Apostle Business Ideation Challenge

Take the Fast Pitch Challenge!

The Apostle Business Ideation Challenge is a fast-pitch business competition for ºÚÁÏÍø students, supported by the John and Helen Apostle Foundation. Teams develop a business idea and pitch it to judges, with top teams advancing to a live final round.

Key Dates

Monday, November 30 — Round 1 video pitches due (open to all teams; about 40 submissions expected)

Tuesday, December 8 — Spark Rockets sessions

Tuesday, December 8 — Finalists announced (about 20 teams advance)

Tuesday, December 15 — Live Pitch Competition (finalist teams only)

The challenge runs in two rounds:

Round 1 — Video Pitch. Every team records and submits a short video pitch. All teams may enter.

Round 2 — Live Pitch Competition. About 20 finalist teams are selected from Round 1 to pitch live, in person, on December 15.

Each pitch uses two slides: the first covers your product — the problem you're solving and your solution — and the second covers your value proposition, meaning why a customer would choose your product over other options.

  • The team lead must be a currently enrolled student at ºÚÁÏÍø, the team can include a member from outside the ºÚÁÏÍø community
  • Must have participated in:
    • Apostle Incubator
    • Apostle Enterprise Lab
    • Select Design Classes (reach out to csulb-iie@csulb.edu with questions)
       

Using AI Tools

You're welcome to use generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT, Copilot, or Dall-E) for the following parts of your project:

  • Developing your survey and customer interview questions
  • Researching your topic, customers, and market
  • Creating mock-ups of your application
  • Developing your video pitch (for example, using Copilot)

Important: What AI Can't Do

 

Generative AI tools may not be used to generate your business idea or solution. Identifying the problem, generating ideas, and developing your solution must be the original work of you and your team.

Using AI for anything beyond the uses listed above is a violation of ºÚÁÏÍø's Plagiarism/Academic Integrity Policy. Any approved AI use must be identified and referenced in your submission.