SpokeShave

SpokeShave is a peer-to-peer pitch competition just for the startup community. There’s no third party judges or self-declared experts choosing the winner – it’s entrepreneurs listening to, scoring, and giving critical feedback to each other. Here’s how it works:

1. Only one person from your startup can give the pitch and only that person is allowed in the circle during the competition.

2. Each startup receives judging rubrics for the other competitors. These rubrics will be used to score each pitch and will be tallied at the end to determine the winner. The rubric consists of 5 sections:

• Presentation – Has the pitch been practiced? Does the person giving the pitch look poised and comfortable? Do the body language, voice and cadence of the pitch make you feel confident in the individual’s ability to execute the concept? Is the pitch within the required time limit? Is it easy enough for a layman to understand what the product or service is?
• Concept – Is there a clearly defined problem? Is this problem legitimate? Is there a clearly defined solution? Does this solution adequately address the problem?
• Customer – Is there a clearly defined customer? Has there been any validation of this customer’s existence and their need to address the problem? Has there been any validation of the customer’s interest in adopting the solution?
• Model – What channels will be used to reach the customer? Is there a way to bring in revenue or otherwise monetize users/customers? Is there a realistic cost estimate for the creation and delivery of the concept?
• Strategy – Are there realistic benchmarks to measure progress? Are those benchmarks achievable? Is there is a realistic plan to get the resources needed to achieve the benchmarks?

3. After the pitch portion is completed the scores are tallied. The Following procedure is used to determine the winner:

• Each participant’s packet of rubrics will first be reviewed to ensure they ranked and scored every pitch correctly. If they did not, 5 points will be deducted from their overall score.
• Each pitch is grouped together and the overall scores added together.  Any deductions are subtracted.
• The top three highest scores are then placed on the board. The pitch with the highest occurrence of a number 1 ranking wins. If there is a tie then it goes to the highest occurrence of 1 and 2 rankings. And so on.

4. The winning pitch receives $100.

Visit the event page to Register