Haslam College of Business 2024 SEC Student Pitch Competition

Are you a UT student or student team with the next big idea? Apply now for the chance to represent UT at the 2024 SEC Pitch Competition! Applications close September 27, so don’t miss this opportunity to showcase your business and win big.

The SEC Student Pitch Competition provides a showcase for entrepreneurs, pitting student teams representing each of the 16 Southeastern Conference universities against one another in a startup business pitch competition. Students present their innovative business to a panel of judges to determine those most worthy of a funding investment.

The Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is very excited to be the host of the SEC Student Pitch Competition for 2024.

On Thursday, October 17, at 5:30 p.m., everyone is invited to the competition’s Evening Reception in HBB 501. The reception will feature the announcement of the final three pitchers, the live final pitches and the announcement of the winner.

The Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation welcomes our SEC competitors.

Are you an SEC University Director or Selected Student Pitcher?

Competition Eligibility

Eligibility for and Selection of SEC Champion Teams

• All undergraduate and graduate students enrolled full time in the fall 2024 semester are eligible for the competition. Doctoral students participating in what the home university considers to be a full course load are eligible, as are students enrolled in the university’s Executive MBA program.
• Each university will select their champion team in any way they choose and assure that team member(s) will attend the competition to present.
• For the purposes of this competition, teams can consist of one or more members.
• Teams that have attained over $100k in gross revenue from operations to date resulting from sales of products and/or services based on the subject matter of the team’s presentation are not eligible.
• Team member(s) must be a principal(s) in the subject of the team presentation to be eligible for the competition.
• Teams that are providing ancillary studies (e.g. marketing studies, business plans) of another group or person’s idea or offering are not eligible.
• Past winners (first through third place) are not eligible to compete.
• Teams that participated (even if they did not win) in the 2023 competition at the University of Georgia are not eligible.

Presentation Protocol

• All 16 SEC University Champion Teams (or individuals) (one per university) will present in front of two Preliminary Round panels of three to five judges each in parallel sessions in the UT Haslam Business Building.
• Preliminary Round I will be held from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Teams will present to a single panel of judges. The teams will swap for Preliminary Round II, which will be held from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
• Student teams will upload their presentation slides via Google Forms by midnight EDT on Thursday, October 10. This is a hard deadline — we cannot guarantee that any edits and/or updates to slides submitted after the deadline will be in your presentation on Thursday, October 17.
• In all Rounds (Preliminary and Final), each team will have five minutes of uninterrupted presentation time, followed by up to five minutes of questions by the judges.
• Time limits will be strictly enforced. If a presenter is in the process of presenting or answering a question from the judges, the presenter will be able to finish that thought, then will be halted.
• Team members from all participating universities and faculty advisors are free to view all team presentations in the Preliminary Rounds but may not participate through questions or comment in any way.
• The second Preliminary Round will run in parallel starting at 1:30 p.m. and should end at 3:30 p.m.
• All Preliminary Round judges will then confer and select three non-ordered finalists to present in the Final Round to other judges.
• The Final Round judges will not participate in any way in the Preliminary Round presentations or judging, nor will they be allowed to view the Preliminary Round presentations.
• The live Final Round consisting of the top three teams will be held in the Haslam Business Building beginning at 5:30 p.m.
• After the Final Round presentation, the Final Round judges will confer and select first through third place winners, which will be announced immediately thereafter.
• No teams are to send any information to either the preliminary or Final Round judges or communicate with them in any way. Doing so would be grounds for disqualification, at the discretion of the organizers.
• Universities may recommend a judge for the Preliminary Round or the Final Round of judging (cannot be the same judge). Preliminary Round judges must agree to judge in both the morning and afternoon sessions I and II (an all-day commitment). Final Round judges will only judge the top three finalist teams and will not be allowed to see or hear any of the Preliminary Round presentations. Send judge recommendations to rgeron@utk.edu.