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Lulu eGames Rules

lulu_egames

Overview

The Lulu eGames is NC State’s annual startup competition. Here are the rules for student categories: the New Venture Challenge, Design and Prototype Challenge, Social and Environmental Impact Challenge, Arts Venture Challenge and the Built on Cloud Challenge.

Category Entry Requirements

  • Students may work in teams or individually.
  • All participants must be degree-seeking and currently enrolled as a full-time or part-time students at NC State during the Spring 2020 academic semester. NC State faculty and staff are not eligible to compete in these student categories.
  • Ventures that have received $100,000 or more in outside funding (including grants) or ventures currently generating $50,000 or more in annual revenues are ineligible to compete.
  • Materials submitted must represent the original work of the participating team members. Mentors and advisors should not provide direct content for these materials. (Including, but not limited to, answering application questions, producing the pitch video, writing portions of business plan, etc.)
  • Ventures who placed 1st in any category in a previous year’s competition are not eligible to compete in the same category in which they previously won.
  • All entries must represent the university’s standards and may not contain any content that is illegal, offensive, profane, indecent or does not otherwise comply with the spirit and goal of the competition.
  • NC State reserves the right to disqualify, in its sole and absolute discretion, any team or individual from the competition.

Individual Category Entry Requirements

  • New Venture: All ventures are eligible to compete in this category.
  • Design and Prototype: Ventures must have a product concept design or prototype. 
  • Social and Environmental Impact: Ventures must demonstrate how they are using the power of business to solve social and environmental challenges.
  • Arts Venture: Ventures must be art-based or have a significant impact in the the arts community. 
  • Built on Cloud: Ventures must be developed using one or more cloud service(s).

How to Enter

The first round of competition consists of three deliverables:

  1. A questionnaire covering key aspects related to your venture (questions found below). Each section has a maximum character limit.
  2. A 60-second video pitch
  3. Contact information for all team members

Finalists will be selected based on the combined scores of the questionnaire and video pitch.

1. Questionnaire

You’ll need to answer the following questions for your submission:

Team

  • Provide any applicable information about your team. (max 700 characters)
    • What background makes this team best suited to tackle this problem? 
    • What skillsets/team members are you currently missing?
    • List all team members and management positions.
  • Do you have any mentors or advisors currently assisting with your venture? In what areas are you currently receiving mentorship or advice (include professors, if applicable)? (max 500 characters)

Problem

  • What problem is your venture trying to solve? Include the following: who is affected, size of the problem and current ways the problem is being addressed. (max 1,000 characters)

Solution

  • How is your venture solving this problem? What is unique to your venture that allows you to solve this problem? (max 1,000 characters)
  • What is your value proposition for your customers?

Intellectual Property

  • What is your intellectual property protection strategy? Does your venture have any protectable components? Explain why or why not. (max 500 characters)
    • Note: Having protectable IP is not a requirement of the competition.

Market

  • Define your venture’s market. How big is it? Is the market growing? (max 500 characters)
  • Who is your venture’s competition (indirect or direct)? What is your competitive advantage? (max 500 characters)

Customer

  • Who is your target customer? (max 500 characters)
  • What customer discovery have you conducted? How many potential customers have you interviewed/surveyed? Did you learn anything new through your customer discovery process? (max 500 characters)

Financial

  • How will your venture make money? How do you plan to sustain and grow your venture financially? (max 500 characters)
  • How much startup capital does your venture currently have? What are your funding sources?  Include all funding sources and amounts. (no max characters)

Video Pitch

While you do not have to create a different video for each category that you compete in, it is STRONGLY recommended that you tailor a unique video to each category that specifically highlights the needs of that category.  The video pitch portion has two requirements:

  • Visually appealing
  • Venture is clearly explained

Advancement to the Finals

All teams will be notified on Wednesday, Feb. 26 by 5 p.m. as to whether or not if they have been selected as finalists in their respective categories. All teams will also receive judge’s at this time.