Maine Collegiate Challenge

Airing on Newscenter Maine, Sundays at 10 am

Targeting as many Maine colleges as wish to participate, Season 6 will highlight the best full or part-time college students, who have a business idea in any stage of development; from a simple idea to a well-constructed business plan. The 13 semi-finalists square off in a non-televised pitch-off to determine the 3 best collegiate entrepreneurs. Those 3 finalists will then pitch off against one another in the Greenlight Maine Collegiate Finale to compete for a cash prize.

In an effort to stop the endless flow of Maine college graduates out of the state, Greenlight Maine produced a pilot series in 2018 that included entries from Bates, Colby, Husson University, University of Maine Orono, University of Southern Maine and Central Maine Community College. This allowed Greenlight Maine to produce five shows which generated a great deal of excitement in the greater college community as well as the business and investment communities. The aim was to provide the students with a forum where they could demonstrate their business initiatives to an audience that was eager to find ways to encourage them to establish their businesses in Maine and to expose them to all of the opportunities and services available. And in addition to the media exposure, the winner was awarded a $25,000 cash prize.

The winner of that series, Kinotek, experienced a tremendous surge in interest in the company from its win, and is now finding strong investment interest both domestically and internationally.

In 2019, the Greenlight Maine College Edition grew to eight episodes with the addition of contestants from St Joseph’s College, University of New England and Thomas College. 

It is anticipated that the 2020 series will reach Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, College of the Atlantic, Husson University, Maine College of Art, Maine Maritime Academy, Maine Community College System, The Maine University System, Thomas College, Unity College, St. Joseph’s College and the University of New England. This will allow expansion of the series to a full season of 13 episodes. 

In future years, the hope is to grow the prize purse to include 2nd and 3rd place cash prizes for the college contestants.

The feedback from students, college administrators and businesspeople has been overwhelmingly positive as this series is proving to be a win-win for all parties involved and a tangible solution to Maine’s brain drain.

Bates College

Bowdoin College

Central Maine Community College

Colby College

Husson University

St. Joseph’s College

Southern Maine Community College 

Thomas College

Unity College

University of Maine

University of New England

University of Southern Maine

Each school identifies the best student submissions based on the criteria proposed below. Those 30 (or more) entrepreneurs pitch off against a panel of independent judges. Those judges have no affiliation with any Maine college, neither alum nor employment. For this round, each student will only be identified by a number (no names and no college affiliations). Each presenter will make a three-minute pitch followed by 10 minutes of Q & A from the panel of judges. Contestants must be enrolled in a Maine college for some part of the current school calendar year. Props and PowerPoint are allowed in this round. The judges use the following criteria on which to determine the final contestants for the Collegiate Challenge.

The round of 5 competitive shows with the 10 semi-finalists are taped. We do our best to match up the “companies” against one another (without prejudice to schools).

These shows are the same format as the traditional Greenlight Maine TV shows and are judged on the same criteria as the earlier round.  In this round, competitors will have a maximum of three minutes. Limited props will be allowed at GLM’s discretion. Contestants are asked to provide a logo and/or a website that will be projected and used for marketing purposes. PowerPoint presentations are not allowed in this round. The three-minute pitch is followed by two minutes of on-camera Q & A. The Q & A is usually about one short question per judge followed by a relatively quick response. After the pitch is successfully captured and the Q & A is on tape, the contestants will have 10-15 minutes off-camera to answer more in-depth questions about their business idea. This will allow the judges to make a more informed decision about each “company.”

The three finalists will square off against one another in the finale episode. Again, we will be using independent, non-biased judges who will evaluate the businesses based on the above criteria. The presenter will have three minutes or less to pitch and two minutes of Q & A from the judges. Once we have successfully captured their segment on tape, the presenter is given the opportunity to talk to the judges off camera about their idea, for a minimum of 15 minutes.