FAQ

FAQs

FOR TiE WOMEN’S GLOBAL PITCH COMPETITION PROGRAM

TiE Women (TW) is an initiative of TiE Global and was started in Dec 2019. TiE Women’s flagship event is the Global Pitch Competition that brings together winners from each of the TiE Chapters from around the world to a central location. Each chapter selects one winner, that goes to the global finale and up to three runners-up.
The Pitch Competition was created to address the access to funding issue for women entrepreneurs and provide them a platform for access to funding and investor contacts.

WHEN DOES THE PITCH COMPETITION TAKE PLACE?

The Pitch Competition runs in two phases. Phase one, the local chapter level programs runs from February 1 to August 31st.
Phase two, the global level programs runs through September. More details to follow soon.
The Global Finals is scheduled to be held in October 2021.

WHO MAY PARTICIPATE IN THE PITCH COMPETITION?

The competition is sector agnostic and open to all industry verticals.
ONLY one application per startup worldwide is acceptable. A startup can apply to the chapter closest to the registered/incorporated address of the company.

WHAT ARE THE ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR PARTICIPATION?

Early* or Late* stage startups
– Female-founded or co-founded startups

– In India, we encourage Pvt. Ltd. Companies to apply. Company Registration as a Private Ltd Company is not mandatory for chapter-level pitch competition but is mandatory for the finals in October 2021.

*EARLY STAGE is defined as
– Less than 3 years
– May have received its initial, or seed funding
– Company has a MVP

*LATE STAGE is defined as
– Less than 7 years
– The product or service is commercially available
– Registered sales

CAN I PARTICIPATE MYSELF OR IN A TEAM?

The opportunity to pitch for the chapter level competition, the semi-finals and finals will only be provided to the female founder.
If a startup has two female founders one or both can present. If both choose to present, then they have to continue to do so for all levels if they are selected to move to the next phase.

HOW CAN A STARTUP REGISTER FOR THE PITCH COMPETITION?

Startups can register online for free by filling in the centralized online application form on our website ( tiewomen.org.) Some chapters may have their own links but the form used has to be the same. The online
application form must include responses to all mandatory areas included in the application file, which also includes the acknowledgment of the present guidelines.

IS THERE A COST TO PARTICIPATE?

At the Global Level, No. But individual chapters may charge a fee for chapter-level accelerator programs.

WHAT IS THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE PITCH COMPETITION?

The official language is English. The application form and the pitch presentations are to be in English. Any part of the application that is not in English may not be considered complete.

WHAT IS THE CURRENCY OF THE FINANCIALS INCLUDED IN THE PITCH APPLICATION AND PITCH DECK?

Financials should be in US Dollars.

PLEASE ELABORATE ON THE CHAPTER LEVEL PRE-SELECTION PROCESS.

The process for pre-selection and timelines for the Chapter-level competition may vary from Chapter to Chapter but will be completed between June 1st and August 31st, 2021. All applicants should contact their local Chapters and work closely with them during the pre-selection process.
Each Chapter will conduct its regional/chapter-level pre-selection or local pitch competition to select one winner and three runners up from their Chapter and announce results by September 1st 2021. If for any reason, a chapter winner is disqualified, or steps down for personal reasons, the first runner-up will automatically qualify to represent the chapter in the finals.

WHAT ARE THE ACCELERATOR WORKSHOPS AND BOOT CAMPS?

The Accelerator Workshops are a series of training workshops conducted for all chapter runners-up to provide mentorship, training and guidance to the startups on a number of topics surveyed with the runners-up. These will run between September 1st and December 1st.

A Boot Camp will be held 2-3 weeks ahead of the Global Pitch Competition for all chapter Winners to prepare them for pitching at the global stage.

WHAT IS THE FORMAT OF THE GLOBAL PITCH COMPETITION?

The Global Pitch competition comprises Semi Finals on day one and Finals on day two.
In both events, participants will pitch for 10 minutes and 5 minutes will be assigned for judges’ questions and responses. There will be no questions from the audience. All scoring by the judges will be electronic.
The winners of the Grand Finale must comply with any and all local laws and regulations. KPMG or similar will be a knowledge partner to ensure governance of the process.

Final prize monies for 2021 to be awarded in the Global Finals will be announced soon.

WHAT ARE THE CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION OF STARTUPS?

The applications will be evaluated on the basis of the following parameters –
– Market opportunity (market size, competition, regulation, etc.)
– Product (innovation, IP, etc.)
– Traction (pre-sales/sales, customers/users, partners and investor interest., etc.)
– Team

WHAT WAS THE PRIZE MONEY AWARDED TO THE TOP THREE WINNERS OF THE 2020 FINALS?

The First, Second and Third Prize Winners of the finals were:
• $100,000 – Dr Shivani Gupta from TiE Kolkata
• $25,000 – Dr. Parul Ganju from TiE Pune
• $10,000 – Nataliya Mykhaylova from TiE New York
These awards were equity-free cash prizes.
In consideration of the payment of the Award, the Winner shall participate in marketing-related activities of the Organizer and inform the Organizer of any additional round of funding raised by the Winner in the future. More generally, the acceptance of the Award constitutes permission to the Organizer to use the Winners’ names, and entries for purposes of marketing and advertising without any further explicit request.

WHO MAY BE DISQUALIFIED FROM PARTICIPATION?

The Organizer (TiE Women Management committee) has the right to verify the eligibility of each Applicant. Entries that are incomplete or do not adhere to the rules or specifications may be disqualified at the sole discretion of the Organizer. If the Applicant uses fraudulent methods or otherwise attempts to circumvent the rules of the Pitch Competition in any manner, its submission may be removed from consideration at any point of time. Any and all decisions relating to the Pitch Competition rest with the Organizer and are subject to change depending on circumstances.

I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS? WHOM CAN I CONTACT?

Contact – [email protected]