2023 St.Thomas FGSIC Finalist Guide

Carefully review this finalist guide and attached sample deck

Schedule Details

First Place - $6,000

Second Place - $3,000

Third Place - $1,500

Fourth Place - $1,000

Fifth Place - $500

The two leading teams from the St.Thomas Finals will advance as the Global Finalists to represent St. Thomas at the June Finals event. Global Finalists have the chance to compete for a selection of top prizes ranging from $10,000 to $25,000.

Elevator Pitches/60-second pitch

While the 60-second pitches are not factored into the final judging decision, we encourage you to put your best foot forward since each team will present their elevator pitch to the audience during the Awards Ceremony.

Please see the final slide in the attached deck for some examples of great elevator pitches.

Reminders and Resources

Slide Design: The order, content, and design of slides are up to each team’s discretion, but we recommend following the best practices for presentations and avoiding too much text and content on each slide We also recommend avoiding the use of too many slides Successful pitches generally have between ten and twenty slides, although more slides may be appropriate in some cases

Students Handbook Page: A comprehensive Fowler GSIC student resource page for participants.

Social Business Model Canvas: A digital collaborative tool that helps you plan for social impact.

Sustainable Development Goals: Don't forget to identify the SDGs your venture addresses in your pitch

Follow us on our social channels: Tag us in your journey! Schulze School on Instagram & Facebook - @schulzeschool Fowler GSIC on Instagram & Facebook - @fowlergsic

Day of Competition Reminders:

Upload your slide deck onto a USB Flash Drive to share with us on pitch day. Dress to impress: Be mindful of any accessories or jewelry if you are expressive with your hands as the noise and movement can be distracting.

Be on time

Presentation Requirements and Judging Criteria

Any member of the official team can deliver the 10-minute pitch. For teams that include non-students, the qualifying student member must participate in the pitch. This requirement goes for the 60-second pitch as well. If only one team member will deliver the elevator pitch, it must be presented by the qualifying student member only.

Clear articulation of social & environmental impact and connection to the UN SDGs: Successful pitches will identify the problem being addressed, beneficiaries, demonstrate how the proposed innovation will create the desired impact, and articulate the potential breadth and depth of the intended social or environmental impact.

Clear demonstration of the interaction with end-users or beneficiaries: Successful pitches demonstrate things such as test runs, design approaches utilized, assumptions tested, and lessons learned (about the customer, market, problem, or solution) Sharing your findings demonstrates adds credibility to your pitch and potential solution

Clear, realistic, and logical financial model: Pitches can include a discussion of revenue streams, customer segments, or startup costs You should also highlight the needed funding sources to get your innovation to market and build a sustainable income stream

Market and solutions landscape: Include references to existing market solutions, and the team's innovation is distinct and better. There are many ways to be innovative - a new market or customer segment, a new idea, new delivery methods, etc. Successful pitches show how a social innovation fits in the landscape of other solutions addressing similar problems.

Team capacity and partnerships: Share an overview of current resources, partnerships, how each team member contributes or will contribute to the social innovation and goals. Highlight the team's commitment and capacity to refine and follow through on the implementation of the idea.

Rubric

Presentation Tips and Template

The following presentation covers how to make a great pitch and provides a sample pitch deck. The sample is merely meant for guidance. Please add, delete, alter and customize this for your own purposes.

Key elements of a good pitch for the FGSIC

• Identify a real social need

• Describe a solution that is clear, understandable and meaningful for some set of individuals harmed by the problem – articulate the value proposition to those served

• Show your advantage over existing solutions

• Explain how you will deliver the solution to your customer affordably and effectively, and how the venture will make money (revenue model)

• Provide evidence of a significant potential impact

First slide -- Company Name

Team member names

Opening overview

Get the audience excited about your concept! Help them quickly understand the scale and impact of the problem you are solving and the value of your solution.

Some techniques for engaging them:

• Link the topic to their experience: “How many of you have ever experienced this…” (make sure it is the kind of problem the audience has experienced and would love to have fixed)

• Paint a compelling picture with attention-getting statistics: “1 in 5 millennials suffers hearing loss. It can take less than 8 minutes of earbud use at high volumes for hearing to be damaged.”

• Tell a story. Paint a picture of a particular person who is experiencing the problem you are solving, how it impacts them, and how you can transform their experience.

Describe the problem you are addressing in greater detail

• Describe the problem

– What is the problem?

– What causes the problem?

– How is the problem experienced by the people affected?

• Why does it matter? What is the impact at an individual and societal level? What is the scale of the impact?

• Why is it solvable? How would the world be different if it was solved?

Tell us who experiences this problem and how

• Provide more detail about the people you will target with this offering.

–

Who are they? (e.g., demographic and psychographic description)

–

How do they experience the problem?

–

How does the problem impact their lives?

–

How do they try to solve the problem today?

What are the constraints they operate under that make it difficult to solve the problem? –

–

What are the enablers, if any, that make it possible for you to serve them?

Describe your solution

Provide a mock up of the product or service. For example, if it is an app, provide screen shots. If it is hardware, provide an illustrative representation. If it is a process or service, outline or diagram the process/service.

Offer a value proposition

• Explain how and why your solution solves your customer’s problem

–

How will the people you serve be impacted by your solution – how will their lives change for the better?

• Are there other “customers” or stakeholders you must serve in order to deliver or fund your solution or impact? (for instance, Love Your Melon sells hats to consumers in order to raise money to donate hats and funds for children experiencing cancer and to the nonprofits that serve them).

Who are these customers? – Why will they want your offering?

–

What is your compelling advantage?

• How is your solution different from and superior to other solutions available to the people you want to serve?

–

What other solutions are out there?

– What are their strengths and weaknesses?

–

What are the gaps and opportunities?

–

What is distinctive about your approach and organization?

• How does your solution create exceptional value for all it serves?

What is your business model?

• How will you deliver this solution to your customer affordably and effectively, and how will the venture make money (revenue model)?

– Who is going to pay for this? The end customer/client? A donor? Another stakeholder (e.g. Love Your Melon)?

– How will they pay for this? (Fee for service? Cross-subsidy model? Donation? Etc.)

–

What are the largest costs and why do you feel these revenues will be able to cover them?

–

Provide enough explanation of how you will provide this product/service that your audience will see why it is feasible to do

• How much money flows to your ‘issue’ annually from all sources and how is it distributed?

– How will you capture existing dollars or attract new resources?

Summarize your business model on the canvas

Social BusinessModel Canvas

Typeof Intervention

What resources will you need to run your activities? People, finance, access?

Partners+Key Stakeholders

Who are the essential groups you will need to involve to deliver your programme? Do you need special access or permissions?

Cost Structure

What programme and non-programme activities will your organisation be carrying out?

What is the format of your intervention? Is it a workshop? A service? A product?

Who benefits from your intervention?

How will you show that you are creating social impact?

How are you reaching your users and customers? Where do you plan to invest your profits?

Who are the people or organisations who will pay to address this issue?

Revenue

What are your biggest expenditure areas? How do they change as you scale up? Break down your revenue sources by %

What do your customers want to get out of this initiative?

What is the potential social impact?

• How many people can you impact/ or the number of customers you can reasonably address?

• What will the societal impact be if you can serve these people?

• How will you measure the success of your venture? What measures or metrics will you use (eg. number of clients fed; decrease in chemical run-off, etc.)

(Member 1 Name)

(Member 1 Role)

(Member 1 Key Facts)

(Member 2 Name)

(Member 2 Role)

(Member 2 Key Facts)…

Explain why you are the person/people to do this!

Summarize why they should be excited about your concept

Recap:

• What makes your problem an important one worth solving

• Why your solution can generate positive social impact

• Why your concept represents a new and better way to tackle a pressing social problem

Thank You!

Tip: Engage your audience

• Be relaxed and conversational but express conviction for your ideas

• Posture matters – stand straight, don’t pace or fidget, make eye contact with your audience

• See yourself as telling a story -

• Pick words that create a visual image in listener’s mind

• Choose powerful words that grab attention

• Prepare ahead of time for questions they might ask, so you can stay relaxed and energized during Q&A

Tip: Keep slides simple, visual and clean

• One idea per slide

• Aim to use visuals more than words

• Use charts and graphs to convey quantitative information

• Use simple visuals/photos and minimal for qualitative information that can’t be graphed.

• Check out this link for examples of great pitch decks

Example: Early AirBnB pitch deck

Some more inspiration

• Here are some example elevator pitches that are well done: