Calling all Startups, Students, Developers, and Designers!!!

 

“The App Pitch” is your opportunity to show the Toronto startup, student and developer community YOUR app ideas for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Furthermore, it’s your opportunity to win $500 CAD and a chance to pitch your startup to investors during the International Startup Festival Elevator World Tour stop in Toronto on January 31^st, 2013.

 

Register to Pitch Your App (Individuals or Teams of Two)

Register to Attend

 

When and Where?

Tuesday, January 29^th, 2013

6:00PM to 10:00PM EST

 

MaRS Discovery District

101 College Street

MaRS Commons, Suite 230

Toronto, ON

What’s on the Agenda?

18:00 - 18:30	Registration & Pizza Served
18:30 - 19:00	Welcome Address & Kick-Off
19:00 - 20:00	Round 1: Round Robin Pitches
20:00 - 20:15	Break
20:15 - 20:30	Round 1: Six Finalists Announced
20:30 - 21:00	Final Round: Six Finalists Pitch
21:00 - 21:15	Audience Voting
21:15 - 21:30	Awards Presentation & Wrap-Up

 

The Prizes:

• First Place – Receives a $500 CAD Gift Card
• Top Three Finalists – Receive a spot in the elevator to pitch your startup to investors during the International Startup Festival Elevator World Tour stop in Toronto on January 31st, 2013.

 

How Does “The Pitch” Work?

 

During Round 1 (The Round Robin Pitches), teams will be broken up into groups to take turns pitching their app in three minutes to the judges assigned to that group. As a group, the judges’ job is to select the Top Six Finalists to go to the Final Round and pitch in front of the entire audience. The judges will be basing their selection on the following criteria:

 

1.    The “Great At” Statement

The most important thing that you need to articulate during your pitch is your apps “Great At” statement. When planning your Windows 8 App or Windows Phone 8 App (or any app for that matter), think less about what features you want to include and more about what experience you want to provide your users. Sum this up in your “Great At” statement.

Here are a few examples to get you on the right track:

• My travel app is great at helping friends create itineraries collaboratively for group trips.
• My workout app is great at letting friends track their workout progress and share their achievements with each other.
• My grocery app is great at helping families coordinate their weekly grocery shopping so that they never miss or duplicate a purchase again.

 

2.    The App Design

Your team will need to present sample wireframes or screenshots of your app to demonstrate that you’ve considered the user experience and design of your app.

• How will users interact with your app?
• What will the tile for your app look like? Will it be a live tile?

 

3.    The Business Side a.k.a. Making Cake

It’s important for you to make the business case for you app. After all, it’s all about publishing it into the store and making money.

• Who is the target market for your app?
• How will you market your app?
• What competitors already exist?
• What price point will you select for your app?
• Will your build your app with advertising built-in?
• Have you considered using cloud services in the back-end?
• When do you plan to publish your app?

 

Finally, a common pitfall is taking too much time to introduce yourself, your team or competitors. You only have three minutes to pitch your great app idea. Every second of your pitch should serve to communicate or articulate your great at statement. Focus on that as well as well as your design and you’ll be set!

 

If you are selected as one of the six finalists, you’ll move on to the Final Round to pitch your app for three minutes in front of the entire audience. The big winner (to receive a $500 CAD Gift Card) and top three finalists (to receive a spot in the elevator to pitch in front of investors) will be selected based on audience voting.

 

The Judges

 

What else you need to know:

• You can present as an individual or as a team of two.
• During the Round 1, you will be placed into a group and given a presentation order.
• You will have just three minutes to pitch your app idea and showcase sketches, mockups etc.
• The judges will have up to two minutes for questions.
• The top 6 finalists will present again in three minutes to the entire audience.
• The audience votes for their favourite app.

 

What you need to bring:

• Energy, creativity and, of course, an awesome app idea!
• A well-rehearsed presentation including your “Great At” statement and UX mockups
• Your own laptop to present from, as well as a VGA adapter (if required).

 

What’s the Elevator World Tour?

In their own words: “Aspiring entrepreneurs and startups will be provided a unique opportunity to pitch their businesses to investors while riding the tallest and most impressive elevators in the world. Pitches are filmed by award-winning documentary filmmaker, Ondi Timoner, and those selected will be featured in her current project, A Total Disruption, a documentary and web series about innovators and entrepreneurs who are using technology to transform our lives.”

 

The kick-off is happening January 31^st 2013 in Toronto’s CN Tower! The elevator spots are already sold out, so this is your best chance to get in.

Register to Pitch Your App for your chance to win a spot in front of investors in that elevator!

 

Want a free ticket to attend the Elevator World Tour Stop in Toronto?

The first 20 people through the door, who also registered in advance, will receive a discount code for a complimentary ticket to attend the cocktail reception of the Elevator World Tour Stop in Toronto on January 31^st, 2013. That’s a savings of 50$. So, register now and arrive early!

Bi-Winning

So you're in, you've sweated the details and you've got a killer app pitch, awesome! We can't wait to see it. But guess what, there is another contest going on called the Windows Startup Challenge. And guess what, all you you need is a pitch to enter! Submit your presentation or better yet video of yourself delivering your pitch! Either way you definitely need to get entered in the Windows Startup Challenge. Hurry up though, deadline for submitting your pitch is Jan 29th.

 

Get started…now!

 

WINDOWS 8: A great place to find inspiration and learn about designing an app for Windows 8 is design.windows.com.

 

WINDOWS PHONE 8: If you’re interested in building an app for Windows Phone 8, get started at dev.windowsphone.com/design.

 

WINDOWS AZURE: Dive into Microsoft’s cloud development platform to learn how you can save yourself time and money at dev.windowsazure.com.

 

At the above links, you will find guidance on planning and designing apps, including inspiration, case studies and assets. It’s everything you’ll need to get started designing your app, except of course for the actual app idea itself, that’s up to you and your imagination!

 

Contact us at bizsparkca@microsoft.com if you have any questions!