First round judging for the business track will take place on Super Saturday.

All NVC Business Track teams will make live presentations to two different panel of judges in an environment designed to simulate a 20 minute “pitch” meeting with each panel of potential investors. Teams will be evaluated based on their business concept, plan to execute, and the extent to which they have validated key assumptions of their model. Each team will receive an email with their assigned presentation time and room assignment 1-2 days prior to Super Saturday.

Please plan to spend 20 minutes with each panel of judges (i.e.total 40 minutes). The 20 minute timing with each panel will be utilized as follows:

PART I	10 Minute Team Presentation to Judges
PART II	10 Minutes of Q&A and Feedback

Following the First Round judging on Super Saturday, 16 Semi-Finalist teams will be selected to proceed to the next round of evaluation in the Business Track.

The judges will evaluate and score NVC Business Track entries on Super Saturday.

If you believe judges from any particular investment firm or company would have a conflict and should not see your presentation, please contact rock@hbs.edu at least 14 days prior to Super Saturday. Information regarding First Round judges will not be distributed prior to Super Saturday.

Judges will be asked to evaluate plans based upon their likelihood of actually becoming the basis of a viable business. This consideration, in turn, will include such factors as the degree of creativity and innovation embodied in the basic opportunity definition and business concept, the appropriateness of the strategy for exploiting the opportunity, the reasonableness of the plan for financing the business, the team’s ability to actually implement the plan, and the extent to which the team has validated key assumptions. Judges will make further distinctions based upon the potential of the business to create value although they will be explicitly instructed not to use the typical “venture capitalist” hurdle in evaluating the absolute size of the capital investment required to fund the business.

The required deliverables* for Super Saturday must include all elements outlined at the top of this page.

The Semi Finalist judges use only your slide deck and a pitch video to narrow the 16 semi-finalists down to 8 finalists. There will not be a live pitch for the second round.

The 8 finalist teams will pitch live to the finals judges in the last judging round. The finalist teams will give a short 90 second pitch on stage that same day at the NVC Finale Show. The Finale is where the winner, runner-up and crowd favorite will be announced for all the three tracks.

While determining the format of the presentation is up to each individual team, each group should develop materials with the objective of communicating their plan in a clear and concise manner.

You may have one or more of the team members present, but you should make your choice about how to handle this based upon your sense of how to most effectively communicate your plan to the judges. For teams with HBS and non-HBS team members, at least one HBS team member is required to be present, and the role(s) of the HBS students should be made clear.

Teams are naturally concerned about the confidentiality of their plans. There are several things that we would encourage you to do to help preserve the confidentiality of your plan. Note that all of the judges are individuals who are active in the venture community and are used to preserving the confidentiality of ideas. We have asked them to treat your plans with the same respect as those they would encounter in the course of their business.

Each team that participates in the First Round judging on Super Saturday will receive feedback on their plan and presentation.

In addition to feedback after each pitch, a brief compilation of the judge's written commentary on their idea will be distributed to the teams within one week of the Super Saturday event. While this commentary is not meant to be prescriptive, it will provide teams with some feedback so that they can refine their plan or presentation style to increase their effectiveness in the pursuit of real-world opportunities.

Notification of which ten-fifteen teams were selected to advance to the Semi-Final Round will be announced to all Super Saturday participants via email as soon as they have been compiled (i.e. by Saturday evening).