An independent standards body
The Pitch Competition Standards Council standardizes one thing: the score. It does this with a weighted rubric, a written definition of what every score actually means, and one rule about how judges must work. Run your event however you like. The standard is free to adopt and free to publish before your applications open.
Document status
Why a standard
Most hosts use their own rubrics and many do not publish, so an entrant cannot know what they will be measured against until they are in the room. Moreover, a score at one competition means nothing at another. A standard, published rubric closes that gap. Events that run it unmodified produce totals that compare directly with each other.
Most scoring tools capture a number and total it correctly. Very few tell the judge what that number is supposed to mean at the moment they choose it, so the scale is left to private interpretation and drifts between judges, panels and rounds. This is to say nothing about professional normalization and scaling.
Placements get published; the reasoning behind them usually does not. Without a per-criterion breakdown and personal judge notes, the entrant leaves with a rank and nothing they can act on, and the host has nothing to point at if the result is ever questioned. With uniform evaluation criteria, a 7.4 has deeper meaning.
A panel that talks its way to an answer has produced an opinion, not a score.
The Standard, Section 1.0
Most competitions treat the panel discussion as the serious part of judging. The judges huddle,
compare impressions and align on a winner. But the moment the most senior, most famous or most persuasive judge says what they thought, a panel of five becomes one judge and four ratifiers, and
the disagreement the host recruited five judges to get is smoothed away before it can count for
anything.
The PCSC employs a method that judged Olympic sports incorporated long ago.
In Olympic sports, like figure skating, gymnastics and diving, judges evaluate independently, communication between them during evaluation is restricted or prohibited, and scores are combined by formula rather than by discussion. Section 1.0 takes the same position. Judges score alone from the published band wording, scores lock before any discussion, and the result is arithmetic rather than negotiated. A question of fact may still be raised before scores lock; a statement of opinion is out of order.
What is standardized
The council standardizes the score and nothing else. How you run your competition is up to you, and the guidance we publish for it binds nobody.
The council does not require any particular software, and any platform that preserves the published weights conforms to the standard. The council does recommend LiveJudge™ because the rubric is shipped with the system (it can be modified as needed so it's not tied to the Standard): see Software.
The standard
The standard is not a template to fill in. It is a finished rulebook you can adopt as written.
Read the StandardIf the rubric is used as published, the event may boast the PCSC seal. Events are free to change the divisions, the time limits or the format and may still boast the seal. How you can run your event lives in the Event Guidelines, which recommend and require nothing. The seal is free to display.
How to cite this standard
Pitch Competition Standards Council. (2026). The Judging Standard for Business Pitch Competitions, Version 1.0. pitchcouncil.org/rubric/
Adoption
Running to the standard is not a certification you purchase. If your competition conforms to the standard, you have qualified.
The (including the weights) must be published at or about the time contestants apply. Entrants should be able to read the rubric before deciding to enter.
Judges must score the published criteria at the published weights using the rubric's criteria. Weights may be declared within the published allowance; nothing else in the rubric may change.
Judges should score alone and commit their scores before any discussion of the entry. The panel should not confer to reconcile scores or agree on a placement (except in cases of a tie).
Give every entrant their own score breakdown by criterion. A founder should leave knowing where they lost, not just that they lost. LiveJudge users receive scoresheets and judge feedback memos.
One claim, one seal. An event that keeps the four conditions above runs to the PCSC Standard and may say so. Everything the seal does not cover, the format, the timing, the divisions, is yours, and changing it costs you nothing. Free to display, nothing to sign, in light and dark versions.
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Tell us which event, which section, and what you would change.