New Venture Competition Tips and Guide For 2025 General Track Applicants
From articulating your problem statement to showcasing your team’s capabilities, this comprehensive guide breaks down each section of the application with concrete examples and actionable tips.
More Resources:
- Preview the questions in the General Track application
- Review a successful example application.
Tips for answering the question: What Significant Problem Are You Addressing?
- Paint a Clear Picture
Start by describing the problem in simple, relatable terms. Help the reviewer visualize its urgency and significance. For example, explain how the problem affects people, industries, or communities and highlight the negative impacts if it remains unsolved. - Show the Size and Urgency
Use specific data or evidence to demonstrate how widespread and pressing the issue is. Include statistics, trends, or anecdotes that make the problem feel real and relevant. - Highlight the Current Gap
Explain why existing solutions are insufficient or unavailable. What’s missing? Why haven’t others solved this problem yet? This helps position your idea as innovative and necessary. - Answer “Why Now?”
Convey the timeliness of addressing this issue. Is the problem growing? Are there new opportunities, technologies, or cultural shifts that make this the right moment to act? - Always be Authentic and Passionate
Let your passion for solving the problem shine through. Explain why it’s important to you and how solving it aligns with your values or mission.
Example of a Strong Response:
Managing personal finances is a significant challenge for college students aged 18–24, particularly those in urban areas. Over 10 million students in the U.S. collectively wield $200 billion in annual spending power, yet financial literacy among this demographic is critically low. According to a 2023 report by the National Financial Wellness Institute, 68% of students feel unprepared to manage their money, and 50% rely on high-interest credit cards for daily expenses, worsening financial stress.
The gap lies in the lack of tools tailored to this audience’s unique needs—tools that account for their inconsistent income, limited financial experience, and digital-first habits. As a result, students face rising debt, which impacts their immediate well-being and future economic mobility. One student shared, “I never learned how to budget, so I’m constantly worried about running out of money.”
The urgency is driven by the increasing cost of living and education, which leaves students less room to handle unforeseen expenses. A survey of 300 students revealed over 70% want a tool that simplifies budgeting while staying engaging. Solving this problem now is critical to breaking the cycle of debt and preparing millions of students for financial independence and success.
Tips for answering the question: Who Are Your Target Users/Customers?
- Define Your Target Audience: Be specific about who your customers or users are. Include key details like their age, location, occupation, income level, or any other relevant characteristics. Explain why this group is your focus and how they connect to the problem you’re solving.
- Size the Market: Provide an estimate of how large your potential market is. Use data to show there’s a significant opportunity, but avoid vague statements. If possible, include metrics like the total number of people in your target group or the value of the market.
- Explain Their Pain Points: Dive into the specific challenges or frustrations your customers are facing. How does the problem you’re solving impact their lives or work? This demonstrates that you understand their perspective.
- Prove Demand for Your Solution: Share evidence that your target customers want what you’re offering. This could include survey results, interviews, focus group feedback, or early sales data. Highlight any specific quotes or anecdotes that show enthusiasm for your idea.
- Show Customer Research: Explain what steps you’ve taken to learn about your audience, such as conducting customer discovery interviews, running surveys, or testing prototypes. Mention any adjustments you’ve made to your solution based on what you’ve learned.
Example of a Strong Response:
Our target customers are college students aged 18–24 in urban areas who struggle with managing personal finances. This group represents over 10 million students in the U.S., with a combined spending power of $200 billion annually. Many students report feeling overwhelmed by budgeting, leading to increased debt and financial insecurity. For example, 68% of students surveyed in 2023 by the National Financial Wellness Institute stated they feel unprepared to manage their money, and 50% rely on high-interest credit cards for daily expenses.
We’ve interviewed 50+ students from 10 universities and found 75% lack accessible tools tailored to their needs. One shared, ‘I’ve tried budgeting apps, but none work for someone with inconsistent income.’ A survey of 300 students confirmed demand for a gamified app to build financial literacy, with 85% expressing interest.
To validate demand, we piloted a prototype with 20 students. Over 80% used it consistently for two months, and 95% felt more confident budgeting. Feedback helped us prioritize features like automated savings and goal setting. Addressing this need now can reduce student debt and improve financial futures for millions
Tips for answering the question: Describe Your Solution and Its Unique Value
- Define Your Solution Clearly
Explain your product or service in simple, concrete terms. Focus on how it directly addresses the problem you described earlier. Avoid jargon; your solution should be understandable to anyone. - Highlight Your Unique Value
What makes your solution stand out? This could be a novel feature, a more affordable price point, or a way of solving the problem that no one else is doing. Think about your competitive advantage. - Show How You Address the Market Need
Link your solution to the specific gaps or pain points you identified in the problem statement. Be explicit about how your solution provides value to your target audience. - Provide Evidence of Feedback
Demonstrate that your idea isn’t just theoretical. Mention surveys, interviews, focus groups, or beta testing you’ve conducted with your target users. Highlight how their feedback has shaped your product and how you’ll continue to engage with them. - Be Forward-Looking
Explain how you’ll refine and grow your solution. Discuss your plans for user engagement, product iteration, or scaling to meet market demands.
Example of a Strong Response:
Our solution, “BudgetEase,” is a mobile-first app designed to teach college students financial literacy while helping them budget their money effortlessly. BudgetEase simplifies financial management with intuitive features like personalized budgeting tools, automated savings prompts, and real-time expense tracking tailored to the lifestyle and income patterns of college students.
What sets BudgetEase apart is its gamified approach. By integrating rewards and milestones, we make learning about finances engaging and fun—a stark contrast to the dry, overly complex tools currently available. Unlike competitors, BudgetEase also offers peer-to-peer sharing, allowing users to exchange tips and strategies within their network. This builds a sense of community and accountability.
To ensure our solution resonates with our audience, we conducted surveys with over 300 college students, ran two focus groups, and launched a beta version with 50 participants. Their feedback inspired features like customizable spending alerts and a built-in financial glossary. One user noted, “It finally feels like a budgeting app that understands my life.”
We plan to keep refining BudgetEase by maintaining an open feedback loop through in-app surveys and user forums. As we scale, we’ll continue engaging users to ensure the app evolves with their needs, ultimately becoming a trusted companion for millions of students navigating their financial journeys.
Tips for answering the question: How Will You Validate the Technical Feasibility of Your Solution?
- Identify Core Technologies: Clearly outline the critical technologies or features your solution relies on and explain why they are essential.
- Discuss Your Validation Steps: Highlight the actions you’ve already taken to test these technologies, such as prototyping, simulations, or real-world testing.
- Incorporate Customer Feedback: Show how you’ve involved target users to validate assumptions or improve your solution.
- Highlight Evidence: Provide concrete examples, like pilot results, user feedback, or technical performance metrics, to demonstrate feasibility.
- Show a Plan for Continued Validation: Explain how you’ll keep testing and refining your solution as you scale.
Example of a Strong Response:
To validate the technical feasibility of BudgetEase, we focused on three key assumptions: that our gamified budgeting features engage users, our real-time expense tracking works seamlessly with college students’ spending habits, and our app can handle peer-to-peer interactions at scale.
First, we created a clickable prototype of BudgetEase and tested it with 50 college students to assess usability and engagement. Feedback showed that 85% of participants found the gamified features motivating and user-friendly.
Second, we conducted a technical feasibility test for real-time expense tracking by integrating mock data from common student-used financial platforms. This simulation demonstrated that our backend systems could process data with minimal lag.
Lastly, to validate peer-to-peer sharing, we built a limited beta version allowing participants to share budgeting tips within small groups. Users responded positively, with 78% noting they were more likely to stick to their budgets with peer support.
Moving forward, we plan to conduct a broader pilot test with 200 users, focusing on scalability and system stability. We’ll use insights from in-app feedback forms, error reports, and direct user interviews to refine our technology and ensure a seamless experience for college students as we scale.
Tips for answering the question: Who Are Your Competitors, and What Sets Your Solution Apart?
- Identify Key Competitors: List your direct and indirect competitors, as well as alternative solutions users might turn to.
- Highlight Gaps in Current Solutions: Explain what existing competitors lack—such as features, accessibility, or customer focus—and how these gaps create opportunities for your solution.
- Showcase Your Unique Value: Emphasize what differentiates your solution, like unique features, innovative approaches, or a deeper understanding of your target audience.
- Back It with Evidence: Use data, user feedback, or testimonials to support your claims of differentiation.
- Address Market Positioning: Explain how your solution fits into the market and why customers will choose it over others.
Example of a Strong Response:
Our primary competitors for BudgetEase include existing budgeting apps like Mint, YNAB (You Need A Budget), and Goodbudget. While these apps offer general financial management tools, they often overlook the specific needs of college students, such as limited income, irregular expenses, and the desire for a social, gamified experience.
One major gap in current solutions is their complexity and lack of engagement. Many users report feeling overwhelmed by the technical jargon and dry interfaces of competitors’ apps. Additionally, no major budgeting app currently integrates a peer-to-peer community feature tailored to college students.
BudgetEase stands out with its gamified approach to financial literacy. Our app not only helps users track expenses but also makes budgeting fun through rewards, milestones, and interactive challenges. The peer-to-peer sharing feature allows students to exchange tips and strategies, building a sense of accountability and community. This combination of engagement and targeted features is unique in the market.
To validate our competitive advantages, we surveyed 300 college students, and 70% expressed frustration with existing apps being too complex or irrelevant to their lifestyle. In beta testing, 85% of participants stated that BudgetEase felt more intuitive and engaging compared to competitors.
By addressing the specific gaps in the market and prioritizing student-friendly features, BudgetEase has positioned itself as the go-to financial management tool for college students, offering an experience that others fail to provide.
Tips for answering the question:: What is your intended impact, and how will you measure success?:
- Define Your Value Proposition:Clearly articulate the value or benefit that your product or service provides to the customer. What problem are you solving for them, and how does your solution make their lives better?
- Align with Broader Goals: Think beyond individual users and consider the larger impact you aim to have on your industry or market. What kind of change do you want to create? This could be about driving innovation, changing consumer behavior, or addressing a social issue.
- Set Specific, Measurable Metrics: Success needs to be measurable. Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) such as user growth, revenue, customer acquisition costs, retention rates, or market share. Be clear about how you’ll track and measure these metrics over time.
- Use Tools for Tracking and Analysis: Determine the tools or methods you will use to collect and analyze data. This can include analytics platforms, customer feedback tools, and financial tracking systems. Be specific about how you will track your progress and pivot when necessary.
- Establish Realistic and Achievable Targets: Set realistic goals that are attainable in your business’s early stages. These targets should help you measure short-term wins while still moving you toward your long-term vision.
- Plan for Continuous Improvement: Outline how you will gather feedback and iterate on your solution. Be open to refining your business model and solution based on the data you collect and the performance of your key metrics.
Example of a Strong Response:
Our intended impact with BudgetEase is to empower college students to take control of their financial futures by teaching them essential financial literacy skills while making budgeting accessible, engaging, and fun. By providing a solution tailored to their unique needs, we aim to reduce financial stress, promote responsible spending, and encourage long-term financial planning.
Our broader goal is to contribute to the financial literacy landscape by offering a tool that not only supports individual students but also educates a generation on managing money effectively. We hope to influence the growing market for student-focused financial services and encourage other tech solutions to adopt a more engaging, user-centric approach.
To measure success, we’ll focus on key performance metrics such as:
- User growth: We aim to attract 50,000 active users within the first year of launch.
- Engagement: We’ll track metrics like daily active users (DAU) and monthly active users (MAU) to measure user retention and app engagement.
- Customer satisfaction: Through in-app surveys and user feedback, we’ll measure overall satisfaction and the effectiveness of features.
- Revenue growth: We will set quarterly revenue targets through subscription models and in-app purchases.
To track and analyze performance, we will use analytics tools like Google Analytics and Mixpanel to track user behavior, retention rates, and engagement. Regularly reviewing these metrics will help us identify areas for improvement, optimize the user experience, and refine our business strategy.
Tips for answering the question: How will your venture generate sustainable revenue and create long-term impact?
- Revenue Model: Clearly define how your business will make money. Will you charge users directly, use a subscription model, rely on advertising, or partner with other businesses? Consider multiple revenue streams and their sustainability.
- Scalability: Explain how your business model can grow over time, both in terms of customer base and revenue generation. What strategies will you employ to increase the size and scope of your operations without compromising quality or impact?
- Long-Term Impact: Describe the social, economic, or environmental impact you plan to create. Consider how your venture will continue to evolve and improve over the long term. What positive effects will your product/service have on your customers and broader communities?
- Customer Retention: Share how you will keep customers coming back, which is key for sustained revenue. Will you use loyalty programs, continually improving your offering, or provide unique value that can’t be easily replaced by competitors?
- Market Adaptation: Highlight how your business can stay relevant over time by adapting to changes in the market, customer behavior, or industry trends. This is essential for ensuring long-term success.
Example of a Strong Response:
Our venture, BudgetEase, will generate sustainable revenue through a freemium subscription model. The app will be free to use, but users can opt into a premium subscription that offers enhanced features like advanced budgeting tools, financial coaching, and personalized savings plans. We’ll also explore partnerships with financial institutions, offering tailored financial products to students, and receiving commissions on any resulting sign-ups or purchases.
To ensure long-term sustainability, we plan to scale by expanding our user base through targeted marketing and by continuing to develop features that meet evolving student needs, such as integrating with new banking apps or student-related financial services. Our goal is to secure 10,000 paying subscribers within the first year, and increase that number by 30% annually over the next three years.
The long-term impact we aim for is twofold: First, to improve financial literacy among college students, helping them build the skills they need to avoid debt and manage their finances. Second, to create a community of financially savvy graduates who contribute to the economy by making informed decisions.
To maintain customer retention and revenue growth, we will continue to gather feedback through surveys and in-app analytics, adjusting our features and pricing structure based on user needs. We will also introduce loyalty programs that reward continued use and engagement.
By adapting to market trends, providing consistent value, and continuously innovating, BudgetEase will remain a trusted financial partner for students, ensuring our long-term success and positive impact.
Tips for answering the question: What is your growth strategy?
- Customer Acquisition: Describe how you plan to attract new customers. This could involve marketing strategies, partnerships, referral programs, or leveraging social media. Be specific about the channels you’ll use to reach your target audience (e.g., digital ads, influencer partnerships, etc.).
- Customer Retention: Explain how you’ll keep customers engaged and loyal over time. Will you offer personalized services, customer support, loyalty programs, or continuous product improvements? Customer retention is often cheaper than acquiring new ones.
- Key Resources for Growth: Identify the resources (financial, human, technological) you’ll need to scale. This could include hiring a marketing team, securing investment, developing new technology, or forming strategic partnerships. Explain how you’ll manage these resources effectively.
- Market Expansion: Discuss your strategy for expanding your venture to new regions, markets, or customer segments. Will you introduce new features to attract different audiences, or partner with other organizations to reach broader markets? Consider how you’ll adapt your offering to different geographies or customer needs.
- Sustainability of Growth: Address how you plan to ensure growth is sustainable in the long term. What strategies will you use to continuously adapt and meet market demands while scaling your operations?
Example of a Strong Response:
To grow BudgetEase, we will focus on a combination of customer acquisition and retention strategies. Initially, we will target college students through digital marketing campaigns, social media influencers, and partnerships with universities offering financial literacy programs. We will also introduce a referral program where users can earn rewards by inviting friends to join. Additionally, we’ll offer free trials of our premium subscription to attract users and convert them into paying customers.
For retention, we’ll engage users with personalized budgeting tips, push notifications, and rewards for meeting savings milestones. By providing consistent value through features like customized savings plans and financial coaching, we’ll keep our users active and loyal. We’ll also gather feedback regularly to improve the app and ensure it’s meeting the needs of our audience.
In terms of key resources, we’ll need to invest in product development to continually improve and scale the app, particularly integrating new financial tools and adding features for new customer segments. A dedicated marketing team will also be essential to execute our acquisition strategies, and we’ll need a customer support team to manage user inquiries.
For market expansion, we will initially focus on the U.S. college student market, then gradually expand internationally by adapting the app to the needs of students in other countries. We’ll also look at partnerships with financial institutions and universities globally to help us scale and reach new user bases.
Our growth will be sustainable by continuously listening to our users, adapting to their evolving needs, and maintaining a flexible business model that can adjust to new market opportunities.
Tips for answering the question: Who makes up your team, and how are they contributing to your venture’s success?
- Core Team Members: Clearly describe your team’s key members and their roles. Highlight their relevant skills, experience, and expertise. Be specific about what each person brings to the table (e.g., technical skills, marketing expertise, business development experience).
- Advisors and Strategic Partners: If you have advisors, mentors, or strategic partners, mention them and explain how they’re helping your business. These could be industry experts, thought leaders, or organizations with complementary strengths that support your growth.
- Team Contributions: Explain how each team member is actively contributing to the venture’s success. How does their specific skillset make your solution stronger, and what value do they add?
- Skill Gaps: If your team lacks certain skills, be honest about this and describe the areas where you need support (e.g., finance, operations, marketing). Show your awareness of these gaps and have a plan in place to fill them, such as hiring or partnering with experts.
- Solo Founder Plans: If you’re a solo founder, explain the roles you are looking to fill. Identify the skill sets you need, and detail how you plan to recruit these roles, whether through hiring, partnerships, or seeking advisors.
Example of a Strong Response:
Our core team for BudgetEase consists of three members: I, the founder, focus on strategy, business development, and product vision. My background in entrepreneurship and financial literacy allows me to shape the app’s roadmap and ensure it addresses real-world needs. Sarah, our tech lead, is responsible for app development, using her experience in mobile-first platforms to build an intuitive user interface. David, our marketing manager, is in charge of user acquisition and growth strategies, leveraging his expertise in digital marketing and student engagement.
We also have several advisors who support our venture. Mark, an industry expert in financial literacy for college students, provides guidance on market trends and customer needs. Lisa, a product development advisor, helps us refine the app’s user experience. Additionally, we’ve partnered with local universities for strategic outreach and pilot programs.
Although we have a strong team, we recognize a gap in our finance and analytics expertise. To address this, we plan to hire a financial analyst to help us track key metrics and refine our pricing strategy as we scale. We are also looking for an advisor with expertise in international expansion as we prepare to take the app global.
Tips for answering the question: What progress has your team made so far?
- Timeline: Be clear about how long your team has been working on the venture. Mention the date or time period when you started, and highlight the key milestones along the way.
- Key Milestones: Highlight specific achievements and progress, such as completing your MVP (minimum viable product), gaining initial users, validating the market need, or securing early partnerships or funding.
- Significant Lessons: Share the most important lessons your team has learned so far. This could include insights into market demand, customer feedback, the challenges of building the product, or operational hurdles.
- Current Status: Describe where your venture is right now in terms of development and execution. Are you still in the development phase? Are you scaling? Have you launched a pilot? Be specific about what you’re currently working on.
Example of a Strong Response:
We’ve been working on BudgetEase for about 10 months now, and during this time, we’ve hit several important milestones. In the first three months, we developed our MVP and tested it with a small group of 50 students. By month five, we expanded the app’s features based on user feedback, including automated savings prompts and a financial glossary. We then conducted a larger beta test with 300 students, gathering critical insights to refine the user experience.
In terms of funding, we secured an initial $50,000 from angel investors in month seven, which allowed us to bring on Sarah, our tech lead, and accelerate development. We also built strong relationships with university partners, launching a pilot program across three campuses to gauge user interest.
One of our biggest lessons learned has been the importance of early user feedback. Initially, we underestimated how vital it is to have college students actively involved in refining the app’s features. This feedback loop has been essential in improving the app’s functionality and user engagement.
Currently, BudgetEase is in the final stages of refining our platform for a wider launch and scaling our marketing efforts to expand to new colleges. We’re focused on improving user acquisition and retention strategies as we prepare for our official launch later this year.