The Venture Cup
An International Business Pitch Competition for High School and College Students.
35+ Submissions · 10 Countries · Judged by Founders & Investors
Enter the Venture Cup
Free to enter. Open to high school and college students globally. Compete solo or in teams of 2.
Questions? Email contactventurecup@gmail.com
The Venture Cup is a rigorous international business pitch competition where individuals or teams of 2 build an original startup idea and pitch it to a panel of founders, operators, and investors who build and back companies for a living.
Three rounds. Real pressure.
Pitch Deck
Submit a 10-slide pitch deck by August 28. Judged on problem clarity, solution originality, market opportunity, and business model viability. Top 20% advance to semifinals.
Live Pitch
10-minute live pitch via Zoom. 5-minute Q&A with judges. Top teams advance to finals.
Finals
Defended business model under pressure. Judges actively challenge assumptions, unit economics, and go-to-market. Winners announced September 7.
Judging Criteria & Submission Rules
Every team is scored on the same rubric. Know the criteria before you build, and follow the rules before you submit.
Read the full Rules & Rubric document →- 25%
Problem & Market
Define a real, urgent problem and size the market opportunity with evidence, not guesses.
- 20%
Solution & Product
Explain the solution, why it works now, and what makes it defensible against copycats.
- 20%
Business Model & Unit Economics
Show how the company makes money, with realistic unit economics and a believable path to scale.
- 15%
Go-to-Market
A credible plan to reach and acquire customers efficiently, not 'we'll run ads.'
- 10%
Team Fit
Why this person or team is uniquely positioned to build this particular company.
- 10%
Clarity & Pitch
Clear, concise, compelling deck design and narrative flow across all 10 slides.
- 100%
Total score. The top 20% of decks advance to the live pitch semifinals.
- ·Compete solo or in teams of 2. All members must be current high school or college students.
- ·Submit one 10-slide pitch deck as a PDF, max 10 MB, using the Venture Cup template provided after registration.
- ·Submit your completed pitch deck as a PDF to contactventurecup@gmail.com by August 28, 11:59 PM ET. Late submissions are not accepted.
- ·Slide 1 must include team/venture name and all members' names and schools. No identifying info on slides 2-10.
- ·All ideas must be original and pre-revenue. No previously funded startups.
- ·All financials in USD. State every assumption explicitly on the slide it applies to.
- ·English only. Plagiarized or unedited AI-generated decks are disqualified.
- ·Judges' scores are final. The top 20% of decks advance to the live pitch semifinals.
Key Dates
Recognition that compounds.
Every team or individual who submits a completed pitch deck receives an official Certificate of Participation, regardless of how far they advance in the competition.
1st Place
- ·FTA feature on the winning startup
- ·Venture Cup Champion certificate
- ·LinkedIn feature across the FTA network
2nd Place
- ·FTA feature on the startup
- ·Certificate
3rd Place + Semifinalists
- ·Honorable mention feature
- ·Certificate
Judged by Founders & Investors
The Venture Cup is judged by founders, operators, and investors who actually build and back companies, not academics grading on participation.
Panel of Founders & Investors
Every judge on the Venture Cup panel is a founder, operator, or investor who builds and backs companies for a living. Names and firms will be confirmed here ahead of the build period.
More Competitions Coming Fall 2026
The Venture Cup is just the beginning.
FTA Stock Pitch Championship
A multi-round national stock pitch competition open to FTA chapter members. Written report, live pitch, and defended valuation, judged by industry professionals.
FTA Trading Strategy Competition
Submit a systematic trading strategy. It gets backtested on historical data and validated with Monte Carlo simulation. Judged on Sharpe ratio, drawdown, and documentation quality, not just raw returns.
FTA Macro Research Challenge
A macroeconomic research competition where teams analyze an emerging market economy and present a policy brief to a panel of economists and finance professionals.
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