From Competition to Business: How Contests Inspire Students for Building Startups

A successful contest is a huge experience. While the collaboration versus competition debate is still very much alive, modern educators tend to choose competition as their motivation technique of choice. Indeed, contests help students work harder towards their goals, not only for the sake of winning a prize but also because these contests let them discover new aptitudes and skills along the road.

So what’s a student contest, and why is it such a valuable experience? Essentially, any form of competition is based on striving to attain a position of power. Put simply, a contest is a game: the actions that one is asked to take in order to win. As Jean Piaget once said, “Play is the answer on how anything new comes about.” When it comes to academic settings, playing a game means activating the existing knowledge to develop something new—from a valuable aptitude to a stunning entrepreneurial idea.

In this blog post, we take a closer look at the anatomy of a contest that can actually take a student from a school desk to the position of a startup CEO.

Contests and startups: What’s the connection?

Startup building inspiration can come from anywhere, but there’s one foolproof way to get inspired: face a problem. Whether you face it in an elevator or in a bar, every startup idea has its roots in a problem that needs to be solved. Successful school contests give birth to businesses because they are based on problem solving. Here are a few examples:

1. Experience sharing

Not only are most student competitions social, but they also put a huge emphasis on experience sharing.

Inspiring story: While they were still students, the founders of Find Your Ditto developed a communication platform for those who suffer from chronic diseases. While working on a project with other students, the young women noticed that many of their peers suffer from chronic diseases, which leads to poor performance at school. So they decided to launch a communication platform where students’ experiences with chronic diseases could be shared.

Takeaway: People are the ones who create demand for new businesses. Focus on building school contests that foster experience sharing to help students discover the sources of demand.

2. Learning to learn

Online contests are an important part of digital learning. The mix of distance education, gamification, and cloud-based learning tools is what makes students switch to a self-paced learning style. Competitions require that you stay focused and complete tasks without any external supervision. As a result, students develop more flexibility and learn how to learn through the use of digital tools.

Inspiring story: Coursicle, an online platform for schedule management, was developed by a freshman from UNC. The idea was born as the student discovered his peers had problems registering for classes, extracurricular activities, and other campus activities.

Takeaway: Teach students new, creative ways to learn how to learn through contests.

3. Finding business partners

One more great thing about school contests is that you don’t have to go through the experience alone. With dozens of peers having the exact same experiences, it’s easy to find your business mate at school.

Inspiring story: Chuck Cohn, the founder of Varsity Tutors, recruited his first team when he was in college. What’s more, Chuck tested all of his product ideas on classmates which helped him shape his target audience.

Takeaway: Awards contests for students can teach you how to develop effective partnerships.

If none of these works for you, go for a no-brainer and organise a startup pitching contest for students. Check out these 5 best startup student contest ideas for inspiration.

How to run awards contest for startup inspiration

Bright ideas are everywhere, but it’s not always easy to find a creative outlet. We’ve developed a short action plan that helps you unleash students creativity through a contest:

• Choose a platform. An awards management system that works for your contest should have three core assets: one-stop platform for submissions, judging management modules, and analytics. Depending on the format, you’ll also need some event-specific features like capabilities for peer review in case of an abstract management campaign.
• Design effective rules. An online contest that you create should be based on a smart combination of practical evidence, the organiser’s business goals, and compliance with platform regulations. This means, apart from focusing on the goals of students, you should also do your research; for instance, you should determine the optimal duration of an online contest for students (ideally, 2-4 weeks). Based on what you bring to the table, design contest rules that will maximise your profits.
• Choose a theme. An interesting and well-aligned theme gives your contest a solid shape and tone. To make the process fruitful, connect the theme of your contest to a specific unit or subject that the target audience is studying at the moment. In case it’s an international or cross-discipline contest, tie the theme with an actual cultural/economic/political phenomena that students are acquainted with.
• Set up the judging process. Your online judging system should automate contest management from both technical and marketing perspectives. Here are the basic factors that you’ll want to consider when choosing a judging tool: scoring capabilities; management of multiple judging rounds and categories; simple segmentation of entries; judges’ abstention module. Once you have your perfect tool, develop a step-by-step process of contest evaluation (separate for judges and contestants).
• Determine a plan for contest promotion. You might want to advertise a student contest internally, at your school, or publicly, attracting attention to a specific subject. Paid ads, blogging, email, or social media—you should get serious about each channel you plan to use. Once you’ve picked the channels, create a schedule of promotion activities with the biggest focus on pre-event marketing.

Conclusion

By learning to be creative and flexible at school, people develop vital entrepreneurial skills and are more likely to take risks. Online contests for startup building are excellent motivators for students who are willing to grow professionally, without having to wait for their graduation date.