Contestant Submissions – January 2021

December 30, 2020

Craft a Perfect Pitch – In 10-12 slides, describe your entrepreneurial idea or proposed change initiative in a way that demonstrates the solution’s value to your audience. As with the personal cases in DSI, change initiatives can be generalized as a recommended strategy for Company X, operating in Y industry, and no sensitive internal information should be shared. Similarly, HBAP’s Community Values and Academic Honesty policies apply – any entrants who violate the integrity of the competition may be disqualified, so we ask that you uphold these values at all times. Remember, selected finalists will only have 10 minutes to present to our panel of judges, and must include the following details in their proposal:

• Team members (individual submissions accepted)
• Problem statement – clearly articulate why your solution is needed
• Proposed solution – how will you meet this need?
• Value proposition – what benefits are derived from addressing the problem, for both the organization and its target market?
• Implementation plan – indicate the steps you will take to make this solution viable, including plans for scaling and contingencies to address potential pitfalls

If you need help getting started, this template from the HBAP short course might help to formulate your pitch.

Submit Your Pitch – Please Read Carefully – You will submit your pitch by logging into this platform in the upper right corner of the screen and submit via the Submit link on this page. If you cannot recall your password from when you submitted your DSI Personal Case, you can perform a password reset.

Important: You must load your slides in one by one as exported PowerPoint images and not as a link to an existing PowerPoint deck. For each slide, you have the opportunity to provide context and notes for each image to the judges and audience.

Please review this video on the About page to submit your pitch properly and qualify for the competition.

For reference, here is an example of a submission that follows the guidelines. Additionally, check out this article for 10 key elements of a successful startup pitch deck, with real examples from founders and backed by investors.

You will be able to edit and upload revised versions of your presentation until Wednesday, December 30 at 5 p.m. ET. Submissions will be open for comments and revision until that date, so you can incorporate any edits throughout that window, with only the final submission formally reviewed for selection.

Important: For those interested, Marily Nika will hold a workshop on Thursday, December 3 at noon ET about pitching and pitch deck best practices – Zoom link.