Staff Writer
The annual entrepreneurship competition sponsored by Salisbury University’s Perdue School of Business will be held on April 11, giving students the opportunity to win up to $50,000 in prizes.
Students of all majors are welcomed and any undergraduate or graduate student can compete.
Participants are required to create a poster, a short pitch and a business plan that will be presented to various judges with experience in the business world. The event has three rounds through which the best business plans advance to the final round, The Bernstein Competition. But first, participants must make it through a process of poster pitchings and answering questions.
Hosted by the Maryland Small Business & Technology Development Center, the “Invest in My Idea, A Poster Competition” is the first tier of the competition in which participants present their ideas on a tri-fold poster. Judges from both the community and SU will determine if the student’s plan is worthy of investment. The top scoring posters will move onto the second round.
The Gull Cage “A Shark Tank Competition” gives students one minute to pitch their idea to a panel of judges followed by a four minute question and answer period. The top four students advance to the final round. Cash prizes are rewarded with first place receiving $4,000, second place $3,000, third place $2,000 and fourth place $1,000.
The last portion of the competition is the Bernstein Business Plan, where the top four competitors are able to present their ideas in the Perdue auditorium. There is a 10 minute time allotment for participants to share their business plans, followed by a 10 minute question and answer period and ending with a 10 minute coaching and feedback session from the judges. The winner of the final round receives $10,000.