Hear from our 2020 Winner

Finalists will receive:

• Mentorship and pre-event pitch coaching from TCS Industry Leaders, SEED SPOT’s National Mentor Program
• Free registration for SEED SPOT’s Bootcamp and other benefits including:
  • Alumni membership status granting access to tools and resources with benefits
  • Membership to SEED SPOT’s Community Slack group & Founder Scrums
  • 6 month mentorship via TCS’ technology and consulting expert network
• At the 2021 Pitch for Purpose Live Program
  • Media and promotional opportunities
  • TCS will award the first-place founder with a $15,000 cash prize

Eligibility:  

• Social Mission: Your startup is developing products or services that will have a positive impact on your community, the environment, or society at large.
• The Founding Team: You must be a founder of the startup, and part of the current executive team.  
• Stage: Early-stage startup with a minimum viable product (MVP) focused on product development and building a customer base. The venture must have conducted basic market-level testing and received some user feedback.
• Funding: Your startup has raised less than $1 million in total funding. 
• Location: Your startup is based in the United States, but its work may have an international focus.
• Novelty and Uniqueness: The solution should be novel and/or unique and should have certain differentiating elements from competitors in the same industry and the market.

Evaluation:

At each phase of the competition, entrepreneurs will be evaluated on the strength of the following criteria:

• Innovation and Uniqueness: What is new or innovative about your proposed solution?
• Execution Plan: What is the growth and sales strategy, and how will you scale your offering?
• Social Mission: What positive impact does your venture have on society?
• Business Model: How do you generate revenue and how big can your startup become?
• Progress: What is your traction and key milestones to date? (product development, partnerships, sales, downloads, website traffic, etc.)
• Team: What is the expertise of your team?

Key Milestones:

• October 29: Application deadline. Submission portal closes at 11:59 p.m. PST.
• November 3: Finalists will be notified.
• November 18: The Pitch for Purpose competition will take place virtually.