10 weeks, 46 teams, 10 finalists, $20,000. The winners announced at Peter Farrell Cup Finals Night.
Three esteemed judges – UNSW benefactor, Chris Baxter, and UNSW alumni, Melanie Hogan and Andrew Rubio – assessed each of the three-minute pitches against seven core criteria including: problem worth solving, innovation solution, market, value proposition, business model, team and pitch to select the winner.
Last week saw the culmination of the Peter Farrell Cup (PFC) 2020. The competition where early stage ideas and teams led by students and HDRs complete 10 weeks of programming and compete for $20,000 in prize money.
As you can imagine the teams this year had to overcome some major hurdles, whether switching to virtual learning, returning to overseas countries, being in 100% isolation, losing jobs, being separated from co-founders or struggling to speak to industry who were facing similar challenges, the teams were facing additional stresses to their already intense PFC learning program. Which is all the more reason why seeing their pitches, hearing their responses to the judges’ questions and their contribution and commitment to their businesses is so impressive – beyond that – truly inspirational.
The effort and improvement of the teams as the Pitch Fests and Finals Night drew closer, the calls and emails to users, customers and partners to build traction and the practicing of pitching to get it just right was evident at the 20th Anniversary of the Cup Finals Night held on Wednesday, 21st May.
All 10 teams were deserving of one of the four prizes but in the end the judges had to make a decision and so the winners of the 2020 Peter Farrell Cup are:
1st Place - $10,000: Team ALTEN – Andrew Law and Laura Rodriguez, PhD Candidates at The Garvin Institute.
Guiding doctors to provide the best healthcare for cancer patients by developing personalised treatment strategies. We believe that everyone deserves a healthy future.
2nd Place - $5,000: Team Negotium – Edward Johnson, Undergraduate, Faculty of Science and Benjamin O’dea.
Empowering local entrepreneurs with the tools they need to buy and sell their businesses without upfront fees or legalese
3rd Place - $3,000: Team Freighto – Siddharth Mehta, MBA, UNSW Business School and Emilie Batard.
Building Australia’s largest network of independent trucks.
People’s Choice - $2,000: Team ZELK – Zali Steiner, Emma Holman, Laurene Colin and Kate Alderman, Undergraduate, Faculty of Engineering.
Developing a buffet spread dispenser to replace single-use plastic packaging and the food waste associated with it.
Congratulations to all our teams, we wish you every success and look forward to seeing your ideas making positive change in the world.
Many thanks to the Judges, Mentors and Farrell Family Foundation for your generous support.
It was the bold vision of Dr Peter Farrell AM, and the ongoing support of the Farrell Family Foundation, in deep partnership with UNSW that has seen this competition grow from its humble beginnings with only a few entries to 20 years later, impacting over 3,000 students and 950 teams creating a ripple effect across the broad entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Think you have a solution to a problem in the world? Register here for information on the 2021 Peter Farrell Cup.