Second annual Pitch Battles competition deemed a success
From November 6 to 15, 48 students took part in “Pitch Battles,” a competition offered by the UPEI Catherine Callbeck Centre for Entrepreneurship (CCCE) that is open to all UPEI and Holland College students.
Over eight days, participants came up with business ideas, developed business models around them, and pitched their ideas and plans to a panel of judges on November 14 for a chance to win $4,000 in prize money. The catch? Students had to sign up without knowing the theme of the competition, who their team members would be, and who their industry mentor would be.
The participants worked tirelessly around their classes, exams, projects, assignments, work schedules, and other extracurricular activities to meet with their teams and mentors to develop business ideas to pitch to a panel of judges. All teams pitched their ideas on Friday, November 14, for a chance at making the finals on Saturday, November 15.
Teams were formed with the intention of placing interdisciplinary students on each team: Students from 11 different programs were placed on 16 teams, with each team being provided a mentor from the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Atlantic Canada.
“I genuinely loved my experience in Pitch Battles because it showed me that entrepreneurship is more achievable than I once believed and gave me the confidence to pursue it,” said Chloé de Carvalho, Bachelor of Business Administration student at UPEI and member of the 4SPACE team. “During the eight-day program, I learned how to communicate and pitch ideas clearly and effectively under time constraints. Through working with my team, connecting with other participants, and learning from my mentor, I also learned the true value of collaboration in building both skills and growing business ideas. I truly believe Pitch Battles to be an enriching and unique opportunity that every student should consider!”
The theme of the Pitch Battles competition changes each year but is kept broad so that students from any program can approach the theme and envision business ideas that can relate to their area of study. This was the second year the competition was offered by the CCCE, and this year’s theme was “water.”
The students were evaluated on the following for their three to five minutes pitches plus a three-minute Q and A: problem solving and relevance; value proposition; customer segments; market entry strategy; financials; team needs; delivery; scalability; and Q and A performance. The top eight finalists were 4SPACE, AquaTrack, ByeBycatch, EcoQuest, HarbourClear, HydraClip, Plant Panels, and SentiShell.
Winning first prize of $2,000 was SentiShell for a tensile-tension attachment to oyster, mussel, lobster, and seaweed lines to provide preventative notifications to fishers of the risk of lines snapping due to crop overload or storm conditions. The team members were Oluwatobi Oriade, BSc in Sustainable Design Engineering; Daniel Odoom, BSc in Computer Science; and Demba Cisse, BBA.
4SPACE won second prize of $1,000 and a breakthrough award of $250 for a hinge-based collapsible shipping container design to enable the 41 per cent of all shipping containers being sent empty to take up less space, saving shipping companies money. Team members were Chloé de Carvalho, BBA specializing in Marketing; Omar Maamoun, BBA; and Hicham Barouti, BSc in Biology, specializing in Life Sciences.
ByeBycatch won third prize of $500 for a catch-and-release mechanism on trawl nets using internal machine learning and AI systems to identify unintended species entering the net, cordoning them off, and releasing them. The team members were Jonathan Zul Luna, BSc in Computer Science; and Ana Kwon, BSc in Computer Science.
HydraClip won the Audience Choice Award of $250 for an optical sensor that would connect to the collars of nurses’ uniforms and notify them when they are reaching dehydration levels. The members of this team were Mary Ejairu, BScN; Hadiqa Sulman, BBA; and Ditthi Chatterjee, BSc in Computer Science.
The qualifier judges, who evaluated all 16 teams to pick the top eight for the final, were Amy Andrews, Manager of Entrepreneurship, Catherine Callbeck Centre for Entrepreneurship; David McNally, Founder and CEO, Agyle Intelligence; and Stacey Goldberg, PhD, Co-Founder and CSO, PhyCo Technologies Inc.
The judges for the Pitch Battle final were Natasha Legay, Director, Ocean Startup Project; Doug MacDonald, Senior Investment Officer-Aerospace and Defence, Marine and Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Technology, Innovation PEI; Kyle Woods, Venture Manager and Oceans Stream Lead, Creative Destruction Labs.
The mentors for this year’s Pitch Battle competition were
- Bennett McCarvill, Business Development Officer, Innovation PEI
- Richard Jones, Coach, Propel ICT
- Rachel Cox, Coach, Propel ICT
- Ryan Reid, Manager, International Business & Entrepreneurship Centre, UNB
- Edward Francis, Business Development Associate, PEI BioAlliance
- Dr. Kim Johnstone, Director, Commercialization Programs, Natural Products Canada
- Shelley Hessian, IP Counsellor, Springboard Atlantic
- Randy Gillespie, Senior Consultant, Windover Group
- Ryan Filsinger, Co-Founder and CEO, Iron Fox Games
- Brian Stewart, President, RedFox Consulting Inc.
- Bethany Deshpande, Startup Coach and Innovation Advisor
- Rob Bowness, Partner, Bonus Consulting
- Jared Perry, Regional Lead, Experience Ventures
- Brent Byrnes, Trade Commissioner, Global Affairs Canada
- Daniel Ohaegbu, Executive Director, WorkSource Alliance
- David Stirling, Director of Aboriginal Aquatic Resource and Oceans Management (AAROM) and Integrated Resource Management, Mi'kmaq Confederacy of PEI
Amy Andrews, Manager of Entrepreneurship, CCCE, said Pitch Battles is all about giving students a starting point and is focused on ideation and communication so that anyone, no matter what their background is, can step into entrepreneurship with confidence.
“When students from different faculties come together, the ideas that emerge are rich, creative, and practical,” said Andrews. “Our judges and mentors are a crucial part of that experience. The CCCE is incredibly proud of the work these students put in. They accomplish so much in a relatively short time, and it is truly impressive to see what they create.”
Congratulations to all!
