PATRIOT PITCH

Overview

Patriot Pitch originally started as Pitch IT in 2014 as a business idea competition for students from the Volgenau School of Engineering. It was organized by the Laboratory for IT Entrepreneurship (LITE) and co-chaired by Dr. Massimiliano Albanese and Dr. Mihai Boicu. In collaboration with Mason Innovation Exchange (MIX), the competition was renamed to Patriot Pitch in Spring 2019 as an initiative for the competition to be open to ALL Mason students from various disciplines.

The competition is open to all teams with at least one Mason student. Students will present their business ideas (for profit or not-for-profit) to a panel of judges including faculty, entrepreneurs, and mentors. Participants will have the opportunity to receive valuable feedback and enhance their ability to present and market their ideas to early stage investors. Teams will compete for prizes.

In accordance with George Mason University’s recent announcements due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) spread in our region and social distancing being key in this situation, this semester's final competition will take place on April 24, 2020, 1:00 pm virtually. Only participants will receive an invitation to join the virtual competition.

Please read Pitching section carefully to better help you prepare your pitch. Please see Participation Requirements section of this page to find out how to participate to the competition.

Registration is required to participate. Please complete the registration form no later than 11:59 pm EDT on April 17, 2020. Early submissions are highly encouraged.

Registration form: https://go.gmu.edu/PitchSpring2020

Participation Requirements

Team Composition

We highly recommend students to create teams with two or more individuals. Individual participants may be considered, with the expectation of creating a team in the near future.

At least one member of each team must be a current student at George Mason University. The other members may include students, alumni, faculty, staff, or external participants.

The video pitch presentation must be done by current Mason students.

Video Application

In order to be considered you must complete the competition application on or before April 17th, 2020.

The video must be narrated powerpoint slides which can be made using tools like Kaltura, Powerpoint, and iMovie. You can use other video recording applications that you are more familiar with. The pitch videos should be no more than five minutes and must be submitted on or before April 17th. Submission details will be emailed to the team's point of contact.

Announcement of Finalists

Each team is expected to submit a video copy of their pitches on or before April 17th, 2020.

The teams that will move on to the final competition will be announced on April 22nd. The final competition will be on April 24th, where you can have the chance to win prizes.

Judges

Dr. Serene Al-Momen, Co-Founder and CEO of Senseware and Adjunct Professor at George Mason University

Matthew Chwat, Principal UX Architect, MetroStar Systems

Dr. Mahesh P. Joshi, President at Joshi International, Inc. and Associate Professor at George Mason University

Special Thanks

In addition to our sponsors and judges we would like to express our gratitude to:

MetroStar Systems

Competition Co-Chairs

Mihai Boicu, Associate Professor in the Information Sciences and Technology Department, and the Co-Director of the Laboratory for IT Entrepreneurship

Karen Livingston, Associate Director for Entrepreneurship Programs, Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Note: All the names are listed in alphabetical order for judges, thank you note and competition co-chairs.