The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management template used for developing new business models and documenting existing ones. Created by Alexander Osterwalder & Alan Smith, co-founders, Strateggyzer, it offers a visual chart with elements describing a firm’s or product’s value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances, assisting businesses to align their activities by illustrating potential trade-offs.

Purpose: The startGBC Business Model Canvas Competition has been created to help educate, and motivate George Brown College students entrepreneurs/and social innovators to launch ventures.  We invite applications from current George Brown College students and recent graduates (January 2021 – March 2022) to participate and learn more about business models, value propositions and the business model canvas; students will then have the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding via a 5-8 minute FlipGrid video submission.

Prize Funds: – 6 Cash Prizes Available

Overall Winner – $1,000

Second Placements – $750 (x2)

Runner-Ups – $500 (x3)

Important Dates:

startGBC invites student entrepreneurs to demonstrate their understanding of BMC through a video submission on Flipgrid, of their own entrepreneurial experiences. Semi-finalists will then be chosen to participate in live presentations based on the content of their video submissions.

Submissions Open Now! Scroll down to apply.

Deadline to submit Expression of Interest: Sunday, April 10, 2022, 11:59
Closing date for video submission: Monday, April 18, 2022, 11:59PM
Finalists will be notified: Friday, April 29, 2022
Finals: Saturday, May 7, 2022

1. Entries can be single applicants or multiple founders teams.
2. Proposed ventures can be either For-Profit or Social Innovations but only the Business Model Canvas issued for this competition can be used and submitted.
3. The main applicant must be a current student at George Brown College or a recent George Brown College alumni (who graduated between January 2021 and March 2022).
4. Open to domestic and international students, but the intention must be to establish a business/social enterprise in Ontario, Canada.
5. Applicants must use an active George Brown College email account to submit an application and to receive competition communications and to be able to receive funds if successful.
6. All applicants must be available to present a live in-person (virtual will be considered) 5-8-minute pitch live at the startGBC Business Model Canvas final competition on Saturday, May 7, 2022, in order to be eligible to receive funding.
7. Applicant/Team can be at the concept stage and does not need to be operating or registered at the time of entry.
8. Non-students may be part of the venture but cannot participate in the competition (e.g., video submission, pitching, Q&A, etc.). The competition is for student-created and -managed ventures.
9. English must be used in all competition submissions and presentations.
10. Applicants must be fully compliant with George Brown College’s entry to campus policies.

Students are expected to:
1. Be the driving force behind the new venture
2. Have played the primary role in developing the business model
3. Have key management roles in the venture

Social Innovation definition: – Social innovations are new social practices that aim to meet social needs in a better way than the existing solutions. These can include improving working conditions, education, community development or health, with the ultimate goal of strengthening civil society. Social innovation includes the social processes of innovation, such as open-source methods and techniques and also innovations with a social purpose – like activism, virtual volunteering, microcredit, or distance learning.

By submitting an application to the startGBC Business Model Canvas Competition, applicants consent and agree to abide by the following rules and regulations:

1. George Brown College is not responsible for any lost, late, illegible, incomplete, falsified, destroyed, or failed entries, or for any electronic miscommunications or failures of any kind, which may limit a person’s ability to participate in the competition.
2. Each participant may only submit one business idea.
3. Deliberate or negligent misappropriation of the intellectual property of another person is an ethical breach that will be grounds for disqualification from the competition.
4. In the event that startGBC is prevented from continuing with the contest by an event beyond its control, startGBC or George Brown College has the right to modify, suspend, extend, or terminate the competition.
5. startGBC and George Brown College reserves the right to use competition submissions, as well as photographs or videos taken of competition applicants, as a group or individually, over the course of the competition, for educational and promotional purposes in perpetuity.
6. In the event of a dispute regarding who submitted an entry, the entry will be deemed to have been submitted by the authorized account holder of the email address used to submit the entry at the time of entry. “Authorized account holder” is defined as the natural person who is assigned to an email address by an Internet service provider, online service provider or other organization responsible for assigning email addresses for the domain associated with the submitted email address.
7. By participating in the startGBC Business Model Canvas Competition, entrants agree to be bound by these official rules and the decisions of startGBC and the judges, which are final and binding in all respects. Failure to comply with the Official Rules will result in disqualification.
8. All rules and regulations proposed within are subject to change, at the sole discretion of startGBC, at any time, without previous warning or notification to contest applicants.
9. All prize fund winners will be required to remain engaged with startGBC until April 2023 and provide updates to the startGBC Manager on the progress of the business creation.
10. All applicants will be required to complete the annual startGBC entrepreneurship survey in April 2022 and April 2023.
11. All applicants will be required to complete a competition exit survey which will require applicants to reflect on the process and personal development in line with the George Brown College Human Skills Framework.
12. The final competition will be recorded by startGBC/George Brown College. All applicants will be required to sign a video/media release form.
13. If details provided by applicants are no longer active on May 26, 2022, funds will become void.
14. Proposed ventures cannot be a buyout, an expansion of an existing company, a real estate syndication, a tax shelter, a franchise, a licensing agreement for distribution in a different geographical area, or a spin-out from an existing corporation.
15. English must be used in all competition submissions and presentations.
16. George Brown College and startGBC respect your right to privacy. Personal information collected from applicants will only be used by George Brown College/startGBC to administer the competition and, only if consent is given at the time of entry, to provide applicants with information regarding upcoming workshops, events and competitions. For more information regarding the manner of collection, use and disclosure of personal information by George Brown College, please refer to the George Brown College Privacy Policy available at https://www.georgebrown.ca/about/policies/privacy-policy.