Aldag

Overview of Judge Evaluation Criteria (from Judge Evaluation Sheet below in reference docs)

1. introduction and summary of the business - ability to communicate business in a short, concise introduction and description of business.
2. Description of the problem that the business is trying to solve
3. Details about the offering (product or service); including information about the current stage of development
4. Intellectual property status (e.g., patents, trademarks, etc.)
5. Market analysis (market size, potential market size, key customers, target market, competition)
6. Competitive differentiation - what makes the business / idea unique?
7. Sales and marketing plan - how will you get to the market and close sales?
8. Operating strategy - how will the offering be developed and delivered?
9. Management team - relevant experience, delivery, how you work together, knowledge about what you need to grow
10. Financial highlights - cash flow, first-year milestones, and trends for three years out, income statement data and details about investments needed with use of funds

Each of these categories is assigned a rating of 1 to 5 (1 = very poor; 2 = poor; 3 = good; 4 = very good; 5 = excellent). There's no reason why you can't achieve 5s on each category using hypotheses and validated learning. Judges can decide to change the weights they assign to each category; I believe that you could state in your presentation that one or two particular categories should be assigned much more weight (e.g., market validation with paying customers and/or coherent plan with staged milestones) than others (e.g., IP, because you don't have any patents and don't need them for every business)

Reference Docs

• Aldag 2017 Guidelines 3.23.2017 - describes what the 15-minute Powerpoint presentation should include. Plus, at least one team member must be a UA student. With updated contact information.
• Self-Rating on Parts of Business Plan Presentation - 10-minute format
• Business Plan Presentation - Judge Evaluation Sheet
• Business Plan Presentation judging criteria with suggested hacks

suggestions for maxing judging criteria

Browse on this site:

• Validation: You can add substantial value to your startup in just four weeks. Or not. It will show either way when you present to judges. The insights you gain from developing early-stage prototypes and customer development interviews are proprietary knowledge few others possess.
• Boards: You may be tempted to add advisers such as your insanely great professor(s) to an advisory board, but most sophisticated investors will roll their eyes in embarrassment for you. Separately, tell your judge panel that you won't look for a member of your board of directors until your Seed round at the earliest.