2025 Desjardins Elevator Pitch Competition
The Desjardins Elevator Pitch Competition highlights the University of Ottawa’s top student entrepreneurs. As part of Global Entrepreneurship Month, the competition allows both those entrepreneurs with traction, as well as those in the stages of validating, and also those still in ideation, the opportunity to pitch their business to a panel of judges for a chance to win prize money and business development services.
The evening includes a networking portion as well as a fireside chat providing inspiration, advice and insight into the challenges of entrepreneurship.
How It Works
Three categories
- Idea Stage
- Validation Competition
- Traction
Finalists selection
Finalists for each category will have been selected through a process of preliminary rounds taking place each Tuesday throughout Entrepreneurship month.
Each preliminary round will see up to six teams pitch before a panel of judges.
Final Event Date
The top three teams to emerge from the process will advance to the final event on November 25th.
Categories & Prizes
Idea
This category is designed for students who want to pitch their idea to benefit from the experience, questions, and feedback of the judges. To compete in this category, students cannot have realized any traction such as sales or external funding, nor have developed a final prototype or beta version. It’s really just an idea at this point! The preliminary round for the Idea category will take place on Tuesday, November 4th, between 5 and 6 pm. In addition to aspects of presentation, judges in the Idea category will focus on the originality and the potential of the idea.
$1,000
Validation
This category encourages and rewards customer validation, and/or working prototypes. These ventures ideas are still somewhat conceptual but real work is being done to actively validate or build early working solutions. Ventures must still be at an early stage and cannot have realized traction such as meaningful funding, sales or other significant accelerants. The preliminary round for the Validation category will take place on Tuesday, November 11th, between 5 and 6 pm. In addition to aspects of presentation, judging in the Validation category will focus on the validity of the opportunity pursued and the accomplishments in validating to date.
$3,000
Traction
This category is for ventures who have achieved significant entrepreneurial milestones. Ventures in this category have some realized form of traction with their business such as:
- Technical and/or market validation completed
- Early customer adoption
- Prototype finalized/website operational
- Sales
- Acceptance into an accelerator or incubator program.
The preliminary round for the Traction category will take place on Tuesday, November 18th, between 5 and 6 pm. In addition to aspects of presentation, judging in the Traction category will focus on the opportunities fulfilled and the venture milestones reached to date.
$10,000
$5,000
$1,000
$2,000
as voted upon by the audience
Registration
Applications must be submitted before October 29th, 2025 11:59 pm.
Applications must include a written application and a two-minute video pitch submission.
For more details on the competition, eligibility, selection process, and prizes.
For more information contact Eric Nelson at
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