A global pitch competition built on a simple bet: if you can't say it in seven minutes, you don't understand it yet.
Three minutes is barely enough to set up a hypothesis. Eighteen minutes is too long for an audience that did not come to learn your field. Seven minutes is the sweet spot — long enough to lay out the problem, the insight, and the consequence, short enough that you have to cut everything that does not matter.
It is the same constraint that makes great writing readable and great products useful: the discipline of doing less.
7MT was founded in 2009 by a group of doctoral students and early-stage founders who were frustrated that the most interesting ideas of their generation were trapped behind impenetrable language. The original format ran across three universities in its first year and reached fewer than 200 people. In 2025 the competition spanned 14 countries, 47 host institutions, and over 3,400 entrants.
7MT is operated by a small, independent non-profit governed by an academic and industry advisory board. Day-to-day production is run by volunteers from past finalist cohorts. The competition is funded by host-institution partnerships and a small set of long-term technology sponsors. We accept no submissions fees from contestants — entry is free for everyone, everywhere.
If your university, lab, or company would like to host a regional heat or support the prize pool, write to partners@7mt.org.