Greenlight Maine Competition
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PCD Office: AD-105 Suite
Phone: 207-859-1167
Email: [email protected]
A Chance to Pitch Your Business
Thomas College’s Harold Alfond® Institute for Business Innovation is an official partner of Greenlight Maine. The Greenlight Maine business competition highlights innovative college students who have a business idea in any stage of development, from a simple idea to a well-constructed business plan.
Greenlight Maine College Edition highlights innovative college students who have a business idea in any stage of development, from a simple idea to a well-constructed business plan.
Ten (10) contestants square off in a televised pitch-off to determine the three finalists. Those three finalists then pitch off against one another in the Greenlight Maine Collegiate Finale to compete for a cash prize.
The cash prizes include:
- First place – $10,000
- Second place – $7,500
- Third place – $5,000.
2026-2027 Greenlight Maine Business Pitch Competition
Participating Students Must:
- Submit their ‘Intent to Apply’ forms by November 3, 2026.
- By 4:00PM on January 18th, create and email your “3 min. Business Pitch” video to [email protected]. Video submissions are allowed to be within 2 minutes and 45 seconds (2:45) and 3 minutes and 15 seconds (3:15).
- Be fully responsible for ensuring that their video submission has been shot/recorded on a standard technology platform that is widely used for creating videos and that is compatible with commonly used software suites and hardware setups (laptops, personal computers, etc.)
Televised Pitch Competition
The televised competition which participants are competing to be in will be held amongst the best video entries chosen from the initial video business pitch submissions after January 18th, 2027.
All pitches will again be 3 minutes with a 3-to-4 minute Q&A. This is for the televised show only. Once the televised segment has been filmed, all presenters will get 10 minutes off camera to take a deeper dive into their business with the judges.
Presentation times will be allotted and, at this point, schools and presenters will be identified. From this round, 3 finalists will be chosen.
The Grand Finale
The grand finale of the collegiate series will be recorded in late May or early June with the airing of the shows in June. The three finalists will vie for the chance to win first ($10,000), second ($7,500) and third place prizes ($5,000) in cash and the possibility of other services and benefits.
The pitching format will remain the same as the elimination round.
We look forward to everyone’s participation and good luck!
This event will be televised statewide on WGME CBS 13, live streamed on Facebook, available on demand and on YouTube.
All past episodes are available on YouTube at Greenlight Maine.
FAQ
- All prior participants still in school that did not advance to the finale in past programs are eligible to pitch again.
- All participants will be identified by number only-no names or college affiliations.
- Each contestant(s) will have 3 minutes to pitch followed by a 3-4 minute Q&A.
- For the elimination round as many as 3 individuals from each company will be allowed to pitch. However, in the televised competition only 2 will be allowed.
- The judges will score on a numerical system from 1 to 10 in each of the 5 following criteria:
- Feasibility – 20%
- Innovation – 20%
- Scalability – 20%
- Overall quality of business idea – 20%
- Ability to grow business in Maine – 20%.
- All judges will have no affiliation with any Maine college.