This is a guide to all things Carbon Venture 2022
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Join the fight against climate change while competing for $20,000 in cash prizes by pitching your venture to industry experts, investors, and community members.
This is a ‘reverse pitch’ competition open to Boise State students. You don’t have to bring your own idea, as industry partners will identify challenges they face and pose these as problem statements. Participants will work on interdisciplinary teams to find solutions to these challenges, while building a venture.
There There are three phases of this competition:
Sprint Week (April 12-18, 2022)
Participants will attend daily meetings from 5:00-6:00 p.m., composed of a mix of lessons, brainstorming sessions with industry leaders, practice pitches with mentors, and one-on-one meetings. Solutions will be refined into ventures through research, customer discovery, and idea validation.
Pitch Competition (April 19, 2022)
The Carbon Venture Challenge will culminate with a pitch competition. Judges include industry experts, entrepreneurs, and investors, providing connections to a network that will last well beyond this competition.
Finals Pitch Competition (April 22, 2022)
Finalist teams will pitch for $20,000 in cash prizes.
Problems Statements
If you already have a venture or solution that addresses carbon reduction or sustainability, you are allowed to use it for your this competition. Otherwise, you can use the following problem statements as an inspiration for a starting point:
High Level Problem: How can you help Boise State reduce it’s sustainability score?
Boise State recently scored at a 48.87 (out of 100) for it’s sustainability performance. They are looking to improve their score in the near-term; however, secondary education and institutions can be deathly slow moving - especially if it requires multi-departmental approval, size-able a sizeable budget, or new resources.
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Solutions that will not require multi-departmental changes or need significant time for approvals.
Little to no budget. You could suggest re-allocating costs to fund your idea, but we suggest not trying to increase the existing budget.
Boise State is especially interested in spreading awareness amongst students and getting them involved.
A solution that would be easy to test and collect results (to see if it justifies investing more time or effort).
Specific Problem Areas
Boise State’s sustainability score is comprised of category and subcategory scores.
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When you click on a sub category, you will find more information that Boise State self-reported. In addition to figures and data, Boise State provides a description of what they are currently doing (or not doing).
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Suggestions for Exploring Solutions
Sometimes the easiest solutions are ones that have already been proven out in other markets (i.e. universities), but have not been applied locally. You can do this in a few easy steps:
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Would you be open to a quick phone call so I could get more insights to help with my Waste Management and Diversion solution for the competition?
Thanks,
Ryan
Other Competition Tips & Suggestions
We encourage participants to work on interdisciplinary teams, and to look beyond their own institution to find the right partners for their team.
Venture College will help match students to teams when the program begins. If you don’t have a team in mind, not to worry , as we will help!
Get stared before the competition! You know the problems - so get to work learning more about it before Sprint Week.
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All pitches will be 4 minutes or less
Pitch decks will need to be sent to Cara Van Sant prior to the competition.
Please follow the general pitch-deck outline
Please note the template is merely a suggested guide. You may:
Change the order of the slides
Brand the slides with different colors, titles, etc.
No videos are allowed in the slides
Pitches will be followed up with a Q&A session with judges for 4 minutes or less
If your team has multiple members, it is not required that they all present during the 4 minutes. It’s your choice.
Each team will pitch three times during the pitch off. If you take 1st place in your track, you will pitch one more time (against the other track winners) in the Final Pitch Competition.
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