Snowdown Pitch Competion Entry Deadline - Open to students from any major!

Snowdown is a business model summary competition hosted 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.

Snowdown 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: Business Model Summary (submission deadline Oct. 18th) — Snow College students from any major are encouraged to apply.
2. Video submission (submission deadline Oct. 25th)  — Open to all teams that submit a business model summary entry
3. Round 1 Online Judging (results announced Oct. 27th) — All submissions will be judged by an online judging panel
4. Student Showcase (Nov. 8th, 12:30 in the Library Arcade) — Open to all teams that submit a business model summary
5. Final competition (Nov. 9th) — Top 10 teams only

The top 10 student teams from Snowdown will be chosen for the final competition based on judging results from the business model summary submission.  The Snowdown 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!

The winners from Snowdown automatically qualify to the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge top 20 in the spring. Each team in the Snow College Snowdown must have at least one Snow student who plays a primary role in the company in order to participate.

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

Business Model Summary Guidelines & Requirements 

The business model 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 business model 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 business model summary must be emailed as a PDF to thegritcenter@gmail.com no later than 11:59pm on Wednesday, October 18th, 2023.

All teams that submit an executive summary may submit a two-minute (max) video to compete for the $500 "People's Choice" award. There is a seperate link for video submission found at thegritcenter.com. The deadline for video submission is Wednesday, October 25th, 2023, 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 be an advertisment for your company. Besides the time constraint, there are no set criteria for what to include in your video. Teams should decide what ideas are most important to show.

Videos must be uploaded to YouTube and set as “public” so they can be shared on the GRIT Center YouTube channel and Snowdown voting page. Starting on October 27th, the public will be able to view and vote for their favorite video. The video with the most votes at 11:59 pm November 7th will win the $500 “People’s Choice” video award. The winner will be announced during the Final Round on Thursday, November 9th.

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 Snowdown 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.