Students with a commercial or social enterprise idea are being encouraged to enter the inaugural Liverpool Start-Up Competition.
The competition, which is being introduced for the first time this year, encourages undergraduate student entrepreneurs to submit a business pitch to a panel of judges.
Running from October 2018, the competition is open to all University of Liverpool undergraduates, who can enter as individuals or as a group.
The competition has three stages. The first involves submitting a PowerPoint pitch deck, a short pitch video and financial plan documents. Stage two sees successful entrants’ pitch videos hosted online before they are required to run a marketing campaign for votes. The final stage will see the highest voted six teams pitch their business idea to an invited panel of judges in front of a live audience.
Whilst many will be entering to win, the competition has been welcomed as a way for students to gain significant business support, professional development and potential customer interest.
The prizes, which have all been donated by companies, include:
- £5,000 cash for winners of both categories from Santander
- Opportunity to discuss the business plan with Lawrence Kenwright, CEO of the Signature Living group
- A day’s worth of PR strategy with Pink Media
- Six months co-working desk membership at Signature Works
- Potential investment from the Startup Funding Club
- A business start-up package from BWM Chartered Accountants
More information about the Liverpool Start-Up Competition can be found on the Management School webpages. If you are interested in finding out how to get involved please contact Lee Wainwright. You can find information on how to apply via the Start-Up Competition webpages.
Key Dates
| Mon 1st October 2018 | Applications open |
| Fri 26th October 2018 | Applications close |
| Mon 5th November 2018 | Stage 2 successful applicants announced |
| Mon 5th November 2018 | Videos posted on intranet for voting |
| Fri 9th November 2018 | Online video voting closes |
| Mon 12th November 2018 | Finalists announced for live pitch |
| Tue 20th November 2018 | Live pitch takes place and winners announced – Shankly Hotel |