TURN THE TABLES: BUSINESS PITCH COMPETITION

New York City - Friday, Oct 20, 2017

Turn The Tables NY African Restaurant Week 2017

Table of Contents Entering and Deadlines • General Information • Important Notices

Eligibility Requirements • General Requirements • Additional Eligibility • Conflict of Interest

Submission and Presentation Guidelines • Round 1 – Executive Summary, and Youtube Video Quick Pitch • Round 2 - Finalists Only - Turn the Tables Live Presentations

Turn The Tables NY African Restaurant Week 2017

Entering and Deadlines Welcome to the NY African Restaurant Week 2017 Business Pitch (“Turn the Tables”) competition, presented by New York African Restaurant Week and Startup Weekend!

The purpose of Turn the Tables is to encourage and support entrepreneurs in the restaurant and food industries by offering them a high-profile, real-world opportunity to present their ventures to a panel of judges.

The final competition will take place Friday, October 20, 2017 from 10 am to 2 pm and is made up of two events: 1) a main competition that will see 5 finalist teams present 5 minutes worth of their ventures to judges, followed by a 5-minute Q&A, where one winner will have a chance to win up to $2,500, and 2) a pop-up competition where a group of 10 teams will each have 2 minutes and 30 seconds to pitch their business venture for judge and audience cred.

The competitions offer a high-profile experience in which entrepreneur individuals and/or teams will present business opportunities to an esteemed panel of judges from the world’s top start-up accelerators and VC firms operating in the food industry.

How to Enter One designated team member should send the following sets of information in a single email to turnthetables@nyarw.com with subject line “BusinessName Pitch Competition Application”

• Upload an Executive Summary (pdf) of the business venture (2 pages max.) • Provide a link to a 90-second pitch video (YouTube; can be unlisted video) • Indicate in the email if you opt into the pop-up competition if waitlisted for the main

competition, i.e. “I opt into the pop-up competition if waitlisted for the main competition” • Additional instructions are provided in this document

Important Deadlines and Event Information

Sunday, September 10, 2017 Competition open and accepting entries

Sunday, October 8, 2017 by 11:59 PM EST

Deadline to submit email with executive summary/Youtube video link/ opt in or opt out confirmation

Wednesday, October 11, 2017 NY African Restaurant Week and Startup Weekend announce finalist teams and live competition registration details

Friday, October 13, 2017 by 11:59 PM EST

Deadline for invited teams to confirm participation

Friday, October 20, 2017 10 am - 2 pm

Finalists compete in the Turn the Tables Live Competitions and participate in Awards Ceremony

Turn The Tables NY African Restaurant Week 2017

Eligibility Requirements General Requirements

Each participant or team must meet the following requirements in order to compete in Turn the Tables:

• Be a restaurant or food/beverage business or concept, inclusive of food retail, food tech, consumer packaged goods, social enterprise, and sustainable agriculture business models

• Represent a business or concept in the early stages of development, launch or operation • Generate less than $200,000 in annual gross revenue • Be an entrepreneurial start-up without direct or indirect operating relationship to an existing

large scale corporation, investment fund or government agency • The business pitch competitions has the following team size requirements:

Individuals and teams are welcome to apply.

Note: irrespective of team size, no more than two team members may present at Turn the Tables. Other team members are welcome to attend the competition and award ceremony, but are prohibited from participating in the presentations or Q&A sessions

Additional Eligibility Requirements

Nature of Business Pitch Ventures: The business competition is for new concepts that are currently in the concept stage to early-stage of start-up development.

Attendance: To be considered for any award, all presenting team members must attend and be present at the designated date and time for Turn the Tables. Teams may not add or substitute presenting members during the competition.

Required Forms: Each team will be required to provide appropriate documentation to receive award payments which may include W-9 and/or EIN forms. No prizes or reimbursements will be awarded without the required forms submitted. International Teams and students will also be required to submit proper documentation to be awarded prize money, and will be instructed as to the required forms on an individual basis. Teams are required to submit all requested paperwork in a timely manner and by deadlines posted on request forms.

Conflict of Interest Statement: No judge or corporate sponsor may have any vested interest, equity stake, or financial stake in any of the finalist teams/individuals. Judging by any of the previously listed parties who stand to gain financially or otherwise from the success of any finalist is strictly prohibited. Any such association will result in disqualification of the individual and/or removal of that individual from their associated position with the competition.

Turn The Tables NY African Restaurant Week 2017

Submission and Presentation Guidelines Round 1 - Executive Summary, and Quick Pitch All Applicants • Step 1: Upload an Executive Summary (pdf) of the idea stage or early stage business idea

- Please submit the file in Adobe Acrobat PDF when you submit the online registration form. Files should be named according to the following format: CompanyName_TeamContactLastName_TeamContactFirstName.pdf

- Must be no longer that 2 pages - At least 10 point font - At least .75” margins on all four sides - Exec summary should contain or express the following: business idea, problem or need the

idea solves, product or service description, customers or prospective customers, market overview and competitive landscape, marketing and sales strategy, business model, why capital is needed

• Step 2: Include link to your 90-second Pitch Video in the online registration form - Cannot be more than 90-seconds in length and must clearly represent the product/service - Teams must upload their video to YouTube, and paste the link into the email containing the

Executive Summary. You may set the privacy settings to "Unlisted" but NOT "Private" if you wish to restrict viewing to Turn the Tables application readers. Please do not list videos as Private as application readers will be unable to view them

• Step 3: Indicate in the same email if you opt into the pop-up competition if waitlisted for the main competition, i.e. • OPT IN: “I opt into the pop-up competition if waitlisted for the main competition” • OPT OUT: “I DO NOT opt into the pop-up competition if waitlisted for the main competition”

Round 2 - Finalists Only - Turn the Tables Live Presentations

Main Competition - 5 teams/individuals • Presentation must be no longer than 5 minutes followed by 5 minutes of Q&A from the judges • Presentation should be based on information outlined in the executive summary • Pitch deck is limited to no more than 7 slides • Must be present physically and give pitch live - no virtual or pre-recorded pitches allowed • All submitted work must be original work

Pop-Up Competition - 10 teams/individuals • Final presentation must be no longer than 2 minutes and 30 seconds • If a pitch deck is leveraged (optional) no more than 4 slides • Must be present physically and give pitch live - no virtual or pre-recorded pitches allowed • All submitted work must be original work

Confidentiality and Intellectual Property Statement

Turn the Tables and Q&A sessions, are open to selected finalist teams, their network/friends/family, and New York African Restaurant Week attendees. While the competition will not be broadcast, any data or information discussed or divulged in public sessions by entrants should be considered information that could possibly enter the public realm, and entrants should not assume any right of confidentiality in any data or information discussed, divulged, or presented in these sessions. Please prepare presentations accordingly.

Due to the nature of the competition, we are not able to ask judges, reviewers, staff, or the audience to agree to or sign non-disclosure statements. However, the New York African Restaurant Week team and its partners will make every effort to limit distribution of pitch decks presented at the competition. The event organizers and partners cannot guarantee that other individuals will not obtain access to executive summaries, pitch videos, or live presentations. All presentations are open to NYARW attendees. Attendance by media personnel is not expected, but may occur.