The Baiada Institute hosts competitions that provide an educational and experiential approach for students and recent graduates to turn great ideas into great startups.

Competitions encourage students to form interdisciplinary teams, develop new ideas, launch commercialization action plans and develop full business plans. These competitions are designed for students across all schools at Drexel regardless of major. Teams receive education, extensive feedback and access to external experts that volunteer their time to judge student submissions. Competition winners are awarded prizes that may include cash, in-kind services and access to incubation space and services.

The Baiada Institute holds three types of competitions:

• Idea pitch competitions. The focus of these competitions is on the effective verbal presentation of an idea. The idea pitch competition program includes educational sessions followed by a formal pitch opportunity in order to receive feedback. This competition is typically held during the winter term with additional focused competitions provided to selected schools and programs upon request.

• Business Model Competition. The focus of this competition is on validation of the key assumptions of an idea and the development of a commercialization action plan. This competition includes educational sessions and the development of a commercialization plan that is judged. A final judged presentation event is also held where teams report on the progress they have made on validating their key assumptions. This competition is held during the spring term.

• Incubator competition. This competition is called the Baiada Institute Incubator Competition and is designed to help student entrepreneurs and their teams develop their business ideas, receive feedback and mentoring, and compete for cash prizes. This competition opens for entries starting in late spring and runs through to the fall term when final presentations are held during Drexel Startup Fest.