Peter Farrell Cup

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:

1. Be a current UNSW (under/post-grad) student or HDR candidate at the time of application
2. Have played the primary role in conceiving the idea
3. Complete and submit the PFC application form
4. 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:

1. 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.
 

PFC
Date	What	Time	Venue
Monday, 1 February	Applications Open	9.00am	Online
Monday, 08 February	Women's Networking	2:00pm	MCIC and Online
Wednesday, 17 February	PFC Info Night Book here	5.30 p.m. – 7.00 p.m.	MCIC and Online
Monday, 22 February	Team Matching Event Book here	12:00 p.m. - 01:00 p.m.	MCIC and Online
Thursday, 3 March	Applications close	11.59 p.m.	Online
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
Wednesday, 10 March	Session 1: Defining the problem and customer discovery session	12.00p.m - 3.00p.m	MCIC + Online
Monday, 15 March	Session 2: Prototyping 101	12.00 p.m - 3.00 p.m.	MCIC  + Online
Wednesday, 17 March	Mentor Matching (2 sessions)	Time TBA	Tank Stream Labs + Online
Friday, 19 March	Session 2: Prototyping Feedback Panel	12.00 p.m - 1 p.m.	Online
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
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
Thursday, 8 April	Session 5: Pitching 101 & Slide Review	4.00 p.m. - 6.00 p.m.	MCIC
Wednesday, 12 May	Pitch Fest 1	9.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m.	Online
Thursday, 13 May	Pitch Fest 2	9.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m.	Online
Friday, 14 May	Pitch Fest 3	9.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m.	Online
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