The Kabara Institute is excited to announce our first ever “Reverse Pitch” competition. Here is the deal – every fall we have students pitch business ideas to a panel of faculty and staff judges. The 2024 competition was excellent, with some amazing entries we are still talking about on a regular basis. March 11th, 2025 from 4-6pm!
Let’s switch things up, and see what happens when faculty and staff pitch to a panel of student judges. Here’s how we are going to do things – faculty and staff can enter to present an idea of their choosing. They will get 3 minutes to pitch their idea. No notes, not slides. Teams of up to 3 people can enter, with some academic leadership positions being ineligible. There will initially be 15 slots available (if we get an overwhelming number of entries, we might consider expanding this number). Students who have participated in previous competitions as pitchers will be invited to be judges.
To sign up to pitch, please contact either Matt Klosky (mklosky@smumn.edu) or Terra Lieser (tlieser@smumn.edu) no later than Friday, March 7th, 2025.
Here is another twist – we are going to hold this event over in Aquinas Hall 200, so the entire SMU community is invited to join in and watch the pitches live. The student judges will get reserved seats up front, and will advise the Kabara Staff about their preferences for the winners.
The final interesting “twist” is how the prizes will be distributed – there will be 4 awards, as follows: $500 for first place, $300 for second place, and $100 for third place. An additional award of $100 will go for the “best use of a prop or prototype.” The money will be given as a departmental transfer to the pitcher’s department / unit on campus. The money will still be subject to all the regular university policies and oversight.
Keeping things interesting and dynamic on campus – The Kabara Staff!
