The Michigan State University Eli Broad College of Business and the Michigan State University Institute for Entrepreneurship are sponsoring the third Undergraduate Business Pitch Competition at MSU. The competition allows undergraduate students with a business idea a chance to impress and win thousands of dollars to support their business venture. The winning individual or team will receive $5,000. Second- and third-place individuals or teams will receive $2,500 and $1,000, respectively.

“Today’s graduates are entering a period approaching the peak of the entrepreneurial revolution; competitions such as this help them develop the entrepreneurial mindset that will be needed to succeed in this environment,” said Forrest Carter, faculty director of the institute and associate professor of marketing in the Broad College.

There are two rounds of competition. During the first round, judges will pick 15 semifinalists and five finalists. The semifinalists will display their idea at a booth at the Broad Marketplace on the morning of November 23. Attendees at the event will be given $1,000 in Broad dollars and encouraged to invest in the businesses at the marketplace they think will benefit most from the Broad dollars. The two teams that garner the largest investments will win one of the two People’s Choice Awards. The finalists will compete on the morning of November 23 in a 15-minute interactive session with a new panel of judges. Plans will be scored and based on the pitch and on the executive summary. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony that afternoon.

The Undergraduate Pitch Competition supports the Broad College and the Institute for Entrepreneurship’s goals to create opportunities to nurture and develop business characteristics such as:

  • an innate ability to identify market opportunities in the midst of environmental and market disruptions
  • the ability to develop innovative solutions to new or existing problems
  • and/or an ability to create innovative business models to make old solutions more effective