Thursday, October 15 · Presenters check in 4:45 PM

Pitch competition

Students pitch a business solution to a problem in their community, their region or the world, to a panel of professionals, scored on a published rubric out of 100.

Pick a real problem, in your community, your region or the world, and come up with a business solution to it. It can be an app, a service, a product or a new way of doing things. It does not need money behind it, and it does not have to exist yet.

Enter a team The rubric

The short version

5 minutes to pitch, 2 to answer.

You pitch to professionals in a classroom and then take their questions. Everything you are scored on is published on this page, in full, before you write a word of it.

Who can enter

Grades 9–12

Solo, in a team of two, in a team of three, or in a team of four.

What it costs

Nothing extra

Admission is $5 for everybody in the building, whether they are competing or watching.

What you bring

A title, and one line

A team name, a title for your idea and one sentence about the problem it fixes. Slides are welcome and not required.

What you win

Prizes, and the certificates at the end of the night.

Announced at 7:30 – 8:00 PM, at the awards ceremony in the auditorium.

$100First place

If you are competing

Be in the building before the doors.

The pitches run in the first hour of the evening. Presenters check in at 4:45 PM — not at 5:00 PM, when the doors open for everybody else.

4:45 PM
Student pitch check-in
Main entrance. Presenters check in, then go to their assigned pitch room.
5:00 – 6:00 PM
Pitch competition
K-Pod classrooms, K103–K106. Four rooms, six slots each: a 5-minute pitch and 2 minutes of questions inside a 10-minute slot.
7:30 – 8:00 PM
Awards and presentations
Auditorium.

How judging works

Scored on a published rubric, and on nothing else.

Every judge scores each team on their own, against the rubric below, on the organisers’ score sheet. Nobody is marked on something they were not told about beforehand.

Preliminary

Every entered team presents, in one of the classrooms, to professionals who score as they listen.

Final

The teams that advance present again, to a panel of professionals. Where the final sits inside the hour is the organisers’ call on the night. What is fixed is on the schedule above: the winners are announced at the awards.

The rubric, published in full

100 points, across 10 rows.

10 points a row · nothing outweighs anything else

The idea & creativity10
Problem & solution10
Target market & customers10
Competitive advantage10
Financial projections10
Business model & feasibility10
Marketing & customer acquisition10
Growth & expansion potential10
Planning, research & preparation10
Presentation & Q&A10

Total100 points

Show the full descriptors40 band descriptors

Judge scoring rubric · 100 points
Category	0–2 points	3–5 points	6–8 points	9–10 points	Score
1. The idea & creativity	Idea is unclear, unrealistic, or lacks originality. Little evidence of creative thinking.	Idea is understandable but fairly common or has limited differentiation.	Idea is creative and provides a meaningful solution. Some differentiation from existing options.	Highly creative, original, and compelling. Clearly differentiated and demonstrates exceptional entrepreneurial thinking.	/ 10
2. Problem & solution	Problem is missing, unclear, or not meaningful. Solution does not effectively address it.	Problem is identified, but the solution is only partially developed.	Clearly identifies a meaningful problem and presents a logical solution.	Clearly demonstrates a significant problem and an exceptionally strong, compelling solution.	/ 10
3. Target market & customers	Target customer is missing or poorly defined. Little understanding of who would buy.	Identifies a general target market but provides limited understanding of customer needs or market size.	Clearly identifies target customers and demonstrates understanding of needs and potential demand.	Provides a highly specific target market with strong evidence of demand, opportunity, and customer behavior.	/ 10
4. Competitive advantage	Does not identify competitors or explain why customers would choose this business.	Identifies some competitors but provides limited differentiation.	Clearly identifies competitors and explains meaningful advantages over alternatives.	Demonstrates exceptional knowledge of competitors and presents a strong, sustainable competitive advantage.	/ 10
5. Financial projections	Financial information is missing, unrealistic, or shows little understanding of business finances.	Includes basic estimates but has limited justification or questionable assumptions.	Provides reasonable projections for costs, pricing, revenue, profit, and/or startup funding.	Projections are detailed, realistic, well-supported, and demonstrate strong understanding of profitability and sustainability.	/ 10
6. Business model & feasibility	Little explanation of how the business operates or makes money. Appears impractical.	Basic business model is presented but significant questions remain.	Clearly explains operations and revenue generation. Business appears reasonably feasible.	Business model is exceptionally clear, practical, and sustainable, showing strong understanding of real-world operations.	/ 10
7. Marketing & customer acquisition	Little or no marketing strategy. No clear plan for reaching customers.	Basic marketing ideas are presented but lack detail or clear strategy.	Provides a clear strategy for attracting and retaining customers.	Presents a creative, highly targeted strategy with strong understanding of acquisition and retention.	/ 10
8. Growth & expansion potential	Little or no consideration of the future. Limited demonstrated growth potential.	Mentions future growth but provides few specific or realistic plans.	Provides realistic opportunities for expansion, new markets, products, locations, or customers.	Presents a compelling long-term vision with multiple realistic and strategic opportunities for significant growth.	/ 10
9. Planning, research & preparation	Presentation appears significantly underdeveloped. Little evidence of research or preparation.	Some preparation and research is evident, but important areas are underdeveloped.	Demonstrates strong preparation, research, organization, and consideration of important factors.	Demonstrates exceptional preparation. Decisions are well-researched, organized, and supported by strong reasoning.	/ 10
10. Presentation & Q&A	Presentation is difficult to follow. Participant struggles to communicate or answer questions.	Communicates the basic idea but lacks confidence, organization, or strong responses.	Presentation is clear, organized, engaging, and professional. Questions are answered effectively.	Presentation is exceptionally persuasive, confident, polished, and engaging. Demonstrates excellent command of the business.	/ 10
Total					/ 100

Before the night

Check your pitch against the rubric.

These are the questions behind the rows above. Say your pitch out loud and answer them; the one that stumps you is the part to work on.

Is the idea original, clear and compelling?
Is the problem real, and does the solution address it?
Who buys this, and is there evidence of demand?
Who else does this, and why would customers choose them?
Costs, pricing, revenue, profit and startup funding.
How it operates, how it makes money, and whether it could work.
How they reach customers and keep them.
Where this goes next: markets, products, locations.
How well researched and prepared the pitch is.
Clarity, confidence, polish and answers under questioning.

Enter

Put a team in.

A few minutes at a keyboard, and you are on the list.

Entries have closed

Entries are closed.

The rubric and the rules below stay published — a team already in still needs them.

Rules

The rules, in writing.

These are the rules the site can already state from the event’s own settings. The organisers’ full rules document is published here, in this section, once it is finished.

Not the full rulebook yet

Teams and rounds

The preliminary rounds are held in classrooms. A teacher hosts each room: they run the room’s screen, keep the clock and call the next team up.
Every team in every room gets the same clock: 5 min pitch · 2 min questions.
A room ranks its own teams, and the top 4 go through to the final.
The final is presented to a panel of professionals, and it produces the overall ranking.

Scoring

A pitch is scored on the rubric above and on nothing else.
Each judge fills in their own sheet, out of 100.
Scores stay with the organisers. The winners are announced at the awards ceremony.

Questions

The ones we are asked.

These are the ones that come up about competing. Anything else about the night — times, places, registration, paying — can be asked here.

Do I need a team?

Solo, in a team of two, in a team of three, or in a team of four. Up to four people on a team, and those are the only sizes the entry form takes.

Do I need slides?

Either way is fine. The form asks, because the room host needs to know which.

Can my family watch?

Not the pitches — those rooms are for the teams and their judges. What guests see is the panel and then the awards, both in the auditorium.

Is this the rubric the judges use?

Yes — the same 10 rows and the same descriptors, out of 100, that the judges score against on the organisers’ sheet. It is published here before you write anything, and it is the only thing you are scored on.

Something on my entry is wrong.

Write to patelh2@stu.npenn.org. There is one entry per person, so nothing is fixed by entering again.

When do we find out who won?

At the awards ceremony in the auditorium, at 7:30 – 8:00 PM. The judges’ scores stay with the organisers until then.