Skoltech Triple Point Main Program
The program is a series of 3 competitions. All competitions have similar regulations and different entry requirements.
- There is no fee for entry.
- Submissions may be entered by individuals or teams.
- Each team may enter one idea.
- Each team must have at least one currently registered Skoltech student or Skoltech alumnus; if you are submitting as an individual, you must be a currently registered Skoltech student or Skoltech alumnus.
- Currently registered Skoltech students include all undergraduate and graduate students, including PhD/doctoral candidates.
- Skoltech students or Skoltech alumnus must submit their @skoltech.ru email address at submission time.
- Required events must be attended by at least one Skoltech student or Skoltech alumnus on each team. Team members who are not Skoltech students are also encouraged to attend, but at least one Skoltech student or Skoltech alumnus per team is required to attend.
- An individual can participate in one applying team only.
- Entries must be the original work of entrants.
- To avoid conflict of interests, members of the Triple Point organizing student team can participate in the competitions only if their Triple Point obligations are not related to the work with the jury or applications of participants.
- Teams must disclose any established relationships with members of the Judging Panel. The current list of Judging Panel members will be sent to the teams after passing the technical selection.
- Teams must disclose any funding already received at the time of registration.
- Teams must not have accepted any institutional funding for the idea being presented (i.e. the team cannot have sold equity to anyone outside the team – including non-managing founders). This includes convertible notes and other legal agreements.
- Teams also must not have accepted any non-institutional funding from other programs related to Skoltech Triple Point Sponsors in any amount or from other sources in excess of 500,000 rubles if and when applying to PITCH, 1,000,000 rubles if and when applying to ACCELERATE, and 1,500,000 rubles if and when applying to LAUNCH. Non-institutional funding implies operational monetary support and includes contests, grants, friends and family, bank loans, etc. where there is no equity ownership associated with the funding. Another non-monetary support from third parties (e.g., free software licenses, free access to facilities) is permitted and not limited.
- At the time of application, the project submitted by the team must not be older than 1 year. The age of the project is counted from the moment of the first receipt of a monetary reward based on the results of the events included in the ecosystem of the track partner.
- There are forms of funding and questions of eligibility that may fall into a gray area. In these cases, the Skoltech Triple Point Entrepreneurship Competition Organizing Committee will deliberate on the eligibility and communicate the decision to the team. The decision of the Organizing Committee on the eligibility of the entrant is final and cannot be appealed.
- The organizing team reserves the right to disqualify an entry if this entry does not match the theme of the track for which it is submitted. In borderline cases, this decision is made jointly with the track partners.
- The Judging Panel and the organizing team reserves the right to disqualify any entry.
- Teams are encouraged to seek the involvement of Skoltech faculty, alumni, post-docs, researchers, staff, students from other schools, and people from outside the Skoltech community. All team members must be full-fledged members of the team.
- By submitting an application for the Skoltech Triple Point Entrepreneurship Competition, you represent and warrant to the Skoltech Triple Point Organizing Committee that you have all right, title and/or interest in the application submitted and the information it contains is accurate and complete, and that by submitting the document to the Skoltech Triple Point Entrepreneurship Competition you are not and will not be violating any contract or third party rights including any patent, copyright, trade secret, proprietary or confidential information, trademark, publicity or privacy right.
- Teams, which have members actually taking part in the Skoltech Triple Point student managing team, should bear in mind that their application will only be considered if these members are not responsible for Triple Point activities that may lead to unfair competition, e.g., direct interaction with and attraction of judges or work with the participants’ applications.
- Teams whose members are actually members of the Jury Board or have any established relationship with the Jury Board members should be aware that their entries will only be considered by Jury Board members who have no relationship with those teams. If this condition is not met, then in order to avoid conflicts of interest, the team's application will not be considered.
- The Judging Panel of Skoltech Triple Point Entrepreneurship Competition and the organizing team reserve the right to disqualify any entry that in its judgment violates the letter or the spirit of the Competition guidelines, processes, and rules of the Skoltech Triple Point Entrepreneurship Competition. The decisions of the Judging Panel and the organizing team are final and binding.
- Equal shares of any prize money won will be paid to each individual on a winning team who is currently a Skoltech student. In case there is only one such student, the entire amount will be paid to a team member who is a Skoltech student.
- If equity (stock) is divided among the team members, then teams with non-Skoltech students can only receive equity if the Skoltech students on the team also have equity in the company.
- The individual recipients of prize money will be responsible for the tax implications of their winnings.
- To obtain the prizes, the winners of any competition have to sign the Agreement for Triple Point prize responsibility, which regulates the ways of prize spending. The Agreement will be shared with finalists before the final event and is obligatory to sign to proceed with the final presentation.
- The Agreement has to be signed by a legal representative of a participating legal entity (if a team chooses to receive the prize money to their company legal account) or by each participating team member (if a team chooses to receive the prize money on their personal bank accounts).
SEMI-FINAL
- Team applications are sent to the judges for online evaluation based on evaluation criteria.
- There are at least 3 judges per team.
- At the end of the evaluation process, all scores are processed, the average score of each team is calculated, after which these scores are compared and the finalists are identified.
- The number of finalists depends on the quality of the projects (their evaluation) and can range from 40 to 100 percent of the number of applications submitted.
- During the finals, the finalists personally (or online if agreed and approved by the Skoltech Triple Point organizing team) present the project.
- After each presentation, the judges have the opportunity to ask their questions regarding the project and evaluate the projects based on the evaluation criteria.
- The minimum number of judges is 5 people.
- After the performance of all projects, the judges are asked to come to the deliberation room, the scores are processed and the average scores for each project are calculated, the rating of the teams is compiled.
- The organizing team announces the rating of the teams to the judges.
- If there are controversial cases, a discussion is announced, after which the judges vote for the adoption of one of the drafts.
- In the event that the voting fails to gain a majority, the right to vote is given to the team of organizers of the competition represented by the head of Skoltech Triple Point or the managing director of Skoltech Triple Point.
- The Audience Award winner is determined by voting using online platforms (Google Forms, etc.).
- As a result, the final list of winners is obtained, which is subsequently announced to the public and becomes public.
Semifinal
- Team applications are sent to the judges for online evaluation based on evaluation criteria.
- There are at least 3 judges per team.
- At the end of the evaluation process, all scores are processed, the average score of each team is calculated, after which these scores are compared and the finalists are identified.
- The number of finalists depends on the quality of the projects (their evaluation) and can range from 40 to 60 percent of the number of applications submitted.
- During the finals, the finalists personally (or online if agreed and approved by the Skoltech Triple Point organizing team) present the project.
- After each presentation, the judges have the opportunity to ask their questions regarding the project and evaluate the projects based on the evaluation criteria.
- The minimum number of judges is 5 people.
- After the performance of all projects, the judges are asked to come to the deliberation room, the scores are processed and the average scores for each project are calculated, and the rating of the teams is compiled.
- The organizing team announces the rating of the teams to the judges.
- If there are controversial cases, a discussion is announced, after which the judges vote for the choice of one of the controversial projects.
- In the event that the voting fails to gain a majority, the right to vote is given to the team of organizers of the competition represented by the head of Skoltech Triple Point or the managing director of Skoltech Triple Point.
- The Audience Award winner is determined by voting using online platforms (Google Forms, etc.).
- As a result, the final list of winners is obtained, which is subsequently announced to the public and becomes public.
PITCH
The level of development of the project is the “Idea” stage and above. It is necessary to have a product idea formulated and tested among potential customers.
Technical requirements
Applications must meet the following requirements:
Applications are evaluated according to the following criteria:
ACCELERATE
The level of development of the project is the “Prototype” stage and above. A prototype and business model is required.
Technical requirements
Applications must meet the following requirements:
Applications are evaluated according to the following criteria:
LAUNCH
The level of development of the project - the stage of "ready-to-market" and above. There is no requirement to have a legal entity. Documentary evidence of interest from potential customers is required in the form of (one of):
Applications must meet the following requirements:
Applications are evaluated according to the following criteria:
The level of development of the project is the “Idea” stage and above. It is necessary to have a product idea formulated and tested among potential customers.
Technical requirements
Applications must meet the following requirements:
- Only the speaker, filmed in one take (without cuts), should be captured on the video.
- No visual effects are allowed.
- Video length must not exceed 90 seconds.
- The length of the video should not be artificially changed. Accelerations, decelerations, etc. are not allowed.
Applications are evaluated according to the following criteria:
- The level of sophistication of the problem.
- The level of sophistication of the solution and value proposition
- Delivery quality.
- The commercial potential of the project.
ACCELERATE
The level of development of the project is the “Prototype” stage and above. A prototype and business model is required.
Technical requirements
Applications must meet the following requirements:
- The video should contain the presentation and the presenter, filmed in one take (without cuts).
- The video may include additional elements if they are necessary to demonstrate the operation of the prototype.
- The duration of the video should not exceed 3 minutes.
- The length of the video should not be artificially changed. Accelerations, decelerations, etc. are not allowed.
Applications are evaluated according to the following criteria:
- The level of sophistication of the problem.
- The level of sophistication of the solution and value proposition.
- Delivery quality.
- Commercial potential of the project.
LAUNCH
The level of development of the project - the stage of "ready-to-market" and above. There is no requirement to have a legal entity. Documentary evidence of interest from potential customers is required in the form of (one of):
- piloting a product or other form of implementation,
- pilot intent agreements
- agreements of intent to sell
- first sales.
Applications must meet the following requirements:
- The video should contain the presentation and the presenter, filmed in one take (without cuts).
- The video may include additional elements if they are necessary to demonstrate the operation of the prototype.
- The duration of the video should not exceed 5 minutes.
- The length of the video should not be artificially changed. Accelerations, decelerations, etc. are not allowed.
Applications are evaluated according to the following criteria:
- The quality of the presentation and presentation of a startup
- The level of sophistication of the business model
- Results of working out a client profile
- Team competencies
- Commercial potential of the project
Other formats:
Demo Day
Demo Day
The format has its own regulations and simplified rules, representing a pitching by project teams of their developments in front of an expert board, consisting of representatives of industrial partners and sponsors.
- There is no application fee.
- Applications can be submitted by individuals or groups.
- Each team can submit one idea.
- An individual can only participate in one submitted team, i.e. cannot be a member of more than one team applying.
- Entries must be the original work of the participants.
- Teams must disclose any funding already received at the time of registration.
- The organizing team reserves the right to disqualify an entry if it does not match the theme of the track for which it is submitted. In borderline cases, this decision is made jointly with track partners.
- The organizing team reserves the right to disqualify any entry.
- Team entries are evaluated by the organizing team.
- Based on the evaluation of the projects, the list of projects is announced.
- Nominations are determined by representatives of partners and sponsors.
- The best teams in each nomination are selected on a personal basis by representatives of specific partners and sponsors.
- The order of distribution of prizes (if any) is determined by the presence or absence of a preliminary documentary agreement between Skoltech and the partner/sponsor on the appointment of a nomination with cash prizes. In case of its absence, prizes for a specific nomination are distributed by a specific partner/sponsor.
The level of development of the project is the “Idea” stage and above. It is necessary, at a minimum, to have a product idea formulated and tested among potential customers.
Technical requirements
Applications must meet the following requirements:
Applications are evaluated according to the following criteria:
Technical requirements
Applications must meet the following requirements:
- The video must contain the presenter or the presentation and the presenter filmed in one take (without cuts).
- The video may include additional elements if they are necessary to demonstrate the operation of the prototype.
- The duration of the video should not exceed 5 minutes.
- The length of the video should not be artificially changed. Accelerations, decelerations, etc. are not allowed.
Applications are evaluated according to the following criteria:
- The level of sophistication of the problem
- The level of sophistication of the solution and value proposition
- Feed quality
- Potential project viability
- Relevance of the nomination project
Our Principles
We strive to ensure that student startups receive the best support. Therefore, we follow the following principles.
- We aim to support startups rather than businesses meaning that participating entrepreneurial projects should be novel in their technology or business model and have the potential to demonstrate fast growth on the global market.
- We aim to provide monetary prizes to individual team members who will be free to decide whether to transfer them to the related legal entity or not.
- We aim to focus on inviting high-level startup-related mentors and industry representatives to establish and support networking.
- We aim to encourage (but not push) participants to become Skolkovo residents and provide them with all needed information delivered from us or official Skolkovo representatives (for the ACCELERATE and LAUNCH-level startups only). NOTE: participation in the Competition nor its winning does not grant any advantage in the residency selection process.
- We aim to provide regular PR-support related to entrepreneurial projects participating in the Competition.
- We aim to boost networking between Skoltech students and entrepreneurial projects participating in the Competition.
- We aim to account for the diversity of entrepreneurial projects at Skoltech and aim to afford industry- and stage-related support. In order to achieve this goal the program may have various thematic tracks to cover all potential areas of students’ projects and provide targeted support for them. Each track may have one or more sponsors and partners.
- We aim to encourage the Competition Jury members to provide specific feedback about teams’ performance as well as deliver transparent and unbiased assessments of the participating entrepreneurial projects.
- We aim to assist the participating entrepreneurial projects to prepare the high-quality presentation materials and obtain accountable traction results.
- We aim to manage the Competition with minimal bureaucracy principle.
© 2023 Skoltech Triple Point
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