Competitorguidelines.

Round one is marked on creativity, feasibility and profitability. Most entries are strong on one and thin on the other two — the ones that win are decent at all three.

• It has to be yours. You cannot copy an existing company, and AI cannot generate the core idea. Both are disqualifications, not deductions.
• Start from a problem you have actually seen. Something annoying at school, at home, on the bus. Specific beats grand every time.
• Name the customer. “Everyone” is not a customer. Who exactly, how many of them, and how would you reach them?
• Check nobody already does it. If they do, that is fine — but you need to say what you would do differently, and why.
• Sanity‑check the money early. If you cannot see who pays, the profitability marks are gone before you start writing.

Judges can tell within a paragraph whether you have spoken to anyone. The tell is specificity: real interviews produce odd, concrete details that nobody invents.

Ask about the past, not the future

• “Walk me through the last time you had to do this” beats “Would you use an app that…”. People are honest about last Tuesday and unreliable about hypotheticals.
• Ask what they tried already, what it cost them, and why they stopped. A problem nobody has attempted to solve is usually not a problem.
• Ask how often it happens and what it costs when it does. Frequency times cost is where a business hides.
• Shut up. The useful material comes after the pause you were about to fill.

Practicalities

• Cite your data. The rules require it, and an uncited number is worth less than no number.
• Be careful with AI research. It is allowed, but it is often wrong or biased, and incorrect information will be penalised. Check anything it gives you against a real source.
• Ask people outside your friend group. Classmates and family are the easiest to reach and the least useful to hear from.
• Eight to twelve conversations is enough to find a pattern. Two is an anecdote.

A Word document, 1,000 words plus up to 20%, emailed once as an attachment. That is not much room, so every paragraph has to earn its place.

Common ways proposals lose marks

• A market size quoted from a headline with no path from it to your first hundred customers.
• Numbers with no source — the rules require citations.
• An idea that turns out to be an existing company with a new name.
• Jargon standing in for a mechanism: “an AI‑powered platform” without saying what happens when someone taps the button.
• Going over 1,200 words.

Five minutes to present, five minutes of questions, in the PAC. The pitch is marked out of 50 and weighted above the idea itself — round one already established the idea is good; this round is about selling it.

Where the marks are

• Delivery and stage presence — 15. The single biggest category. Projection, eye contact, energy, command of the room, body language. This is practice, not talent.
• Clarity and structure — 10. A logical flow and one clear message.
• Quality of the business idea — 10. Convince them it has investment potential.
• Q&A response — 10. Appropriate, convincing, relevant.
• Visual aids and timing — 5. Helpful diagrams, professional deck, and no rushing or dragging.

Practicalities

• Every team member must present on the stage. Split it up in advance.
• Slides are optional and go in as a PDF two days before. They are locked after that — no edits on the night.
• You can bring a physical example of your product, within the set size, shown to the organisers beforehand.
• Take the 10‑minute practice slot in the PAC on the day. Rehearse to the clock: five minutes is shorter than you think.

Surviving the Q&A

• Answer the question that was asked, first, in one sentence. Then elaborate.
• “We don’t know yet — here’s how we’d find out” scores well. A confident invention scores badly and tends to unravel.
• Know every number on your slides and where it came from. Expect to be asked about exactly the one you are least sure of.
• Do not argue with a judge. Take the point, say what you would do about it.
• Rehearse the questions you are dreading. They will be asked.

Two of them, both 45 minutes in the Lecture Theatre during school: thirty minutes presenting, then fifteen going round the room answering questions. Popcorn provided. Sign‑up only, and dates are still being confirmed.

• A Word document, text‑based.
• 1,200 words or fewer (1,000 plus the 20% allowance). Check the word count.
• The idea is yours — not an existing company, not another team’s.
• Every number has a citation.
• AI declared: which tools, what for, and which parts of the work they assisted with.
• At least 75% written by you, without AI.
• You could explain any part of it out loud if a judge asked.
• Emailed as an attachment, once, to jiescalantephilips@perse.co.uk, before the deadline.