Regnier Venture Creation Challenge

& Summit

2025 Social Entrepreneurship Awards: Application and Evaluation Details

The social entrepreneurship track is for individuals and teams to showcase the use of an entrepreneurial mindset and activities to create a positive impact on their local, regional, or global community. This track will award prizes to the best social venture, defined as a venture pursuing a mission with outcomes beyond profit. These ventures can be a distinct firm, organization, project, or idea, whether for-profit or not-for-profit.

Competition Criteria

Eligible ventures must be pursuing a mission that considers outcomes beyond only profit.
At least one founder must meet one of the following two criteria:
- Be a degree-seeking student at a university in Missouri or its bordering states (AR, IL, IA, KS, KY, NE, OK, TN).
- OR: Be an E-Scholar completing the program during the 2024/2025 academic year.
Competitors can be individuals, for-profit ventures with a social mission, non-profits, university clubs, student organizations, or teams working on a specific project.
Student organizations may submit multiple projects but can win only one prize.
Faculty are not eligible to compete.
Attendance at the final awards ceremony is required to claim prizes.
Past winners: if you have won a finalist award (1^st place, 2^nd place, or 3^rd place) for your idea in the past, you are ineligible to compete using the same idea/business.

Total Prizes

There is a $30,000 total prize pool for the College Startup Awards

1^stplace will receive $15,000
2^nd place will receive $10,000
3^rd place will receive $5,000

Taxes: Please note that prizes paid to individuals or businesses could be considered taxable income. You might consult a tax accountant.

RVCC Important Dates

March 13, 2025: APPLICATION DEADLINE EXTENDED
- All applications must be received by 12:00pm Central Time on the due date to be considered. Your application includes a business plan slide deck and a 6-minute maximum pitch video. All applications must be submitted through StartupTree.
April 4, 2025: Decisions communicated to all applicants.
- By end of day all applicants will be notified via email as to the status of their application.
April 25, 2025: In-person Finals Round
- Finalist teams will present live, in-person at UMKC’s Bloch School
- Award winners will be announced.

Application Instructions

Create an account and submit on Startup Tree.
- Only one account is needed per venture.
Provide basic contact information for the venture primary contact – this is the person RVCC will communicate with about the competition.
Provide venture information.
Upload your slide deck and link to your pitch video in the application (details below).
- Ensure anyone with the link can view your video.

Pitch Video Guidelines

Your video should follow your business plan slide deck.
Videos must be no longer than 6 minutes. Any videos over 6 minutes will disqualify the submission.
The pitch videos will be viewed and evaluated between March 10 and March 31.
Please ensure the slides are easily readable.

Business Plan Slide Deck Guidelines

Deadline: March 9, 2025, at 11:59 PM. Late submissions will not be accepted.
Slides must be in Microsoft PowerPoint or Adobe PDF format (no other formats will be accepted).
If you are unsure of what to include in your pitch, reference the template provided below. You may change the look and design of the slides, but your deck should follow this general format.
Slide decks can be no more than 20 slides total (including titles slides, etc.)

Application Judging Criteria

Impact: How impactful is the solution for people, the planet, and overall prosperity?

1-2

Venture had limited impact and shows little evidence of potential future impact

3-5

Venture has some impact and/or shows evidence of future impacts

6-7

Venture has shown significant impact and/or shows evidence of future impacts

Use of Entrepreneurial Practices and Mindset: opportunity recognition, creativity and innovation, critical thinking, flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self-reliance, comfort with and mitigation of risk.

1-2

Venture shows little understanding of or use of entrepreneurial practices and mindsets

3-5

Venture shows some use of entrepreneurial practices and mindsets

6-7

Venture shows evidence of intentional and strategic use of entrepreneurial practices and mindsets

Feasible Business Model: Has the venture team utilized a business modeling tool (such as the Business Model Canvas) to systematically evaluate the business model and validate assumptions?

1-2

Venture team demonstrates little understanding of business model concepts. Feasible business model is not demonstrated.

3-5

Feasible business model is demonstrated with only minor gaps or unvalidated assumptions.

6-7

Venture business model is clear, feasible, and validated. Venture team demonstrates evidence of business model validation.

Organizational Sustainability: Can the organization or project sustain itself to continue offering the solution and/or impact?

1-2

Venture team has not identified the costs, revenues, or plan to remain sustainable as an organization.

3-5

Venture team has identified most costs of the venture and has a clear plan to become sustainable as an organization.

6-7

Venture demonstrates sustainability through revenue generation, strategic partnerships, and/or creative resource utilization.

Scalability or Replicability: How easily and quickly could this scale to more communities or how easily can other communities adopt this model for similar impact?

1-2

Venture demonstrates little chance of being scalable or replicated by other communities.

3-5

Venture team has identified important roadblocks to scalability or replication in other communities and has a feasible plan to overcome those roadblocks.

6-7

Venture team is currently scaling or has replicated their model in another community, or has a clear and feasible plan to do so.

In-Person Finals Competition Format

Selected ventures for the in-person finals on April 25th must prepare a 10-minute presentation and 5 minutes for Q&A. Ventures should plan to be present at the Regnier Student Founders Summit for the entire day, including the awards ceremony at 4pm. Winning ventures must attend to collect their prize.

Judges will focus on the most impactful venture that demonstrates entrepreneurial processes and mindsets, using the application scoring rubric for finalist presentations.