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Phoenix Pitch is the first intercollegiate pitch challenge organized by Edge, the student entrepreneurship group at the University of Chicago. In February, we are inviting college students from across the city of Chicago to celebrate the spirit of ideation and problem solving to build teams and address real-world problems.
To register, fill out the registration form here. Once at the event, we will allow students to vote on the top start-up ideas and self-select themselves into teams around those pitches. You'll have 2 hours to build a pitch deck with your team and then you'll present to a panel of judges.
We're bringing both undergraduate and graduate students from Northwestern University, Illinois Institute of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul University, Loyola University, and more. If you're interested in getting hands-on experience with business development, meshing technical experience with startup ideas, or building a pitch deck for a panel of judges, we encourage you to come and participate. No prior experience needed!
Address: 1452 E 53rd Street, Chicago, IL, 60615 (directions)
Join us in the newly built CIE building, University of Chicago’s new hub for multidisciplinary collaborations with 20,000 square feet of co-working, meeting, event, and incubation space
$500 Amazon gift card
$250 Amazon gift card
$125 Amazon gift card
Strikingly Pro Accounts
Free T-Shirts and other swag
Rick Zullo
Vice President of Lightbank
Imran Ahmad
Principal at OCA Ventures
Shradha Agarwal
President & Co-founder at ContextMedia
Bob Rosenberg
Adjunct Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship
at the Booth School of Business
Alida Miranda-Wolff
Associate Manager at Hyde Park Angels
Shreena Amin
COO at PrettyQuick
Any and all undergraduate, graduate, and high school students from Chicago are welcome. If you are a high school student and want to attend, please send an email to phoenixpitch@gmail.com.
It's free. We will provide drinks, snacks, and dinner for the event.
The challenge will consist of students forming teams around ideas that they are interested in and to build a pitch deck and present to a panel of judges. You'll listen to pitches from other students for the first 30 minutes and then spend 2 hours building a pitch deck using help from our mentors.
Teams can be up to five people. You can certainly go it alone, but if you are seeking a team, we'll provide resources during the event to help you find a team with an idea you're interested in working on.
Bring your laptop, laptop charger, and of course, your thinking cap.
Just click on the application link and complete the application. Make sure to apply with your .edu email address.
If you are currently working on an idea, we'd love to have you build upon it and get feedback from our judges and mentors. If you've already developed a pitch deck, try pitching to the mentors and see what they think.
Judges will use these criteria: Business Description, Market Analysis, Product or Service Analysis, Competition, Marketing Strategy, Operations, Team, Finances, Presentation.
TBD
Please email any questions to phoenixpitch@gmail.com