The Entrepreneur Society will sponsor a small business pitch contest today at 6 p.m.
The contest will consist of 20 teams, each giving a “pitch” speech for a company idea. The speeches are limited to five minutes, and the winning team will receive $500 toward its business startup.
The competition is open to spectators and will be held in 1860 Litton Reeves Hall.
Tony Yang, president of the Entrepreneur Society, said that similar contests held at other universities inspired the event.
“They have ones like this at Princeton and MIT,” he said. “UVa just had their first one ever ... so we thought, if all these business schools can do it, Virginia Tech can too.”
Yang described the contest as being the “American Idol for entrepreneurs.”
A panel of judges, headed by Bob Summers, CEO of the Corporate Research Center-based company EnergyWare, will hear the teams’ pitches.
Another company, Venture Capital, is also involved in the contest and the Entrepreneur Society.
Yang said that Venture Capital helps small businesses with loans to get started. It, along with Sharkey’s and a member of the Entrepreneur Society who owns a small business are sponsoring the monetary prizes.
Another contest will be held in the spring.
“This is more of a warm-up for the legit one,” Yang said.
The prize for that contest will be around $5000 along with a free office space inside the CRC for the summer.
VT KnowledgeWorks, a technology incubator that helps small businesses grow to medium-sized businesses, will sponsor the larger competition sometime in the spring.