Gustie Entrepreneur Cup

2020 Event Has Been Cancelled

2020 Gustie Entrepreneur Cup - Cancelled due to COVID-19 situation

The $20,000 Gustie Entrepreneur Cup student entrepreneurship competition is a chance for all Gustavus students to showcase their innovative ideas. Engaging with faculty, coaches, and mentors, students will develop their ideas into feasible, scalable business models. Students then present to a panel of judges for the opportunity to win a share of $20,000 in seed funding:

New! First Place = $10,000
New! Second Place = $5,000
New! Third Place = $3,000
New! People's Choice Award = $2,000
The winning team could walk away with $12,000 in total seed funding!
The first-place winner will automatically advance to the semi-finals of the Minnesota Cup.

The Gustie Entrepreneur Cup is based on the lean startup method, incorporating the Business Model Canvas and minimum viable products (MVPs) as development tools. This is a more agile, realistic, and fun way to develop a venture idea by seeking answers to important questions from real people. This approach is far more effective than writing traditional business plans, which are static, executable documents, filled with assumptions and projections based on existing business models and historical data. For the Gustie Entrepreneur Cup, students get out and talk to real people and integrate important research to develop a business model, instead of locking themselves away and crafting an elaborate plan that will likely be obsolete before the first sale.

Before You Apply

Read the 2020 Gustie Entrepreneur Cup Competition Rules document.
Watch the videos explaining lean startups and the six short Strategyzer videos on using the Business Model Canvas.
Download the 2020 Gustie Entrepreneur Cup Application Form. Save it to your computer with a unique file name.
Read and understand the Gustavus Core Values.

Application

Students may enter the Gustie Entrepreneur Cup individually or as a team of 2-4 people. Students must complete the event application form and provide the following information by March 15, 2020:

Names and biographical information for each member of the team.
150-word Executive Summary. The summary provides a description of the problem, the opportunity, the idea, and a one sentence value proposition. Why is this idea important and market-changing? Teams should think of the executive summary as an elevator pitch for the venture idea.
Baseline Business Model Canvas (BMC). Based on what is known today, provide brief hypotheses (guesses) for each of the nine elements of the BMC. These initial guesses will drive the lean startup development process between the application date and the final presentation at the Gustie Entrepreneur Cup event. This is the work that teams will engage in to evolve their idea for final presentation and judging. This is also where teams determine the key hypotheses to test.
Gustavus Core Values. Provide a statement about how the venture idea promotes any or all of the Gustavus Core Values of excellence, community, justice, service, and faith.

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