Student entrepreneurs get ready to pitch

Thirty-one University of Cape Town (UCT) student entrepreneurs with business brains and big ideas are preparing to battle it out during the internal round of the Entrepreneurship Intervarsity 2020 competition later this month.

Winners of this round will proceed to the regional leg of the contest where they will compete with student entrepreneurs from Stellenbosch University, the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Cape Peninsula University of Technology and the University of South Africa.

The Entrepreneurship Intervarsity competition aims to identify the top student entrepreneurs at each of South Africa’s 26 public universities, recognise and showcase their businesses, and attract investors. The competition is open to both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Students can enter one of the following four categories:

• Business ideas
• Existing business – Tech
• Existing business – Social Impact
• Existing business – General.

The internal leg of the competition will take place virtually between 25 and 29 May, and participants have just three minutes to pitch their business ideas before a two-minute question and answer (Q&A) session from the judges.

Students are encouraged to pitch using online platforms Zoom or Microsoft Teams. However, if access to these platforms is limited, they’re encouraged to pre-submit a three-minute video, and a two-minute telephone Q&A session from the judges will follow.

Judges will use a set of nationally approved guidelines to ensure fairness and consistency and select eight of the best (two per category) students to proceed to the regional leg of the competition, to be hosted by UWC in June.

The competition is funded by the Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology’s University Capacity Development Programme and supported by Universities South Africa and its partners.