Search Here

Queen's University's own venture capital club is hosting a student's startup competition. The Canadian university is seeking the best Canadian student startup of the year through the event, where the winner would get prizes from the sponsors, as well as an interview with FounderFuel, an accelerator for startups.

Queen's Venture Capital Club's website listed that the competition will be carried out in two rounds. To join in the first round, applicants is asked to simply complete the application form provided in the website, which would include personal information of startup founders, as well as the startup itself. The deadline to this first round is February 19th. All applications will be evaluated with help from Real Ventures, one of Canada's largest seed venture fund.

The second round will take place in Kingston, Ontario. Only five teams will be qualified to participate in the second round, where the startups can meet sponsors, judges, and top-tier delegates. In this round, student participants will be required to present a 15 minutes pitch. The judges will then ask questions in the next 5 minutes after the pitch. After that, the winner will be decided.

According to BetaKit, all students in Canada are welcome to join this competition. The judges will consist of venture capitalists and accelerators. Judges will evaluate the applications and the pitches based on the viability of the business plans. The event will also be attended by top Canadian venture capitals, such as KJ Singh, as well as representations from iGan Partners and BDC Capital.

President and founder of the Queen's Venture Capital Club, Mark Skinner, stated, "We've noticed that the student startup ecosystem is decentralized, with competitions not bringing fruition to many successes." He also noted that it's not easy for students to pursue entrepreneurship, especially not without a strong support system. "It's hard to start a company when you have tons of student debt or don't know where to go for support. That's why we started this club to begin this new support system and help students know the professionals they can reach out to in their community," Skinner added.

According to The Globe and Mail, Canada has a great foundation of entrepreneurialism. In fact, Canadians create new firms at a higher per capita rate than Americans. The source also recommended that Canada prioritizes its innovation sector and improve this as a key economic driver.

The Queen's University Venture Capital Club makes its mission to find the best Canadian student startups. The attending venture capitals feel that this competition would help student getting to know the resources available to help the entrepreneurship. Applications can be filled on the club's website.

Tags

Canada, Fund