Start-up Cup @ H-BRS: Ideas Competition 2025

The awarding of the special prizes is optional, takes place separately from the main competition and is linked to the respective award conditions.

► Special prize Impact:  The prize is awarded to start-up ideas that specifically address social or ecological challenges and place impact at the centre of their business model. The focus is on concepts with social innovation, a focus on the common good or sustainability.

The two best impact ideas will each win a ticket for a separate pitch competition between three universities. There, the teams compete against each other in a pitch event, present their ideas to investors and can win cash prizes.

► Special prize DIGITALHUB.DE: The DIGITALHUB.DE honours digital-oriented ideas that have designed either an innovative product or an innovative service. The special prize includes inclusion in the "HubGrade" accelerator programme worth over EUR 30,000.

The package includes: 6 months of premium coworking membership; support from professional coaches & experienced mentors; weekly meetups & workshops; invitations to exclusive events and access to the network; professional photos, videos & premium promotion; option to receive € 14.400 NRW start-up grant per founder:in; high chance of five- to six-figure seed funding; intros to business angels, VC's & institutional investors; 20,000+ in cloud credits & perks.

The package may not be passed on to third parties and the cash value cannot be paid out. The special prize is linked to the access requirements of the Digital Hub in Bonn: You are a start-up with a digital business model; not yet founded or 2 years after founding; from Bonn or the surrounding area; motivated and ready to take off.

You should address the following aspects in your pitch deck. Depending on the stage of development of your idea, it may not yet be possible to describe the individual points in detail. Nevertheless, try to be as specific as possible (without exaggerating).

• Problem: What challenge are customers and users currently facing?
• Solution: How can the challenge be overcome?
• Presentation of product/service: What is being sold? What is the customer benefit?
• Target group: Who is the target group and what characterises it?
• Market and competition: What does the market for the product/service look like? Who are the competitors? What barriers to entry are there?
• USP: Why is the idea unique? What is your biggest advantage over your competitors?
• Business model and financing: How and from when will revenue be generated? What is the ratio between costs and sales? When will the project be profitable?
• Marketing and sales: What is the pricing model? Which communication measures should be used? How will the product be brought to the customer group?
• Team: Who is part of the team and what skills and experience does the team have?
• Sustainability: How is the topic of sustainability and social impact taken into account in the business model? What sustainability goals are being pursued (e.g. circular economy, inclusion, CO2 reduction, access to education, etc.)?
• Milestones and outlook: What is the current status and what are the next steps? What goals should be achieved in the short and medium term?
• Contact details: Name, e-mail address, telephone number

Pitch deck (1st selection stage)

• Implementability: Is the idea practically realisable? How likely is it to be realised, taking into account social, environmental and economic factors? Are any partners required for implementation?
• Benefits for customers and society: Are there major benefits for customers and society? Have the needs of the target groups, including social or environmental challenges, been taken into account?
• Market potential: Is there a real market and target group for the idea? Have the market and target groups been defined or narrowed down? Has the  unique selling proposition been explained? Have competitors been taken into account?
• Sustainable business model: Can money be earned with the business model? Has the revenue model been explained?
• Sustainability: To what extent does the idea contribute to eco-social goals as formulated in the 17 SDGs or the Economy for the common good (common good matrix)? Are concrete sustainability goals being pursued, such as the circular economy, inclusion, CO2 reduction, access to education, etc.?
• Skills in the team: Does the team have all the relevant skills to implement the idea? Have the strengths been identified? Does the team have specialist and industry knowledge?
• Innovation and originality of the project: To what extent is the idea innovative and new? Has it been explained why the idea is better than other alternatives and what problem it solves?
• Overall impression: Is the pitch deck written in an understandable way? does it follow a logical structure? Is the pitch deck attractively designed? Were the specifications adhered to?

Assessment of the presentation (2nd selection stage)

As part of the final on 10 October 2024 in Sankt Augustin:

• Overall impression of the presentation: adherence to the time limit, presentation skills, creativity and ability to work in a team
• Answering the questions/discussion

• Eligible to participate are students (currently enrolled or starting their studies in winter semester 2025/2026), employees and alumni (graduated no more than ten years ago) of Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg with a start-up idea and also those university members who have already founded a start-up. The company must not have been founded before June 2024. The date of business registration is decisive. Participation is possible for both individuals and start-up teams. (In the case of start-up teams, at least one person must be a student, employee or alumni of H-BRS. In the event of a win, the prize will only be awarded to this person)

• All start-up ideas received in full by 18 August 2025, 11.59 pm will be considered. Documents that are submitted in addition to the pitch deck and the associated explanation via the notes function cannot be taken into account in the evaluation.
• The idea must have been developed independently by the founding team and must not infringe the rights of third parties.
• Ideas that have already been presented in the final in previous years cannot be submitted again.
• The organisers reserve the right to change the advertised prizes for organisational reasons. There is no entitlement to a specific prize.

The organisers reserve the right to change the conditions of participation or to terminate the competition at any time, even without prior notice.

• The participants indemnify the organiser against all conceivable claims by third parties that could be derived from any infringement of copyrights, statutory property rights, trade secrets and other rights by the submitted documents.

Protection of ideas and data protection

• The H-BRS and CENTIM will not pass on the personal data of participants to unauthorised third parties. The following personal data will be processed for the ideas competition and can only be viewed and processed by authorised persons:
  • Surname, first name
  • E-mail address
  • Telephone number
  • Relationship to the university
  • Date of business registration/name of company
• The start-up ideas submitted are subject to copyright protection. Documents provided by the participants will be treated confidentially by H-BRS, in particular by all jury members involved, and used exclusively for the organisation of the start-up competition. They will be deleted at the end of the competition. There is no right to return the submitted documents.
• Participating start-up teams that qualify for the final declare their willingness to present their idea at the final event by submitting their entry and agree that the organiser may create, reproduce and publish image and video recordings of the participants in print and audiovisual media for information and documentation purposes. Specifically, publication on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, on the university website and in the university newsletter is planned.
• By participating in the competition, participants expressly agree to the conditions of participation.

Further information on data protection
We hereby inform you about the processing of your personal data. We also inform you about your rights and who you can contact if you have any questions. This data protection information applies in addition to the data protection policy of Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg: https://www.h-brs.de/de/datenschutz.

Who is responsible for data processing?
Responsible for data processing for the ideas competition is Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (CENTIM), Grantham-Allee 20, 53757 Sankt Augustin, represented by the President. The following contact details are available: Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, Grantham-Allee 20, 53757 Sankt Augustin, E-Mail: praesident@h-brs.de, Tel.: +49 2241 865 0, Fax: +49 2241 865 609

Who can you contact if you have any questions about data protection?
If you have any questions about data processing, you can contact the university's Data Protection Commissioner. The following contact options are available: Data Protection commissioner of Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, Grantham-Allee 20, 53757 Sankt Augustin, E-Mail: datenschutzbeauftragte@h-brs.de.

What data is processed?
The following personal data is processed for the ideas competition:
Surname, first name, email address, telephone number, relationship to the university, date of business registration/name of company if applicable.

For what purposes do we process your data and what is the legal basis? Specifically, this means that we collect your data for the purpose of processing the ideas competition and notifying the prize winners and store it for the duration of the ideas competition.

The legal basis for data processing is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a-c EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) if the data subject has consented to data processing or if a contract or legal obligation (voluntary participation in the ideas competition) is to be fulfilled. Consent can be withdrawn at any time.

How long will the data be stored?
We only store your data for as long as we need it for the respective processing purposes, i.e. the data you provide will be deleted as soon as the purpose for which it was stored no longer applies.

What rights do data subjects have?
As a data subject, you have the right (1) to information about the personal data stored about you in accordance with the provisions of Article 15 GDPR; (2) to rectification of incorrect or incomplete data in accordance with Article 16 GDPR; (3) to erasure of your personal data in accordance with Article 17 GDPR; (4) to appeal against the processing of your data; (5) to restriction of the processing of your data in accordance with Article 18 GDPR; (6) to data portability in accordance with Article 20 GDPR; (7) to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority (LDI NRW (nrw.de)); (8) right to withdraw consent.

For more information, please see our data protection policy:https://www.h-brs.de/de/datenschutz