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Phase 1: Elevator Speech
Phase 1 Overview and Submission Requirements
For Phase 1 of the Neuro Start-up Challenge, Teams will begin to develop their overall business concepts for their chosen technology. All teams will record a 2 minute elevator speech outlining their technology and potential start-up. Additionally teams are to submit a 350 word executive summary. This should act as a strong opening statement about your business and technology. You can find a template for the executive summary below
Submission Requirements:
How to Submit: To Be Determined
Submission Requirements:
- 2 minute elevator speech
- 350 word executive summary
How to Submit: To Be Determined
| Executive Summary Template |
Phase 1 Timeline
Phase 1 of the challenge will begin on December 1st. The deliverables for Phase 1, including the 2 minute elevator speech and the 350 word executive summary, are due on January 9th, 2015. From January 12th to January 16th, the deliverables will be posted online for public access and voting. The last date to vote will be on January 16th at 11:59pm. Finalist announcements will be made by January 23rd, 2015.
- Phase 1 Start date: December 1st, 2014
- Deliverables due: January 9th, 2015
- Public voting: January 12th - January 16th, 2015
- Final judging deliberations: January 6th - January 23rd, 2015
- Finalists Announced: January 23rd, 2015
Evaluation Process
Promptly after the due date for the deliverables, all videos will be places online for public viewing. Here, members of the community will be able to watch and vote on their favorite videos. Also, we are looking to have participants crowd-source ideas on how they might improve/update their submissions. Simultaneously the challenge judges will be evaluating both the elevator speeches and executive summaries and scoring them accordingly. The entire judging process will span from January 6th to January 23rd, 2015. On January 23rd, 2015 the scores will be finalized and the finalists will be announced.
- Submit video and executive summary on the Pitchburner Platform; this will make the video available for public viewing
- Public voting and crowd sourcing will commence from January 12th - 16th, 2015 on the Pitchburner voting platform
- Please make your friends, family, peers, and other stakeholders aware that your video and executive summary is up on the site so they can provide input/comment and "like" your video/executive summary. Please review our training on how you might market your video/executive summary to relevant stakeholders/peers
- Simultaneously, challenge judges will score videos and executive summary
- Scores will be a weighted combination of the judge's scoring and the public vote. We will strongly consider the feedback you receive on the public voting platform. We are looking for constructive feedback
- Finalize scores and identify finalists
- Communicate to the Phase 1 winners and move to Phase 2: Business Plan
Criteria and Guidelines
Elevator Speech Guidelines: In two minutes concisely describe your company, its IP, and its mission/vision while remaining captivating and engaging. You're video will be graded on these three criteria:
Audience
Executive Summary Guidelines: An executive summary is not an abstract! You should ensure that you touch on neuances that will distinguish you from your competition. Explain the basic elements of the proposed business. Below are some things you may want to include (but are not limited to):
Audience
- Remember that the audience could be a person that is unfamiliar with science
- Tailor your pitch to a diverse set of viewers, e.g., potential investors, pharma collaborators, Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), etc.
- Are members of your team represented?
- Are there quality visual aids accompanying the presentation? (ie. words and meaningful graphs as well as pictures)
- Is the presentation creative or imaginative?
- Do you have good audio/video?
- What is the problem being solved?
- What is the product and how does it address the problem?
- How is the product differentiated?
- What are the economics of the product?
- What are the benefits and who will receive them?
- How easy will it be to commercialize?
- How easy will it be to perform R&D?
- Are viewers hooked?
- Are you memorable?
- Will viewers want to learn more about this business?
Executive Summary Guidelines: An executive summary is not an abstract! You should ensure that you touch on neuances that will distinguish you from your competition. Explain the basic elements of the proposed business. Below are some things you may want to include (but are not limited to):
- Company Overview: What does the company do? Who are your target customers?
- Products: What does your product do? How is it differentiated? Include information on ownership of the technology
- Competitors: What is the current competitive landscape?
- Business Strategy/Model: How are you going to make money? What are the benefits to the payers? Who will be your payers?
- R&D Path and Major Milestones: R&D, Regulatory, Commercialization, Exit
- Operations: Marketing, Sales, Manufacturing, etc.
- Management: Who will make up your team?
- Financial Summary: Projected cash flow, burn rate, financial value proposition, valuation, time/money to value inflection points
