Applications are now open for Canada's Business Model Competition, the Halifax event that will allow a team of university students the right to attend the International Business Model Competition at Brigham Young University.

Teams interested in competing in the competition must submit their video application by Monday, Feb. 17. The competition will be held at Dalhousie University March 14-15.

Dalhousie University professors Ed Leach and Mary Kilfoil initiated the program last year, creating a Canadian base for the competition that had already been going in the U.S. for a couple of years. The international consultancy Deloitte Canada joined as a partner, and will provide $50,000 in cash and in-kind services for the Canadian winners.

In an interview Tuesday, Leach said at least a dozen universities will enter the Canadian competition.  There will be a few entries from Dalhousie. There will also be at least two from St. Mary’s University, which will have entries from the Masters of Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation program, as well as the Sobey School of Business. And both the Fredericton and Saint John campuses of University of New Brunswick are expected to be represented.

The competition is designed to recognize teams – with at least two members currently enrolled as students – that best exemplify the lean startup methodology devised by Berkeley professor Steve Blank. The kernel of his philosophy is that entrepreneurs should talk to dozens, maybe hundreds, of potential customers before they begin developing their project. The idea is to make sure they are developing something with an eager market before they spend money and time developing it.

The competition itself will assess teams that come up with a striking hypothesis, test it with a vast numbers of interviews and adjust their business model to respond to what they hear from potential customers.

Blank himself will address the competition by a video link at 4 pm on Friday, March 14.

The winning team will proceed to the international finals at Brigham Young, and other teams can apply for additional spots at the event in Utah.

In 2013, Spring Loaded Technology, which is developing a knee brace that adds power as well as stability to the knee joint, captured first place at the Canadian event.  Runner-up Purchext, whose product helps students and parents with banking services, landed on of the eight open slots and also attended the international finals.