You can pitch too at UTS Venture Day and UTS Startup Awards

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In 2022 for the first time, UTS Startups and the UTS Business School Venture Day are teaming up for our annual UTS Startups Festival. It is an opportunity to meet student entrepreneurs, hear them pitch their ventures and mingle with peers. With over $90,000 in awards and prize money,  the event is one of Australia's best-endowed student entrepreneurship pitch events.

Any UTS student entrepreneur and alumni can enter the event.  In 2022 Venture Day was organised in two preliminary pitch rounds (heats) and a final pitch event at the UTS Great Hall.  If you are a UTS student or alumni, you can enter the event and submit your application.

For any inquiries regarding the UTS Venture Day, email us at ventureday@uts.edu.au

Entry Requirements

  • You must be a UTS student or alumni. For teams, at least one founder must be a UTS student or alumni
  • Only the person pitching needs to register
  • Your start-up has not already been presented at UTS Venture Day in previous years

Key Dates

  • key dates can be found here 

Guidance

Your Venture Day pitch should be more an investment pitch than a sales pitch. Potential investors or partners and Venture Day judges will expect your material to address the following  key areas:

  • Problem: A description of the problem that you identified and justifying why it is a problem worth solving. This may include a definition of the scope, reach and size of the problem, description of user experiences, pain points, stakeholder interests and the impact that the lack of a better solution has on society, economies and people's lives.
  • Solution: A description and validation of how you propose to solve the problem. This may include a description of prototypes, features, customer journeys, functionalities, benefits and proof of how the solution can work at scale to solve the problem.
  • Use cases: A description of how your solution has been used or trialled by different kinds of users, industries or different situations. Use cases provide proof of how your solution has worked in a specific context.
  • Market: A description and analysis of the size and needs of the market you are addressing. This may include results from desk research, qualitative and quantitative user needs analysis, segmentation, user profiles as well as a description of how the addressable market is distributed.
  • Competitors: A description and analysis of the competitive situation including key competitors, competing for products/services and analysis on features as well as competitors' comparative strength and weaknesses, capabilities and growth projections.
  • Business model: A description and justification for the business model you validated to best suit your start-up. This includes justification and validation of revenue-generating mechanisms and key drivers for costs, sales and distribution.
  • Traction: Proof of success in the market that you are addressing, which may include customer feedback, proof of sales, marketing, online traffic, positive reactions, anything that proves that what you do is leading towards a working business model.
  • Partners: Identification of key partners that are helping to build your venture and a description of the existing or anticipated relationship.
  • Financials: The basic financial information and estimations that will give investors and advisors a sense of your business. This may include market data, cash flow, pricing, sales, investments, cost drivers, etc.
  • Team: This is about you and the team and how each individual contributes to the venture. This may also include any identified capability and knowledge gaps that need to be filled.
  • Road map: Your plan for the next 3, 6, and 12 months includes major stepping stones and goals.
  • Ask: What you need most at this moment in time, which may include funding but could just as well be advice or access to technology or introductions to people that you think can help you.

Judging Criteria

Venture Day judges will use the same criteria in every round of pitches to select start-ups for the next round and to determine winners of the UTS Venture Day Awards. The judging criteria are as follows:

  • Problem/Opportunity (Problem is defined and supported with evidence, Market opportunity/ key metrics evaluated and articulated, Competitive landscape analysed) up to 6 points
  • Solution (Value proposition(s) well developed and clearly articulated, It's clear how the solution works, Business case and model (options) developed) up to 6 points
  • Plan/Next Steps (Current status/ key accomplishments to date covered, Financial projections articulated, Go-to market plan articulated) up to 6 points
  • Team/Ask (Capabilities match business needs or gaps identified, Ask/Need for funding/support articulated) up to 4 points
  • Pitch/Q&A (Well prepared, rehearsed and delivered within time limits, Communicates clearly and coherently incl. Q&A, Following a clear narrative + persuasively inspiring the audience) up to 6 points
  • Extra/Bonus (Would you support and/or buy the product/service? Would you invest?) up to 4 points

 

Dr Jochen Schweitzer: "This room has filled with people now which is really wonderful to see so big welcome to everyone. This is Venture Day. We already went through a first round of 16 pitches and I just quickly want to announce who's going to be the final 10 presenters."

Prof. Andrew Parfitt: "We've had a very exciting day and there are a few people who are probably even a little bit more excited now with the later part of the program. We're delighted that we're celebrating here the first Venture Day but also the end of the first year of this great program.

Ann Hoban: "Today was a great day when we all had an opportunity to present on our individual projects"

Annette McClelland: "This was the final day to allow us to show off all the great work we've done in 5 small minutes"

Michael Griffin: "Bit of a mixed bag of looking forward to it and being terrified by it"

Petra Andrén: "You had some projects that were more in the social impact space and you had projects that I could see could potentially become profitable businesses. Always good to present what you've done to a panel of people that are from the real world and to get constructive feedback"

Liam Daley: "I'm Liam Daley, Founder of 'Dlivee'. The customer controls the purchase, so the customer should control the delivery...Look today's been absolutely fantastic. It's more than I could have imagined."

Lance Kalsh (Panellist): "...and I know it's still early but where do you see yourself specifically?"

Presenter: "I'd love to even take it into the 'wear-able technology space' eventually."

Petra Andrén (Panellist): " ... But would you consider that? Partnering with someone who knows manufacturing?"

David Langford: "How do you intend to sort of address that issue through the integration of the variety of apps?"

Ali Linz: " ... If my delivery options are different today than my default ones?"

Maria Cardena: "When I got there I was confident of what I had, and when I finished I couldn't believe the amount of applause I got."

Petra Andrén: "I think the students really beniffited from that, and of course being a judge I benefitted from it as well because I saw some amazing ideas."

David Lillo-Trynes:  "I was just so happy to give answers and happy to talk about what we were working on. It's pretty nerve racking but I feel really good now."

Dr Jochen Schweitzer: "I think it was an incredible job that you did at presenting this so smoothly, so all that practicing has really paid out I think. 

Prof. David Brown: "People are becoming the custodians of their own destiny, and if there's a place in which we really see this, this is in entrepreneurial activity and all its different forms."

Petra Andrén: "I thought the presentations were terrific. Look just another observation: I did my MBA about 11 years ago now and I was the only woman, so it was great to see that there were a lot of women presenters today and teams that are men and women, that's going in the right direction, so great. Great job everyone!"

John Lee: "I repeat those words: I think that entrepreneurship and innovation in Australia is in very good hands."

Ali Linz: "The pitches were of an outstanding quality in content, but also in presentation. Well done!"

David Langford: "The results in the marking were very close. The third prize tonight: 'Liftmii'."

[Applause]

David Langford: "The second prize is: 'Tekuma'."

[Applause]

David Langford: "And the first prize winner: Dlivee."

[Applause]

Petra Andrén: "Not only were there a lot of great ideas, but the passion behind them. You could tell that a lot of these students would actually follow through and I think we're going to see some amazing businesses as a result. Really, entrepreneurship is something that you'll only learn by doing. But this course is exactly that. These students have taken an idea and gone out to the real world and tested it so they are actually learning by doing, as well as learning about those vital tools: finance, intellectual property, pathway to market, all those things, it combines. I think it great initiative and I don't know any other school that does it so good on UTS!"

The combination of originality and ingenuity, plus a disciplined approach showed the value of a program such as this.

- Paul Thorley, Director of Partnership Strategy, Greenwich Capital Partners

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.