Judging Criteria

Climate Impact

Assessing relevance of business idea and potential benefit of the project to the environment:

  • If the business is successful, will it have a significant environmental impact?

  • To what degree will the business idea affect the climate in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction, waste reduction, carbon removal, lives affected, etc.?

Solution Creativity

Assessing the degree of innovation and novelty of the idea:

  • Has there been a similar idea beforehand?

  • Does the project offer new and creative solutions to solve existing problems in the field?

  • To what extent does it improve existing products or business models currently in the market?

  • To what degree does the business idea change the industry?

IDEA FEASIBILITY

Assessing the technological and economic feasibility of the concept along with market and customer knowledge:

  • Is the business model sound and realistic?

  • Is the team knowledgable of potential obstacles, with customer interviews relevant to their intended market acquired through primary market research?

  • Has the team identified a specific beachhead market or customer?

  • How scalable is the solution?

  • Can the team demonstrate demand / traction for their product?

Business plan EXECUTION

Assessing the plan for the execution of the business idea and for financial funding:

  • Does the team have a coherent and well-structured execution plan?

  • Are financial and business growth forecasts realistic?

  • Does the business plan offer realistic assumptions on scaling production of the product?

  • Does the team have clear and viable ideas about how to finance the company?

  • Does the team already have a patent or a path to IP? Is it viable that the team will acquire IP in the future, or show that IP is not needed for their specific competitive advantage?

  • Does the team demonstrate thorough knowledge of the market they are entering (e.g. market size, competitive landscape, substitutes, stakeholders, regulatory and policy framework)?

Team Composition, Chemistry, and Commitment

Assessing strengths & weaknesses of the team:

  • Does the team have a well-balanced mix of expertise and backgrounds (e.g. technological, entrepreneurial, business, policy)?

  • Are the team members working well together? Are responsibilities spread equally among the various team members?

  • Does the team appear to be committed to stay together for the short to medium term?

  • Does the team have a clear strategy to cope with future growth, including adding new members to the management team, as necessary?