2 Minute Drill: Green Venture Competition
This part of the summit will provide participants with a forum to “pitch” their green business ideas to a seasoned group of local venture capitalists and entrepreneurs as well as distinguished faculty members from the McCombs School of Business.
The competition will provide aspiring entrepreneurs two minutes with each judge. Participants will have exactly one minute to give their elevator pitch— concise enough to interest a potential financier that you might have precious little time to impress. The judge reserves the final minute with each participant to ask questions and provide feedback. In round robin style, the entrepreneurs cycle through each judge until they have pitched to all of them.
Once all participants have presented, the judges will convene to discuss the merits of the various green ventures that were proposed. The criterion for judging includes the following in no particular order: start-up costs, financial feasibility, and the environmental and/or social problem(s) the venture will attempt to address. The judges will be looking for creative business solutions to some of the world’s most pressing environmental and social issues. In particular, judges will be looking for new ventures that could be launched with low initial investment.
The winner of the Two Minute Drill competition will be provided with an opportunity to present their green venture to the expert staff at the Austin Technology Incubator’s Clean Energy Incubator (CEI). CEI is a first of its kind incubator that strives to help companies solidify their management teams, secure adequate funding, and accelerate their time to market. Companies applying to join CEI are typically subjected to a rigorous screening process to qualify them for a presentation to CEI staff.
Interested participants will be asked to complete and submit a very short questionnaire (revised 1.3.08) prior to the competition. The questionnaire is intended to ensure that participants are prepared to answer questions from the judges during the Q&A/feedback period.
Please submit completed questionnaires to Fred Wu at fred@utsummit.com by Friday, January 18, 2008. Once your questionnaire has been submitted, you will receive a reply email to confirm your spot in the competition.
