How to Enter the Pace Pitch Contest

Thank you for your interest in the Seventh Annual Pace Pitch Contest! You may apply to make a pitch in one of two categories: a New Business Concept or a Social Venture.

Each individual/team will have 3 minutes to make a pitch and may use up to 5 PowerPoint® slides. The pitch must be an original concept, created by the presenter(s).

Here's How to Enter
  • 1. You must meet at least one of the following two criteria:
    • Full or part-time student currently enrolled in any accredited college or university
    • Recent college graduate (graduated within the past 18 months)

    AND if you have already launched the venture, it must have been in business for less than 2 years and received less than $100,000 in funding.

  • 2. Register online. Each member of the team must complete the Intent to Compete Registration Form at the Seventh Annual Pace Pitch Contest Web site www.pace.edu/pitch. Registration will remain open through 5:00 pm EST on November 8, 2010 or until the 250 registrations have been completed. DEADLINE EXTENDED to 5:00 pm EST on November 22, 2010 or until the 250 registrations have been completed.

  • 3. *Submit a summary of your idea. The summary MUST be a minimum of 400 words and a maximum of 500 words. Please be sure to include a name for your idea and whether it is a New Business Concept or a Social Venture.

    Deadline - 5:00 pm EST on November 22, 2010.

  • 4. *Submit a biography. Each biography (if competing as a team, each member must submit a biography) MUST be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 200 words. Please be sure to indicate your status as a student (college/university and school, degree, major, full or part-time status, and expected year of graduation) or as a recent graduate (college/university and school, degree, major, and date of graduation).

    Deadline - 5:00 pm EST on December 6, 2010.

  • 5. *Submit financial projections. These projections must include a pro-forma balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement for three years (monthly estimates for the first year) and be in a printable format (i.e. 8 1/2" X 11" portrait or landscape orientation).

    Deadline - 5:00 pm EST on January 31, 2011.

  • 6. *Submit a video of your pitch. The video is limited to 3 minutes in length and should be less than 5 MB in size. Video clips may be uploaded to YouTube, made available on a file sharing Web site, or e-mailed directly.

    Deadline - 5:00 pm EST on February 14, 2011.

  • 7. *Submit an Executive Summary. If selected as a Finalist or alternate, you should prepare a ONE PAGE Executive Summary to be used on the Pace Pitch Web site and in the printed program.

    Deadline - 5:00 pm EST on February 28, 2011.

  • 8. *Submit a photo. If selected as a Finalist or alternate, you must submit a digital photograph (approximately 100 KB - 1 MB in JPEG format) to be used on the Pace Pitch Web site and in the printed program.

    Deadline - 5:00 pm EST on March 21, 2011.

  • 9. *Submit a PowerPoint® presentation. . If selected as a Finalist or alternate, you may submit up to 5 PowerPoint® slides to be used with your pitch (the 5 slide maximum includes a title slide and none of the slides may include external hyperlinks, embedded video, or transitions that 'effectively create' more than 5 distinct slide images). PowerPoint slides are not required and may not be used if not received by the deadline. Presentations in other formats will not be accepted.

    Deadline - 5:00 pm EST on April 4, 2011.

  • 10. Make Your Pitch! The finalist/alternate contestant must arrive at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts on Pace University's main campus (One Pace Plaza, New York, NY) by 5:00 pm EST on April 11, 2011.

* All documents must be sent by e-mail to Professor Bruce Bachenheimer, Program Director of Entrepreneurship @ Lubin, at bbachenheimer@pace.edu

Here's How the Pace Pitch Contest Works:

On Monday, April 11, 2011, three Finalists in the New Business Concept category and three Finalists the Social Venture category will make their pitches to a panel of judges in front of an enthusiastic audience. There is a strict time limit of three minutes for all pitches. Contestants will present in alphabetical order, New Business Concepts and then Social Ventures. After each pitch, the judges may ask a number of questions. All answers must be kept to less than one minute. Immediately after the pitched have been made, the judging panel will decide on one winner from each category based on the Guidelines and Judging Criteria. The Pace Pitch Contest has proven to be an exciting, educational, and fun event. We hope you will enjoy the event and find it valuable.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Professor Bruce Bachenheimer, Program Director of Entrepreneurship @ Lubin, at bbachenheimer@pace.edu.

Good luck!

The deadline to enter the Pace Pitch Contest is 5:00 p.m. on Monday, November 8, 2010
or until 250 applications have been completed.