NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State University’s Inferno Pitch Competition is back. Sponsored by NSU’s School of Business, the Inferno Pitch is a business plan competition that offers NSU students mentoring, skill-building and opportunity to win monetary support for their ideas.
Qualifying participants must submit an application and participate in workshops. The top five finalists are selected to make their final business pitch to a panel of judges comprised of local business and education leaders. The winning team will receive $3,000. Second place is $1,000 and third place is $500. Individual competitors and/or at least one team member must be from the School of Business.
Applications are open on Moodle at bit.ly/MoodleNSU and are due by Wednesday, Sept. 28. Ideas can apply to any industry.
Applicants are required to attend workshops to receive professional coaching from the Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program (EAP) and local business professionals serving as competition mentors. Participants will gain critical business skills that include networking, writing business plans, pitching and presenting. The workshops will be from 10 a.m.-noon Oct. 6. Final deliverables are due at noon Friday, Oct. 21.
The Top 5 teams will present their final pitches before a panel of judges from 10 a.m-12:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3. Each team will have seven minutes to present, followed by a three-minute Q&A with judges.
Winners of the Inferno Pitch will be eligible to compete in the statewide business plan competition, the Entrepreneurship Pelican Cup. Winners of the Pelican cup will be awarded $25,000 for first place, $15,000 for second place and $10,000 for third place, to be split between team members. Teams must have at least one faculty advisor, who is eligible to win $3,000. Here is the website for the Pelican Cup: https://ulm.edu/pelicancup/ . There is also a live pitch competition in which the winner will be awarded $2,000.
For more information, contact Dr. Carmella Parker at parkerc@nsula.edu or (318) 357-5723.
