Maine Collegiate Challenge

Targeting as many Maine colleges as wish to participate, we will produce 13 television shows in Season 5 highlighting 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. Those 13 shows, each pitting 2 college business ideas against one another, will be videotaped in the second week of January 2020 at NESCOM on the Husson University campus. The 13 semi-finalists established from that round would then 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 the grand prize which in our pilot Season 4 was a package worth approximately $60,000.

Each school will identify the best student submissions based on the criteria proposed below. Those 30 or more entrepreneurs will then need to be available to pitch off against a panel of independent judges. Those judges will 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-no college affiliations). Each presenter will make a 3 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 2019/20 calendar year. Props and powerpoint will be allowed in this round. The judges will be using the following criteria on which to determine the 26 final contestants for Season 5 Collegiate Challenge.