Check out this year's highlights below, and sign up to join us in 2022 👉🏽
The Peter Farrell Cup (PFC), now in its 21st year, is UNSW's most prestigious competitive ideas program that is fast-tracking the next generation of entrepreneurs and start-ups.
Helping develop both current UNSW students and HDR candidates, the PFC offers applicants the necessary tools, skills, guidance and support to take their ideas from that initial light bulb moment to test and pitch, and potentially launch a real business!
The PFC culminates in a final pitch competition where participants get the opportunity to win a share of an incredible $20,000 cash prize pool generously contributed by the Farrell Family Foundation to help take their ideas to the next level.
We are calling for current UNSW students and HDR candidates with the newest and most exciting innovative ideas or early-stage (pre-funding) ideas to join us for this exciting program!
The leader of the team must be UNSW student or HDR candidate, however, the team can include non-UNSW members.
- Gain new skills, knowledge, ways of thinking, friends and plenty of opportunities
- Get matched with industry mentors with extensive "been there-done that" experience
- Participate in educational workshops (e.g. on Lean Startup Methodology, presentation skills and startup pitching)
- Get access to a world-class Makerspace Network
- The opportunity to pitch for a share in a huge $20K prize pool
Prize money:
$8,000 - 1st Prize early-stage idea
$8,000 - 1st Prize UNSW research-related idea
$3,000 - 2nd Prize
$1,000 - People's choice
You will also have plenty of additional opportunities to further develop and grow your startup beyond the PFC with the extensive hands-on support available from the UNSW Founders Program.
Intellectual Property
Participants retain the copyright and any other intellectual property rights in their idea and startup. Except in some cases for research-related ideas in accordance with the UNSW IP Policy, reach out to the UNSW Founders team if you have any concerns.
Teams
Teams must comprise of at least 2 and no more than 5 members.
The team leader must:
- Be a current UNSW (under/post-grad) student or HDR candidate at the time of application
- Have played the primary role in conceiving the idea
- Complete and submit the PFC application form
- Not participate in any more than one team that makes it through to the top 50
Other team members do not have to be UNSW students.
The Idea
Your idea must be:
- Self-funded and pre-revenue (i.e. your business and idea has received less than $3,000 from investors, paying customers, prize money or grants) at the time of the application. Research funding is exempt from this requisite.
Dates for 2022 to be advised. To get a feel for how the program runs, below is an outline of how it all worked in 2021.
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What |
Time |
Venue |
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| Monday, 1 February |
Applications Open |
9.00am | Online |
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Monday, 08 February |
Women's Networking |
2:00pm |
MCIC and Online |
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Wednesday, 17 February |
PFC Info Night |
5.30 p.m. – 7.00 p.m. |
MCIC and Online |
| Monday, 22 February |
Team Matching Event |
12:00 p.m. - 01:00 p.m. | MCIC and Online |
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Thursday, 3 March |
Applications close |
11.59 p.m. |
Online |
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Friday, 5 March |
Successful teams announced |
5.00 p.m. |
Online |
| Monday, 8 March | Successful Women's Networking | 12.00 p.m - 1.00 p.m | Online |
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Wednesday, 10 March |
Session 1: Defining the problem and customer discovery session |
12.00p.m - 3.00p.m |
MCIC + Online |
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Monday, 15 March |
Session 2: Prototyping 101 |
12.00 p.m - 3.00 p.m. |
MCIC + Online |
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Wednesday, 17 March |
Mentor Matching (2 sessions) |
Time TBA |
Tank Stream Labs + Online |
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Friday, 19 March |
Session 2: Prototyping Feedback Panel |
12.00 p.m - 1 p.m. |
Online |
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Monday, 22 March |
Session 3: Market & Competition |
10 a.m. |
Online |
| Thursday, 25 March | Lean Canvas (optional) | 11.00 a.m - 12:30 p.m | Online |
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Monday, 31 March |
Session 4: Business Models & Traction | 1.00 p.m. - 3.00 p.m. | Online |
| Wednesday, 7 April | One-on-One Coaching | All day | MCIC + Online |
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Thursday, 8 April |
Session 5: Pitching 101 & Slide Review | 4.00 p.m. - 6.00 p.m. | MCIC |
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Wednesday, 12 May |
Pitch Fest 1 |
9.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m. |
Online |
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Thursday, 13 May |
Pitch Fest 2 | 9.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m. | Online |
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Friday, 14 May |
Pitch Fest 3 | 9.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m. | Online |
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Wednesday, 26 May |
PFC Finals Night |
5.00 p.m. |
TBD |
The Peter Farrell Cup is named after Peter Farrell, 2001 Australian Entrepreneur of the Year and founder and chair of ResMed; a world-leading health company.
The same year Peter Farrell was awarded Australian Entrepreneur of the year, UNSW Business School launched the PFC as Australia's first ever pitching competition for student-led startups.
Held annually ever since, the PFC is now proudly brought to you by the UNSW Founders Program; UNSW’s platform for embedding entrepreneurial confidence in every student's experience.
Don’t just take our word for it
eXsight – 2018 Peter Farrell Cup Winners
Affecting over a million Australians, colour blindness is a condition that can make it near impossible to read and interpret coloured information of any form at work, school and in other daily activities. eXsight is solving this problem by creating phone screen covers that help colour blind individuals differentiate between commonly confused colours. The screen cover is held in place, and stored when not in use, using a specially designed phone case. This cover can also be used for situations away from the phone.
Emma Casolin and Maggie Feng, co-founders of eXsight participated in the 2018 Peter Farrell Cup and took out the top prize of $10,000 to continue development of their business.
Emma said she was inspired by the experience of members of her family. "My brother has colour blindness and I noticed he has many problems at school and in his daily life," Casolin said. "I was sitting on the bus one day and thought, 'Why isn't there a filter to put on a phone for those who suffer from colour blindness?' And with help from my team, mentor and family, here we are."
Since the PFC, eXsight have participated in the New Wave Founders women's program and are currently part of our UNSW Founders Start program where they are working on the next iteration of eXsight.
For further information about the Peter Farrell Cup, get in touch:
Lucas Hakewill
UNSW Founders - Programming Manager
l.hakewill@unsw.edu.au