Launch League

Competitions

Official competition rules

Last updated: September 2026. These rules apply to all Launch League pitch competitions.

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1. Eligibility

  • Open to anyone ages 12 and up, residing anywhere in Ontario, Canada.
  • Your age is counted as of the submission deadline, March 31, 2027 — not the date you enter. If you turn 12 before that date, you are eligible.
  • Some categories carry an additional age range on top of the 12+ minimum (for example, one category is reserved for ages 12-17, another for ages 18-25). Check the specific category on the Competitions page before entering.
  • You can enter on your own or with a team project. A team project is entered by each team member individually: every member who wants to be judged submits their own entry, from their own account, with their own parent or guardian consent if they are under 18. Each entry names the other members of the team.
  • Each person may submit one entry per category.
  • On a team project, the plan can be the team's shared work, and teammates may use the same plan briefing and slide walkthrough videos. Your written pitch must be in your own words, and you must appear in your own elevator pitch video.
  • Every entry is judged on its own, and every complete entry gets its own written feedback. A team project can win at most one prize per category: if more than one entry from the same team project places, the team receives the prize for the highest-placing entry, shared equally among the team members who entered.
  • Entrants under 18 must have a parent or guardian consent to the entry. At submission we ask for the parent or guardian's name and email, and for confirmation that they have read these rules and agree to the entry. We may contact them to verify. An entry from someone under 18 without that consent is not accepted.
  • Launch League staff, judges for the category they are judging, and their immediate family members are not eligible to enter that category.
  • You do not need to be running the business to enter. An idea and a plan are enough — this is a business plan competition, not a revenue contest. That said, entrants who have actually tested something (talked to a customer, made a sale, tried a price) tend to score higher, because the rubric rewards evidence over ambition.
  • You can get help. Parents, teachers, mentors and community members are welcome to coach you, ask hard questions and give feedback — that is most of the value. The line is that the plan and the pitch must be your own work, or your team's, and your own voice on camera. An adult writing the plan or presenting for you is not an eligible entry.

1a. Consent, Privacy and Use of Your Entry

  • Entrants under 18 need a parent or guardian's consent before an entry is accepted. We collect the parent or guardian's name and email at submission and may contact them to confirm.
  • By default, your entry — your written pitch and your three videos — is seen only by the judges assigned to your category and by Launch League staff. It is not published, not posted publicly, and not shared with sponsors.
  • Permission to show your entry publicly is separate, optional, and entirely up to you. At submission you can opt in to letting us show your videos, your name, and your business name publicly, including at the livestreamed Awards Night and in Launch League material. For entrants under 18, that permission comes from the parent or guardian.
  • Declining that permission has no effect on judging whatsoever. Judges are not told who has opted in. If you win without giving media permission, we will still announce and award your prize — we simply will not show your video or use your likeness publicly.
  • You can withdraw either consent at any time before the Awards Night by emailing admin@launchleague.ca. Withdrawing media permission does not withdraw your entry.
  • You keep all ownership of your idea, your plan, and your videos. Launch League claims no equity, no licence to commercialise your idea, and no ownership of anything you submit.
  • Schools running this as a class activity: students still enter individually, including students who worked on a team project, and each entry carries its own consent. We are glad to provide a summary of what we collect for your privacy officer — see the Educators page or email us.

2. How to Enter

  • Create a free account and submit your full entry at /competitions/submit before the deadline. Signing up for updates at /competitions/join is optional and does not enter you.
  • The current submission deadline is March 31, 2027. Late entries are not guaranteed review — get it in early if you can.
  • A complete entry includes: your business/idea name, your name and contact info, your chosen category, a written pitch summary, and three pitch videos submitted as viewable links — (1) an elevator pitch of 60 seconds or less, (2) a plan briefing of up to 5 minutes, and (3) a slide walkthrough of up to 10 minutes presenting your deck on screen.
  • Videos can be hosted anywhere judges can watch them — an unlisted YouTube link, Loom, Vimeo, or a shared Google Drive link all work. Phone recordings are completely acceptable: judges score substance, not production value.
  • If you are under 13, the video-hosting services above (YouTube, Vimeo, Loom, Google Drive) all require an account holder to be at least 13. A parent, guardian or teacher can host your video on their own account and give you the link — that is completely fine, and it does not affect your entry or your score.
  • Set each video to unlisted or link-only — anyone with the link can watch, but it does not appear on your channel and does not show up in search. Do not make your videos fully public, and do not post them to a public profile. This matters most for entrants under 18: an unlisted link is the difference between your judges seeing your face and the whole internet seeing it.
  • Accessibility: Need an accessibility accommodation, such as an alternative to appearing on camera, extra time, or a different format? Contact Launch League at admin@launchleague.ca before the deadline. We'll work out an equivalent format with you, and using an accommodation never lowers your score.
  • You may use Launch League's free 1-page business plan builder or the free Business 101 course to help prepare your entry. Neither is required to enter.
  • Work you made somewhere else — a business plan, a pitch deck or customer research from a class or a school competition — can be the basis of your entry. It still has to be your own work (or your team's), and it still has to become the written pitch and three videos above. Judges score what the entry shows against the rubric, not the template, format or tool it was made with.
  • You may also attach up to 5 links to supporting work when you submit. This is optional. Judges may look at it, but they are told not to add or take away points for having supporting links, and an entry without any is scored exactly the same way. The links are saved as they are when you submit, are treated as confidential like the rest of your entry, and must open for anyone with the link: set them to link-only, not public, and remove personal details such as your address and phone number.

3. Judging & Scoring Rubric

  • Entries are reviewed by volunteer judges from the Ontario business and non-profit community.
  • Every entrant who submits a complete entry receives feedback, whether or not they place.
  • Every entry is scored on a published 100-point rubric: Problem & Opportunity (20), Solution (20), Customer & Market Understanding (15), Feasibility (15), Business / Sustainability Model (15), Impact & Potential (10), and Communication & Pitch Quality (5). We publish the test because knowing what judges look for makes entries better — there's nothing hidden.
  • Judging decisions are final. Launch League does not offer a formal appeals process, but you're always welcome to reach out with questions at admin@launchleague.ca.

3a. Competition Timeline (Planned)

  • Applications are open now through March 31, 2027. Entries are validated and assigned to judges April 1–7, 2027, judged April 8–30, 2027, finalists announced May 15, 2027, winners announced May 31, 2027 at our Awards Night in Chatham-Kent (livestreamed — attendance is optional and never affects results), and written feedback delivered to every entrant by June 15, 2027.
  • These dates are planned and may shift modestly as the inaugural competition comes together — any change will be posted here and communicated to registered entrants directly.

4. AI Assistance & Fairness

  • You're welcome to use AI tools — including Launch League's own free and paid business plan tools — to help prepare your entry.
  • Using a paid tool never affects judging. Judges are not told which entrants used a paid tool, and paying for it provides no scoring advantage of any kind.
  • You remain responsible for the accuracy of your own submission. AI-assisted writing can still get facts, numbers, or claims wrong — review everything before you submit it.

5. Prizes

  • There are no restrictions on how prize money is used. It is the winner's to spend — on the business, on school, or on anything else. For a winner under 18, the payment is made to the parent or guardian named on the entry.
  • Each award carries its own advertised prize, currently $500–$2,500 per award, supported by sponsorship funding. The number of awards is not fixed: 12 categories run province-wide, and additional regional and community awards are added as sponsors and communities join. The complete, current list of awards and their prize amounts is always published on the competition page, and that published list is what governs.
  • Local awards: Chatham-Kent community awards are confirmed for the 2027 season, because Launch League is based in Chatham-Kent. Community and regional awards anywhere else are not guaranteed. A local award in a category opens only once that area has at least 10 complete entries in that category and a local sponsor has confirmed the prize. Until then, entrants from that area compete for the province-wide awards, which are open to everyone in Ontario.
  • If sponsorship targets aren't fully met by the time winners are announced, Launch League reserves the right to adjust prize amounts for that competition cycle — we'll always communicate this clearly to entrants and winners rather than surprise anyone after the fact.
  • Winners may be asked to confirm their eligibility and provide basic information needed to receive a prize before it's issued.

6. Your Idea Stays Yours

  • You keep full ownership of your idea, business, and any intellectual property in your submission. Entering a Launch League competition does not give Launch League, its judges, or its sponsors any ownership or license over your idea.
  • Submissions are treated as confidential by judges and staff and are not shared outside the judging process without your permission.
  • If you'd rather not share sensitive details (like an unfiled patent idea or proprietary technical specifics), it's okay to describe your idea at a level you're comfortable with — judges can still evaluate a well-explained concept.

7. Conduct

  • Entries must be your own original work, or on a team project, your team's. Copying someone else's entry, plagiarized submissions, knowingly false information, or harassment of judges, staff, or other entrants may result in disqualification.
  • Launch League reserves the right to disqualify any entry that violates these rules, at our reasonable discretion.

8. Sponsors & Independence

  • Sponsors may have their name attached to a specific award, but sponsors do not select winners and have no influence over judging outcomes.
  • If a sponsor has a direct personal or business relationship with an entrant, that sponsor is excluded from any input on that entrant's category.

9. Publicity

  • We may ask winners and participants if they're willing to be featured (photo, quote, short write-up) in Launch League promotional materials. This is always optional and asked for directly — never assumed.

10. Changes to These Rules

  • Launch League may update these rules as the program grows. The version posted here at the time you enter is the one that applies to your entry.

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