Orange Tank Pitch Competition

The Whitman School of Management’s ninth annual Orange Tank business pitch competition will be held on Nov. 1, 2024, at 3 p.m. in the Helaine and Marvin Lender Auditorium.

Thanks to the generosity of Whitman Advisory Council member and lifetime Syracuse University Trustee John Couri ’63 (A&S), current students and alumni entrepreneurs from the Whitman School will pitch their business venture to a panel of accomplished judges and vie for part of the $35,000 in cash prizes. Monetary awards will be given to the ventures finishing in first ($25,000), second ($7,500) and third ($2,500) place.

Application for the Competition

• Applications will close on October 1, 2024
• Previous Orange Tank applicants may apply to pitch in Orange Tank 2024 as long as your venture has not won a cash prize in previous Orange Tank competitions.
• Notifications of pitching teams will be done by October 8, 2024.
• The top five ventures will be selected to pitch on November 1, 2024 at Whitman.
• Submit applications to hatchery@syr.edu.
• The Couri Hatchery is also supporting Orange Tank applicants with office hours with Eric Alderman and Linda Dickerson Hartsock which are available Tuesday through Thursday from 1 to 3 p.m.

Five ventures (both student and alumni) will be selected from the applicants to pitch at the competition. Those chosen will have five minutes to pitch, followed by five minutes of Q&A from the judges, who will be looking for:

• Market potential
• Differentiation and economic feasibility
• Ability to protect intellectual property, technology
• Sound execution strategy
• Scalability of the business
• Proposed use of finances
• Expertise and abilities of the founder(s)
• Quality of pitch

If you would like to be apart of our Orange Tank viewing audience please register here. Registration to watch the competition via Zoom will be coming soon.