competitive advantages
- Product - What is the functionality/features of your product. Do you have IP? What is your development roadmap?
- Business Model - What is your revenue model? Pricing? Sales & distribution model? Customer pipeline?
- Timeline - What has been your progress so far and what are your upcoming goals?
- Financials - How much money have your made and how much money can you make? This should be ambitious and realistic.
- Team - Your headshots and roles and any mentors/board you have
- Appendix - Detailed financial models, business model canvas, value proposition canvas
- Pitch deck script - so coaches can follow along with your pitch deck.
Spring 2025 Dates and Deadlines
- Sunday, March 30, 2025: Draft Pitch Deck & Poster Design Due
- This deck will be sent to a pool of draft pitch deck coaches for feedback.
- This poster will be on display on Pitch Day during the reception. The poster with the most votes will win a $1000 prize.
- Wednesday, April 23, 2025: Coaching Sessions Complete
- Semi-finalists should have all of their coaching sessions with their Team Coaches & Pitch Coaches completed.
- Thursday, April 24, 2025: Final Pitch Deck Due
- You'll submit it as a PDF, so no animations, sounds, etc. within slides.
PITCH DAY
- This year's Pitch Day will take place live and in person on SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 2025 at Scarpa Hall from 10:00 am - 4:30 pm.
- Anyone from the Villanova community is invited to join from 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm.
- In the morning, each semi-finalist team will present their final pitch deck and 8-minute pitch followed by up to 5 minutes of Q&A. Teams will present TWICE, in two different closed-door rooms with a handful of semi-finals judges. The scores from the 2 rooms will be averaged together to determine our finalists.
- After lunch, the Finals Round will start and our 5 finalist teams will pitch to our Finals judges in the Ballroom in front of the Villanova entrepreneurial community (alumni, faculty, staff, students and other participants). The pitch is the same, 8 minutes but the Q&A will be up to 20 minutes long.
- While our finals judges deliberate, there will be a networking reception with food & drink. We'll finish with an awards ceremony where the winners will be announced.
RULES AND JUDGING
- The competition is open to all current, degree-seeking Villanova students. VSEC teams can include students who currently attend another university, but they are not permitted to present on Pitch Day.
- The team must be comprised of 1-5 students. Since you will find value in the ideas, skillsets and expertise from others it is also recommended that your team be interdisciplinary in composition.
- Any idea submitted to the competition must be your unique and original idea. Your idea must have earned less than $10,000 in competitions or raised less than $25,000 in capital.
- All deadlines must be met by the date and times listed here. No exceptions will be made for deadlines.
Business Model Canvas (60% of Stage 1 Score)
Customer Segments
- Judges will assess how clearly the business’s customers are defined and most important customers identified.
Value Proposition
- Judges will assess how the business solves a unique problem and delivers value to customer segments.
Channels
- Judges will assess how the business’s propositions are promoted, sold and delivered.
Customer Relationships
- Judges will assess how the business builds and establishes relationships with the customer segments.
Revenue Streams
- Judges will evaluate how the business earns revenue from the value propositions.
Key Activities
- Judges will assess what uniquely strategic things the business does to deliver its proposition.
Key Resources:
- Judges will assess what unique strategic assets the business must have to compete.
Key Partners:
- Judges will assess the business’s plan to form strategic partnerships to focus on key activities.
Cost Structure:
- Judges will assess the business’s major cost drivers and how they are linked to revenue.
Market
- Judges will assess your analysis of crucial issues affecting the customer landscape, such as growing/shrinking segments; customer switching costs; and more.
Trends
- Judges will assess your analysis of key trends shaping your arena, such as technology innovations’ regulatory constraints’ social trends; and more.
Industry Forces
- Judges will assess your analysis of key actors in your space, such as competitors; rising value chain actors; new technology providers; and more.
Macro Economics
- Judges will assess your analysis of macro trends, such as global market conditions; access to recourse; high or low commodities prices; and more.
Pitch Video (40% of Stage 1 Score)
Clear, Concise Description of Idea
- Judges will assess your idea on how well you explain it in a 1 to 2-minute YouTube video.
Idea Benefit:
- Judges will assess your idea in the video based on their perceptions of its potential value as a product or service.
Comparison to Existing Products/Services
- Judges will assess your idea in the video based on how well you explain why this idea, product or service is different from others in the marketplace.
Creativity and Effective Use of the Medium
- Judges will assess your video based on the way you use the video to tell the story about your idea as well as how effectively you use the video to communicate your message.
Idea
- Value proposition
- Originality and innovation
- Impact on identified problem
- Differentiation from the existing competition
- Customer discovery
Preparation for Launch
- Target market and customer identification/segmentation
- Pricing model
- Beta/prototype/MVP
Realistic and through financial projections
- TAM, SAM, SOM
- LTV, COCA
Go-to-market plan
- Marketing strategy
- Sales strategy
- Plan to scale
Implementation
- Timeline
- Product development
- Traction-to-date (relationships with key market participants, sales, web traffic, etc.)
- Future measurable, achievable milestones
- Commitment and motivation of the founding team
SPONSORS
Grand Prize Sponsor
2nd Prize Sponsor
3rd Prize Sponsor
Gold Sponsor
Program Sponsors
FAQ
Your team lead will receive an email with information about how to check your feedback in your review portal.
You can be as creative as you want to be in your pitch video. One simple way to do it would be to presents the slides with a voiceover of the presentation. The most important part is that we understand what your venture is and what your value proposition is. Please reach out to iie@villanova.edu if you want feedback on your presentation idea.
You can use anything from your phone, a webcam or even a nice camera to capture your pitch video. We will be having an active working session with green screen and camera available to use if you need more help.
Instructions on how to create a YouTube account and record a video to share only with VSEC:
- Go to YouTubeClick on “Create Account”
- Fill out all demographic information
- Click on upload at the top of the page.
- Create a new username/channel
- Record your video.
- Click on publish your video.
- Fill out all video information.
- In “Privacy” Section, click on “Unlisted” if you want only the VSEC Committee to be able to view your video.
- Fill out this form with your video information