On Monday night, 30 teams and individuals each had 60 seconds to win $1,000.
During a one-hour, no-strings-attached event held at Friend 101, students pitched minute-long business ideas before a panel of five judges, all local businessmen, in a competition for the $1,000 check.
The third annual Princeton Pitch was a warmup for TigerLaunch, a full-scale business competition that doles out thousands of dollars in seed money to Princetonian startups. Both events are sponsored by the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club.
Clad in clothes ranging from business casual to casual, students alternately joked and entreated the judges to support their ideas, inspiring reactions from intrigue to laughter. The atmosphere was exciting and at times frenzied as a clock counted down 60 seconds per pitch, with numbers enlarged on a projection screen.
"The concept is that you get 60 seconds to deliver a pitch on your business idea, and it's like being in the elevator with an angel investor ... and having a limited amount of time to quickly pitch your company," said Nikhil Basu Trivedi ’11, former co-president of the entrepreneurship club.
Each judge had a rubric of five categories in which they can ranked each contestant on a scale of 1 to 5. The judges made the final decision in a post-competition discussion.
"In business, you must write up an executive summary, business plan, etc. Princeton Pitch is just a chance to get up there and do it," Basu Trivedi said.
This year's pitches included condoms made and distributed in Liberia, a topless rodeo bar and a home-cooked food delivery system.
Ultimately the judges awarded the top prize to "China's Netflix," dreamed up by Guanchun Wang, who is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the electrical engineering department. The Netflix service in the United States offers subscribers instant video streaming online and rentals of DVDs by mail.
Wang, who presented with Zhen Xiang, also a Ph.D. student in the electrical engineering department, described their business as "a legal and viable way to capitalize growing home entertainment demand in China."
Wang said that their business will "provide a competitive pricing scheme to challenge piracy in China."
"Content providers ... will be welcoming us to join the market," he continued, "because we will be able to provide another stream of revenue for [them]."

Regulators, Wang said, would also be willing to get on board. "The Chinese government will eventually crack down on piracy and would love to have a legal and viable alternative business model," he explained.
The pair has proposed several improvements over Netflix that they argue could make them a legitimate contender in China's entertainment market.
"Netflix makes recommendations only based on [a customer's] browsing history. [The next step] is to look at reviews submitted by users, which involves parsing through language and understanding the language," Wang explained.
Wang and Xiang, who were both born and raised in China, intend to capitalize on their Chinese background to better relate to and understand potential customers.
Despite their current enthusiasm, Wang and Xiang said they will hold off on putting the large check to use at least until Wang has graduated. For now, the validation the pair has received from winning the Princeton Pitch competition is enough.
"The award itself is more meaningful to us," Wang said. "We're really pleased that the judges actually agree with our vision. Maybe with this behind us, we will be able to talk with content providers and other potential investors."