Are you building a startup while also attending an Indiana college or university? We’re already impressed. Putting in the time and effort to create a company as a student takes extra commitment. Those are exactly the kind of founders we really want to help succeed! That’s where Crossroads Collegiate Pitch Competition comes in. Crossroads Collegiate is your chance to put your startup in front of Indiana’s leading investors, mentors, and entrepreneurs, and pitch for a $2,500 investment from Flywheel Fund. Applications are open now and close February 22, 2023.
(Psst: need time to fix up your pitch deck first? Pre-register, and we’ll send you reminders about the deadline.)
This is our third year of running the collegiate version of Crossroads. Alumni have gone on to do some pretty impressive stuff! Andre Harakas, who won the inaugural competition in 2020, grew his sports tech company All In Team Sports over 1000% last year (that is not a typo: one THOUSAND percent!). He’s raised $1.55 million to date, and he’s living the entrepreneurial dream. Our 2021 winner, Finniva, is also on fire. They were named one of 2022’s Most Disruptive Business School Startups by Poets & Quants for Undergrads.
WHY SHOULD YOU PITCH?
Now, maybe you’re thinking you’re not quite ready for the big time. Well, competitions like Crossroads Collegiate are how you GET ready! As Andy Lehman, Head of Accelerator Programming for The Mill puts it, “Pitch competitions are really a forcing mechanism, to give entrepreneurs a reason and a deadline to polish their pitch. And as they work through making their pitch better, they’re also working through important business questions about what problem their product solves, for which customer, and how they’ll go to market.”
You don’t have to win a pitch competition to benefit from it, in other words. You shore up your business concept and your pitch deck. You get practice at pitching to important people. You become part of a community of student founders and peers. You get feedback. You get exposure. And you just might get a $2,500 investment and access to a powerful network of mentors and investors.
ALL VIRTUAL!
The great news is, Crossroads Collegiate is completely virtual. So you don’t have to worry about making time to drive or finding a place to stay! We love to see broad participation from Indiana’s universities and colleges. We have seen pitches from all over the state. Butler University, Hanover College, Indiana University, Indiana Wesleyan, Ivy Tech, Purdue University, Taylor University, University of Notre Dame, and more.
To apply to Crossroads Collegiate, submit a pitch deck and a 3-to-5-minute pitch video by February 22. If you have an executive summary, you can submit that, too, but it’s not required. Using video takes some of the pressure off of pitching. You can re-record it a dozen times, as many as needed to get it just right. Be sure to check out all our tips and tricks on putting together an awesome slide deck and presentation.
Any student currently enrolled at any Indiana college or university with a startup based in Indiana can apply. A judging panel of respected Indiana entrepreneurs and angel investors will view the recorded pitches at the semi-finals and select finalists, who will pitch live over Zoom on March 24.
Learn more about Crossroads Collegiate Pitch Competition.
Learn more about the flagship Crossroads competition.