Judges

The short version: Judges rank each startup on their investment potential.

The long version: What to Expect at the RBPC--please familiarize yourself with the Instructions and Guidelines to get ready for April 10-12, 2025! This is for all judges, new and returning.

The 3-day detailed schedule is HERE. Participating judges will receive their personal judging schedule when they check in for the event. 

The judging platform for the RBPC is here: https://rbpc.poetic.io/sign-in

Judges will submit all scores for the competition in this platform! Please log in and make sure you have access before the competition.

For a step-by-step of what to expect in the platform, see this document.

RBPC 2025 Practice Pitch Round – What to Expect and How to Participate

The Practice Pitch Round takes place Thursday, April 10, from 2:00 – 5:30 PM. These sessions are an opportunity for startups to refine their pitches and presentation skills before the full days of competition. Judges review the pitch and offer feedback and suggestions. Please see this document or details below for how to have the best practice pitch session possible!

Details for Judges

Your personal schedule will show you which room you will be in. If you are also judging Round 1, you will see different startups in the Practice Round.

Practice pitches are 10 minutes (just like the real thing)

Pitches are followed by 15 minutes of feedback from the judges

There is a 5-minute break between pitch sessions

Judges act as mentors and give feedback on the pitch, the content and the presentation.

Judges will fill out a feedback form and give it to the startup when they are done.

There will be a moderator/timekeeper in the room to help the proceedings run smoothly.

Feedback in the Practice Pitch Round

This is a practice pitch session. Startups will run through their prepared pitch and their presentation slides, but it does not have to be perfect.

Judges act as mentors and advisors, guiding the startup on what parts of their pitch are great, and what parts needs to be improved.

Judges will give feedback on the pitch, but not ask questions about the startup, technology, etc. There will be Q&A sessions in the competitive pitches on Friday and Saturday!

Judges should consider feedback such as:

• “I did not hear your ‘ask’. What is it that you want from investors?” (You are welcome to give feedback on how to ask for investment and how much to ask for, or how to ask for funding but not give a concrete amount)
• “You told us the amount of funds you are asking for. Consider expanding on that to tell us how you will use the funds (growth/scaling, additional research, testing, building, etc.)”
• “Tell me a bit more about your IP/competitive advantage.”
• “Tell us why your startup is a good investment. What are 2-3 reasons investors will want to support you?”
• “You did not get a company valuation, and that is fine. Here is how to broach that question, should you be asked tomorrow.”

Welcome to the RBPC! Slides from the reception are HERE. It's a good primer for the event!

Travel

Houston is served by two airports--Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and Hobby Airport (HOU). IAH is about 45 minutes from the Rice University campus; Hobby is about 20 minutes. Please use a ride share, taxi, or airport shuttle from the airport to Rice University or the Intercontinental Houston - Medical Center hotel. There is no reliable and quick public transportation. 

Accommodation

All judges and guests are encouraged to book their hotel stay at our conference hotel--DoubleTree Houston Medical Center Hotel (web). We have a rate of $149+tax/night that all competition attendees are welcome to use; please book using this link. The special rate is valid until March 26.

Shuttle to RBPC

The conference hotel, the DoubleTree by Hilton-Houston Medical Center, is less than 1 mile from Rice University. A shuttle from the hotel to Rice University campus will be available each day of the RBPC to get you to and from the event.

Click HERE for the Shuttle Schedule.

A number of judges screen applications for the RBPC! Each year we receive over 400 applications from student startups vying for one of 42 spots at the Rice Business Plan Competition. We need help narrowing down the field and identifying the best and most viable student ventures to compete. If you are interested in screening applications, contact the RBPC Director at csantamaria@rice.edu for more information. 

The screeners' objective is to identify early-stage student startups that would be good competitors at the 2025 RBPC. Screeners do this by reviewing a batch of 8-10 applications and rating each one on its individual merits (not against the others the batch).

Screeners rate the application on how thorough it is, and if the startup meets a set of 5-6 criteria. For each criteria, screeners give a rating of 1 - Excellent to 5 – Poor.

All RBPC application screening is done online between Feb. 1-16, 2025. Full instructions will be sent to screeners the week prior.

RBPC Screener FAQ:

How many applications will you advance to compete in the RBPC?
•    We will invite 42 startups to compete. If any of the invited 42 decline the invitation, we will fill their spot with an applicant we deem suitable for the RBPC. There is no official “waiting list” for applicants.

Will an applicant see a screener's ratings or comments?
•    No, the applicant will not be sent your ratings or comments

How long does it take to screen an application?
•    Each application consists of a maximum 5 page executive summary. After reading that, the screener will rate the application on 5-6 criteria. There is also an option to offer written feedback (that only the competition director will see). The length of time depends on your comfort with the process! I'd say 30-60 minutes per application.

None of the applications I screened appear RBPC-worthy. I gave them all low ratings.
•    That is fine. There will be some that are not up to par.

All of the applications I screened are awesome! I rated them all highly. Does that mean they will all be at the RBPC?
•    Most likely not, but your ratings will help us determine which startups to invite.  

I screened about half of the batch of applications, but I can’t finish the rest by the deadline. What should I do?
•    Screen as many as you can. I will manually review the ones you were not able to screen.  

I am not able to screen any of the applications, I am just too busy. What should I do?
•    Please tell Catherine (csantamaria@rice.edu) if you are unable to screen applications. I will assign them to another screener.

The screening deadline has passed! And I was not able to screen my batch of applications. Can I still do it and send you my scores?
•    Unfortunately not. Once the initial screening period ends, we start a second, internal screening process that must begin on Friday, Feb. 16.