The Blue Ocean Student Entrepreneur Competition is open to students around the world who are at the high school or equivalent pre-university level. We recognize that schools and grade levels are named differently around the world including Secondary School, Higher Secondary School, GCSE / IGCSE level, O-Level or A-Level study, International Baccalaureate (IB) etc.

What matters is where you are when you register. To be eligible, you must be enrolled in high school at the time you register. If you then graduate before the submission deadline, you're still eligible and can submit your pitch and compete in that year's competition.

If you're homeschooled, you're welcome too. You can compete if you're between 14 and 18 years old.

Complete the student registration form at blueoceancompetition.org/register. After registering, you'll receive a welcome email with access to the competition resources, including the Blue Ocean Mini-Course.

Use an email address you check regularly, so you don't miss anything we send you.

No. The competition is completely free. Registering, the Blue Ocean Mini-Course, the resources, and submitting your pitch all cost nothing.

No. The competition is completely virtual, so you can take part from anywhere in the world.

Any time before the pitch submission deadline. Registration stays open all year, so there's no separate cut-off to worry about — you can see this year's deadline on the competition timeline.

Registering early gives you more time with the Blue Ocean Mini-Course and the rest of the resources before you have to film anything, which is where most of the work actually is.

Yes, and it's free and included when you register.

Most companies compete head-to-head in crowded industries, offering much the same thing as everyone else and fighting over the same customers. Blue ocean strategy takes a different route. Rather than trying to beat the competition at what it already does, you change what the industry offers so that competing stops being the point. In practice that means questioning what an industry has always assumed is essential, raising the things buyers actually care about, and looking at the people who aren't buying from that industry at all. Done well, buyers get far more value while the business spends less to deliver it. Blue ocean strategy calls this value innovation.

The Mini-Course teaches you that way of thinking, and it's what judges are looking for in a winning pitch. It's also where a lot of students find their idea. Plenty of people register without knowing what they want to pitch and work it out as they go through the course.

You'll get a certificate of completion as soon as you finish, which is worth putting on a college application.

Either. It's completely up to you.

A team can have up to 5 students. Individual and team pitches are judged in exactly the same way, against the same criteria, and each pitch counts as one entry whether one student or five made it.

Yes. Every member of your team registers individually, so we have everyone's details.

When it comes to submitting, though, your team sends one pitch between you. Whoever submits it lists every team member's name on the submission form. Don't submit separately for each person.

Yes, and plenty of students do. Your teammates can be from your own school, from a different school, or from a different country entirely.

If you don't have anyone to team up with yet, you'll get access to our online student community when you register and start the Blue Ocean Mini-Course. That's where students from around the world introduce themselves and find teammates.

You can, but only if your school allows outside emails to reach you. Some school email systems block external messages.

If you're unsure, register with a personal email address you check regularly. That way you won't miss course information, reminders, announcements or results.

No. You can register and compete entirely on your own.

If a teacher at your school is championing the Blue Ocean Competition, though, we'd love to know who they are. Teachers who bring the competition to their students are a big part of why it reaches as many countries as it does, and we recognise them. You can tell us their name when you register.

Yes, and there's nothing you need to do about it.

Your registration doesn't lock you into competing alone or as a team. What counts is the submission form: whatever you enter there is what we treat as final. If you registered alone and end up with a team, list everyone on the submission form. If you registered as a team and end up going solo, just submit on your own.

The only thing to remember is that everyone competing needs to have registered at some point, so if teammates join you later, make sure they register too.

Yes to both. You can compete every year you're in high school, and you can bring back a pitch you've submitted before.

If you are resubmitting a previous pitch, we'd encourage you to improve it rather than send it as it was. A pitch you've reworked with what you learned last time has a far better chance of winning.

Yes. From the moment you register you can say you're taking part in the Blue Ocean Student Entrepreneur Competition, and you can list the Blue Ocean Mini-Course and the certificate of completion you get for finishing it.

Once you submit your pitch, you'll receive a Certificate of Participation, and students who place in the competition receive a Certificate of Recognition. Those come after the winners are announced in May.

Blue ocean strategy is usually taught at university level, so having studied it in high school sets you apart. And because students from across the world compete, admissions officers recognise it as an international competition rather than a local one.

Yes. Register early, even if you don't have an idea yet.

As soon as you register, you get access to the Blue Ocean Mini-Course, which teaches you the fundamentals of blue ocean strategy and how to develop your pitch. You also get resources to help you create a blue ocean idea and prepare your pitch.

The competition looks for blue ocean ideas. These are ideas that offer buyers a leap in value at low cost and stand apart from the existing alternatives, so they have no need to fight them head-to-head.

You learn a structured approach based on blue ocean strategy, and you use its tools and frameworks to develop your idea and explain it in your pitch.

Yes. Using blue ocean tools is a mandatory part of the competition.

The tools include the Strategy Canvas, the Three Tiers of Noncustomers, the Buyer Utility Map and the Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create Grid, and the Blue Ocean Mini-Course teaches you how to use them.

To see how judges assess your use of the tools, look at the judging criteria.

No. You can enter with a business idea alone. Some pitch competitions ask for a business already built around the idea. Here you can compete with the concept, as long as you can build a business model around it and show how that business would succeed, whether for-profit or non-profit.

Your idea can be completely new, or it can build on a product that already exists, as long as it offers buyers a leap in value at a cost the business can sustain.

Your pitch is judged mainly on the strength of your idea, its blue ocean potential, its feasibility and commercial potential, and how well you explain it.

No, a prototype isn't a requirement. The further you take your idea, though, the higher your chances of winning. If you've made a prototype, or even a mock-up, showing it in your pitch helps.

Anything that strengthens your case can help show your idea is feasible, including research, testing, customer interviews, user feedback, or evidence that the idea already works.

Formal market research isn't a submission requirement. Strong evidence does make your pitch much more persuasive, though.

Avoid claims like "Millions of people will want this" without explaining why. Research, credible statistics, customer interviews, surveys, market estimates and other evidence can show how important the opportunity is and how big it could be.

No. Any idea is a great idea. In fact, technology innovation only counts when linked to buyer value. Read this blog to learn the difference between technology innovation and value innovation.

If your idea does propose new technology, what would make your pitch stand out is to provide some proof of how that's going to happen. Some scientific research, or a reference to scientific research, would be useful. If your idea isn't dependent on technology, you don't need that. Take Comic Relief, a charity where you just ask people to wear red noses. They have generated billions in charity for that, with no technology whatsoever involved.

You don't have to know if it works in order to submit it. But the closer you can get to it, the better. Market research is about the need for the product — creating a prototype and asking people about their interest in it. You'll never know if something works until you produce a product and put it in the market. But we want you to actually think about it, and what you're doing is creating the idea. What kinds of things can you do? How far can you take it?

The last piece is doing research. If you have an idea and it doesn't exist today, the amount of research we get back in terms of components of the idea that do exist is amazing. The more that you can share, the more feasible it is, and the higher your score will be.

Blue ocean businesses don't necessarily depend on technology, so you can come up with great ideas that involve no new technology. Don't feel like it has to have some high-tech technology that you do not have. Ideally, the technology was there all the time and all you're doing is creating something very useful that nobody ever thought of using. Pitches can be for-profit or non-profit.

Yes. AI is a tool like any other, and using it won't count against you. You don't need to declare it.

Where it helps is in building things: coding your platform, designing an app, producing visuals, running research, tidying up your script. Use it as much as you like for any of that.

Where it doesn't help is in coming up with the idea itself. Your pitch is judged by human beings who watch thousands of them, and they can tell the difference between an idea someone has genuinely thought through and one that was handed to them. An AI-generated idea tends to be generic, and generic ideas don't place. The thinking — why this problem, why this approach, why nobody has done it this way — has to be yours.

Keep each pitch to one idea. You only have five minutes, and for each product you need to show who the competitors are, how you're different, and why it would work — you can't do justice to two in that time.

If you have more than one idea, you're welcome to submit more than one pitch. But we'd recommend focusing on one and making it great.

Yes. Keep in mind that the Blue Ocean Competition specifically assesses how well you apply blue ocean strategy. You may need to rework your pitch so it clearly shows your blue ocean thinking and uses the required tools.

If you are using scientific research, it may be a good idea to just put it on the page where you are talking about it. If you are working from a slideshow and talking over it, the citation can sit at the bottom of that slide. The most important finding that's relevant to you should be up there on the slide, with the citation underneath it.

No, but you're welcome to. We offer the Blue Ocean Mini-Course, which provides an overview of the blue ocean concepts. To stand a chance of winning this competition, you'll need to be familiar with, and use, some of the blue ocean strategy tools and frameworks such as the Strategy Canvas, Three Tiers of Noncustomers, Buyer Utility Map, and Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create Grid. By reading the books you will have a better understanding of blue ocean strategy and how to apply it to your novel idea. The books are full of inspiring examples as well!

Past competitors who placed highly in the competition have all read the books.

Upload your pitch video to YouTube with the hashtag #blueoceancompetition. Then go to the pitch submission form and submit both your YouTube link and your video file. Make sure the YouTube link works and that judges can access the video.

There's no set format. Voice-over animation, graphics or talking to camera all work, though we encourage you to use the templates provided to structure your pitch, which will increase your chances of winning.

You submit once.

Your pitch needs to meet all of these before you submit:

• You've registered for the competition.
• You've completed the online Blue Ocean Mini-Course. The access link was sent to you by email when you registered.
• Your pitch follows the guidelines in the blue ocean pitch template.
• You've used blue ocean tools and frameworks to describe your entrepreneurial idea. You do not stand a chance to win if you have not.
• You've uploaded your video to YouTube with the hashtag #blueoceancompetition.
• Your video is 3-5 minutes long. Shorter or longer pitches get disqualified.
• Your video file is in one of these formats: mp4, qt, webm, mov, wmv, flv.
• Your video file is named after your own product or idea. If your product is called SolarSip, name the file SolarSip.mp4. Don't submit files called Untitled.mp4, FinalVersion2.mov, or anything else that doesn't identify your idea.
• Your video file is under 1 GB. Larger files cannot be uploaded.
• If you're working with a team, you're submitting only one entry for the team. You'll be asked to enter your team members' names on the submission form.

You can check all of this and submit at blueoceancompetition.org/submit.

Your pitch should be 3-5 minutes long. Shorter or longer pitches get disqualified, so check the length before you upload.

Videos must be presented at normal playback speed. Artificially speeding up the audio or video to fit within the 5-minute limit is not allowed and may result in disqualification.

All pitches must be in English.

Your video file needs to meet three requirements:

• Format: mp4, qt, webm, mov, wmv or flv.
• Size: under 1 GB. Larger files can't be uploaded.
• Name: named after your own product or idea. If your product is called SolarSip, name the file SolarSip.mp4. Don't submit files called Untitled.mp4, FinalVersion2.mov, or anything else that doesn't identify your idea.

No. Pitches received after the submission deadline will not be accepted.

Don't leave your upload until the last minute. Pitches received after the deadline aren't accepted, and video uploads, file processing, internet problems and other technical issues can take longer than you expect.

Aim to finish your submission well before the deadline. You can see this year's deadline on the competition timeline.

No. You submit your pitch once, so review your entry carefully before you send it and treat what you submit as your final pitch.

If there's a serious technical error, contact the Blue Ocean Competition team instead of submitting a duplicate entry.

Read the competition rules and the submission criteria carefully before you submit. Reasons for disqualification can include:

• Not meeting the eligibility requirements
• Not registering for the competition
• Not completing the required Blue Ocean Mini-Course
• Submitting copied or non-original work
• Not using the required blue ocean tools
• Submitting a pitch outside the required length
• Artificially speeding up a video
• Submitting after the deadline
• Violating laws or trademarks
• Inappropriate or harmful conduct
• Breaking other competition rules

Any video-recording software or app you're comfortable with. There's no required software. Some easy options:

• Zoom: record yourself while presenting your slides.
• PowerPoint: use the built-in recording feature to record your presentation and narration.
• Canva: create your slides and record your presentation directly in Canva.
• Loom: record your screen, your slides and yourself speaking.
• Google Slides with a screen recorder: present your slides while recording your screen and voice.
• Your phone or camera: record yourself delivering your pitch.
• Video-editing software such as iMovie, CapCut or Adobe Express, if you want to combine video clips, slides, images or narration.

Your video doesn't need to be professionally produced. Judges are assessing your business idea and how well you pitch it, and expensive equipment won't change their score.

Whichever method you choose, check three things before you submit: your voice is clear and easy to hear, your slides, graphics and text are easy to read, and the final video plays correctly from start to finish.

A simple presentation with clear slides and a strong explanation of your idea can be just as effective as a highly produced video. Put your time into developing your idea and explaining your blue ocean strategy clearly.

No. There's no required video format. Your pitch can use presenters, voice-over, graphics, animation, slides, demonstrations, or a mix of these. What matters is how clearly and convincingly you communicate your idea.

We start by choosing the Top 500 and Top 100 pitches, then narrow to the Top 30, then the Top 10, and then announce the winners. Each round takes roughly one to two weeks.

You submit once and are automatically considered in every round — there's nothing further to send. You can see this year's dates on the competition timeline.

First place wins $1,000, second place $750, and third place $500.

There's also a People's Choice Award of $750. Only Top 100 pitches are eligible. Once the Top 100 is announced, we upload those pitches to the Blue Ocean Competition YouTube channel and let you know when voting opens. The winner is chosen on a combination of YouTube likes, comments and shares, plus likes from our judges.

Judges assess every pitch across five categories, each worth 20% of the overall score:

• Blue Ocean Creativity & Value Innovation (20%): Does your idea create a meaningful leap in value? Does it stand apart from existing alternatives? Does it pursue differentiation and low cost at the same time, rather than competing in an existing market?
• Impact / Market Potential (20%): Does the idea address an important problem or opportunity? Is the potential market or social impact large? Can it appeal to a significant number of people, including noncustomers?
• Technical Feasibility (20%): Can the idea actually be built or put into practice? Does the technology it needs exist? Have you given research or evidence showing the concept is realistic?
• Commercial Viability & Scalability (20%): Can the idea become a viable business or a sustainable offering? Is there a credible path to adoption? Could it grow beyond a small group of early users?
• Quality of Presentation & Use of Blue Ocean Tools (20%): Is the idea presented clearly and convincingly? Can judges easily understand how it works? Have you applied blue ocean tools and frameworks properly, beyond simply mentioning them?

You can see the full scoring criteria for more detail.

Each pitch is watched by multiple judges, and judges are assigned pitches at random. They assess every pitch against the same scoring criteria, which are published so you can see exactly what you're being marked on.

Individual and team pitches are judged in exactly the same way, against those same criteria.

Our judges are seasoned entrepreneurs and businesspeople from around the world who will evaluate the pitches based on the competition criteria.

Only pitches the judges select for the Top 100 are eligible. Once the Top 100 is announced, we upload those pitches to the Blue Ocean Competition YouTube channel.

The winner is chosen on a combination of YouTube likes, comments and shares, plus likes from our judges. If your pitch makes the Top 100, ask your friends, classmates, teachers, family and wider community to watch and support it.

There are three certificates:

• Blue Ocean Mini-Course certificate of completion: for finishing the course. It arrives as soon as you finish.
• Certificate of Participation: for submitting a qualifying pitch. It's awarded when the winners are announced in May.
• Certificate of Recognition: for students who place in the competition. It's also awarded in May.

No. Judges use the same scoring criteria for every pitch, whether it comes from one student or a team.

No. Judges look at how well you communicate your idea. Clear thinking and a clear explanation count for far more than expensive cameras, professional animation or sophisticated editing.

Yes. You upload your pitch to YouTube yourself as part of submitting it, so it's public from that point.

If you make the Top 100, we also upload your pitch to the Blue Ocean Competition YouTube channel, and we'll let you know when that happens.

No. We receive thousands of pitches each year, so we aren't able to give individual feedback on any of them.

What you can do instead is look at the criteria the judges use, which are published on our Resources page. They tell you what each pitch is assessed on, so you can see where yours was strong and where it wasn't.

Get in touch through our Contact Us page.

If it's about a registration or submission problem, include your full name, the email address you registered with, and the name of your pitch if you've already submitted. That helps us sort it out faster.