Opportunity Quest Executive Summary & Audience Choice Video Submission - Fall 2022

Note that the executive summary deadline and video submission deadline are exactly the same as the OQ deadlines. Students wishi

Get full rules & info here.

For information specific to the Engineering Prototype Competition, scroll to the bottom of the page~

Opportunity Quest (OQ) is a business model summary competition managed by the GRIT Center for Rural Entrepreneurship at Snow College and funded by Zions Bank, with $7,000 in cash plus other prizes available! This competition fosters and promotes business growth at the collegiate level by giving students a chance to write and present their business model summary to a set of judges.

Opportunity Quest is designed for students to test a business idea, learn business skills and receive feedback. Ideas may vary from early concept through being an early stage, legally formed entity.

The competition is split into three rounds, with two optional opportunities to win funding:

1. Round 1: Executive Summary  & Video (submission deadline Nov. 9th) — Snow College students from any major are encouraged to apply. The Audience Choice video competition is only open to students who completed their application by submitting and executive summary.
2. Video submission (Nov. 9th)  — Open to all teams that submit a business model summary 
3. Round 2: Shark Tank Semi-finals (Nov. 29th) — Top 10 teams only
4. Student Showcase (Nov. 30th, 12:30 in the Library Arcade) — Open to all teams that submit a business model summary
5. Round 3: Final competition (Dec. 1st) — Top 5 teams only

The top 10 student teams from Opportunity Quest will be chosen for Round 2 based on judging results from the business model summary submission, and only the top five teams advance to Round 3 of OQ.  The OQ final event will include a pitch to a panel of judges and an awards presentation. The judges will determine the winners of various prizes, including the $2,000 GRIT Prize!

Snow College Opportunity Quest is one of 10 Opportunity Quest competitions hosted around the state of Utah at other colleges and universities. The winners from each of these competitions automatically qualify to the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge top 20 in the spring. Each team in the Snow College Opportunity Quest must have at least one full-time Snow student to participate.

Opportunity Quest is made possible by generous support from sponsors, mentors, judges, and faculty members.

Executive Summary Guidelines & Requirements 

The executive summary is a brief document that outlines the fundamental problem and solution your business is addressing. The purpose of the document is to convince the reader that the business is viable and could operate in the real world. It includes the most interesting and important aspects of the business. The executive summary cannot be longer than three pages (not including the cover sheet). The document must have 1-inch margins and 12-point font size. All pages, except the cover page, should be numbered. Compressed type is not permitted.

Here is suggested content for the executive summary: 

 

• Company overview: Include the most important points about your business idea — your history, product or service, mission statement, and legal structure if applicable. 
• Product or service: Describe product or service for sale, the problem or need it solves, stage of development, market differentiation, and intellectual property if applicable.
• Market: Describe the market where you aim to sell your product or service. Include the target market, competitors in the market, and an analysis of your competitive advantage. 
• Sales strategy: Explain how you will go about selling your product or service while increasing profits. Include marketing strategy, distribution channels, key partners, and relationships. 
• Revenue model: Describe how your business generates revenue. Include the cost to produce, cost to sell, customer acquisition strategy and market price for the product or service. 
• Team: Describe who is currently on your team, their role, education, and experience. Detail current and future organizational needs. 

The executive summary must be emailed as a PDF to thegritcenter@gmail.com no later than 11:59pm on Monday, November 9th, 2022.

All teams that submit an executive summary should submit a two-minute max video to compete for the $500 "People's Choice" award. The deadline is Monday, November 9th, 2022, at 11:59 pm MDT. Videos will give an opportunity to set your team and your idea apart. The two-minute videos should be persuasive and help the public understand your idea and explain your executive summary. Besides the time constraint, there are no set criteria for your video. Teams should decide what ideas are most important to show.

Videos must be uploaded to YouTube and set as “unlisted” so they can be shared on the GRIT Center YouTube channel and Opportunity Quest voting page. Starting on November 14th, the public will be able to view and vote for their favorite video. The video with the most votes at 11:59 pm November 30th will win the $500 “People’s Choice” video award. The winner will be announced during the Final Round on Thursday, November 1st.

You could use your video to:

• Clearly demonstrate and explain the product or service
• Give a personal “elevator pitch” for your idea
• Show your extreme passion for your idea
• Let your creativity, your personality, and/or the “personality” of your idea shine through

Follow these simple guidelines when creating your video:

• Videos MUST NOT be longer than 2 minutes in length. Videos longer than 2 minutes will be disqualified.
• Keep it professional. No inappropriate sounds, language, or images. Videos containing content deemed inappropriate by the Snow College Opportunity Quest staff will result in disqualification.
• Videos must be your own work. Any footage used from other videos or sources must be cited. Videos that violate copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property or are not primarily the creation of the student team will be disqualified.

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Engineering students are welcome to enter their prototype in Opportunity Quest and participate in all the Opportunity Quest Events and competitions listed above. The following are relevant dates specific to Engineering students entering the prototype competition:

1. Protoype Proposal (submission deadline Nov. 4th) — Open to teams with a student in the Engineering department
2. Executive Summary & Audience Choice Video (submission deadline Nov. 9th)  — All teams should submit these items. The video submitted here will be entered into the audience choice video competition for OQ if you choose to participate. The Audience Choice video competition is only open to students who completed their application by submitting an executive summary.
3. Updated Video  (submission deadline Nov. 26th) — This video will be reviewed by the Prototype Competition Judges
4. Prototype Judging (Nov. 28th) — 5pm in the GRIT Center
5. Student Showcase (Nov. 30th, 12:30 in the Library Arcade) — Open to all teams that submit a business model summary

Note that the executive summary deadline and video submission deadline are exactly the same as the OQ deadlines. Students wishing to enter both the prototype competition and the OQ competition do not need to submit the items twice. There is a checkbox to indicate if you wish to enter both competitions or only the prototype competition.