A head-to-head, bracket-style pitch competition. Every round the field gets smaller and the pitch gets longer, until two founders have four minutes to win it all.
Run nationally by the Arthur L. Irving Entrepreneurship Centre at Saint Mary's University: 320+ student ideas, $71,000 in prizes, 85,000+ views, and 37 post-secondaries in the 2026 bracket.
Run a compact Arena for your own campus, or lead the full bracket across a region, province, state or country, the way Saint Mary's runs it across Canada.
One institution, your own students.
Many institutions, one bracket.
Institutions find and sharpen their best student founders.
Campus champions join the regional bracket of 64.
Regional winners face off for the overall title.
Every match is two founders, one panel, same rules. Each round adds something new to the pitch, and every pitch ends with questions drawn at random from a bank competitors see in advance.
Every resource has its own page and link, so you can drop it into a syllabus, a slide, or a message to competitors.
What each round adds. Pitches are cut off at the time limit, and each answer is cut off at 30 seconds.
Questions are drawn at random after each pitch. Later rounds draw from a bigger bank and ask more questions.
The number shows the first round each question can come up (regional format).
Choose a round, then use Next segment to move from the pitch to each answer.
Write each part of your pitch. The timer estimates speaking time at about 150 words a minute. Your draft stays in this browser.
Pick your track and the day Round 1 starts.
2027 manual dates follow the spacing of the 2027 national edition. Recommended dates are suggested lead times; adjust to your calendar.
Hosts receive the full kit after signing a host agreement. Campus hosts get everything needed to run the competition; regional hosts also get the platform and support to run it at scale.
| Item | Campus | Regional |
|---|
Tell us about your centre and which track fits. We'll set up an onboarding call and walk you through the host agreement.