An overview of some business plan competitions rules and procedures

1. Business Plan
Contests
SOROOSH MOHAMMAD
EBRAHIM

2. G. Steven Burrill Business Plan
Competition

3. About the G. Steven Burrill
Business Plan Competition
 Hundreds of students have participated in
the competition
 Often working in inter-disciplinary teams of
two or more people, students develop
and present a business plan to a panel of
judges.

4. Competition Support
The G. Steven Burrill competition is supported by
campus partners and community organizations:
 The Initiative for Studies in Transformational
Entrepreneurship
 The University of Wisconsin Technology Enterprise
Cooperative
 Wisconsin School of Business
 University of Wisconsin-Madison College of
Engineering
 University of Wisconsin-Madison College of
Agricultural and Life Sciences
 University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School

5. 1-Eligibilty
 The purpose of this competition is to
encourage collaboration across
disciplines, therefore teams
are strongly encouraged to have at least
2 people with complementary skills and
experiences
 Each team might include someone with
science or engineering qualifications as
well as business or social science
expertise.

6. 2-Qualifying Ideas and Tem
Composition
 Plans do not necessarily need to be based on
a technological innovation
 projects may be initially triggered either by (1)
the identification of a market need for a new
or substantially improved product or service
or; (2) the identification of a new technology
or method of conducting business that has
promise as the basis for a new or substantially
improved product or service.
 Teams may submit no more than three (3)
entries.

7. 3-Requirements
Participation in the competition will include:
 Online registration that includes submission of a Mini-
Plan (an outline of the proposed venture)
 Submission of a formal business plan with included
Cover Form (provided to teams on the submission
website)
 A formal presentation of the plan to a panel of
judges
 An exhibition table on the day of the contest
 All team members must attend the presentation of
their business plan to the panel of judges on the day
of competition.

8. 4-Contest Prizes
 First Prize $10,000
 Second Prize $7,000
 Third Prize $4,000
 Fourth Prize $1,000
 AARP Foundation Prize TBA
 WCEPS Prize $3,000
 Incubation space at University Research
Park (subject to availability and
determination of URP)

9. 5-Judging/Presentation
 Professionals selected from the
entrepreneurial community, including
entrepreneurs, investors, and
business/nonprofit leaders.

10. 6-Judging Criteria
 What is the problem your technology or product will solve?
Who has the problem? Who would be an early user of your
product? How big is the market?
 What is the nature of the product or service you will
provide? How will it work? What will it look like? What
differentiates it from competitors?
 Who are the most relevant competitors? Are there
important technological or regulatory risks to address?
 Do you have the relevant skills and experiences on the
founding team?
 What revenues will flow from expected sales or other
partnering? What will it cost to produce those revenues
and when will the company be profitable? How much
outside funding - if any - will be required to achieve the
organization's desired performance?

11. 8-Ownership/Disclosure
 Contestants must properly acknowledge any
trademarks or copyrighted materials of others that
are incorporated into the contestants’ materials.
 Where applicable, contestants may choose to file
patent applications on their own
 The judging/presentation will be conducted in an
open meeting with possible attendance by
faculty, students and staff of UW-Madison as well
as media representatives and the general public.
By participating in this competition, contestants
agree to allow their presentations to be recorded
and/or broadcast online.

12. Resources
 Resources
 Business Planning Outline - Commerce
 Business Planning Tips
 Market Research - Slides
 Market Research - Handout
 Choosing a Legal Entity
 Financial Projections and Feasibility Analysis and
SCORE financial model
 Using Intellectual Property Strategically
 Retailing
 Sample mini-plans (teams must submit a mini-plan
when registering for the competition)

13. Wisconsin Entrepreneurial
Bootcamp 2015 will be June
15-19, 2015
 The Wisconsin Entrepreneurial Bootcamp
(WEB) is a one-week intensive training
program in technology entrepreneurship
for graduate students in the sciences,
engineering, and math.
 opportunities using multiple lenses;
develop resources for an organization by
forming teams and seeking funding; and
use accounting and finance as language
and assessment tools.

15. Rice University Business Plan
Competition (“RBPC”)

16. Entry
 iStart Business Setup information, the
Application and Executive Summary must
be completed
 Schools may submit an unlimited number
of entries, but typically only 1-2 teams per
school will be invited to compete.

17. General Notices
 Withdrawal Penalty
If a confirmed team DROPS OUT AFTER MARCH
18, 2015 at 5:00 pm CDT FOR ANY REASON, their
school will be ineligible to compete in the RBPC
and approximately 25 affiliated university
business plan competitions for two years.
 Use of Conference Materials
The Rice Alliance reserves the right to use any
material prepared for the RBPC in publicizing
and promoting the event

18. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
 Team Size
The presenting (competing) team should include at least two
current students and not exceed five current students.
 Team Composition
This is a competition for graduate students, and at least one
currently enrolled graduate student must be a member of the
venture’s startup management team, and must be part of the
team that presents in the competition
 Outside Funding
All ventures must be seeking outside equity capital, typically
early stage venture investment or early stage angel
investment. All ventures must be “for profit” entities

19. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
 Student Involvement
 The competition is for student-created
and -managed ventures, including new
ventures launched by licensing university
technology.
 A goal of the competition is to support the
commercialization of promising university
technologies through the licensing of
technologies to start-up ventures.

20. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
 Students are expected to
1. be the driving force behind the new venture
2. have played the primary role in developing the business
plan
3. have key management roles in the venture, and
4. own significant equity in the venture. In general, a
member of the student team should be CEO, COO, or
President of the venture, or members of the student team
should occupy 50% or more of the functional area
management positions that report directly to the CEO,
COO, or President. Members of the student team are
expected to also own equity in the new venture. It is
anticipated that students should own 50% of the equity
that is allocated to the management team.

21. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
 University Sponsored
 The business plan must be prepared under faculty
supervision. Ideally, the business plan will be
prepared for credit in a regularly scheduled
course or as an independent study.
 Each team MUST have the endorsement of a
faculty advisor at their school and must provide
contact information for their faculty advisor,
regardless of whether or not the advisor will travel
with the team to Rice University. All faculty advisors
will be contacted for verification.

22. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
 Nature of Ventures
The competition is for new, independent ventures in the seed,
start-up, or early growth stages. Generally excluded are the
following: buy-outs, expansions of existing companies, real
estate syndications, tax shelters, franchises, licensing
agreements for distribution in a different geographical area,
and spin-outs from existing corporations. Licensing
technologies from universities or research labs is encouraged,
assuming they have not been commercialized previously.
 Prior Activity
Technologies may be presented in the RBPC only once.
Competing team members may participate in the RBPC more
than once if entering with a new venture/new technology.

23. GENERAL GUIDELINES
 Non-confidentiality
 entrants should not assume any right of
confidentiality in any data or information
discussed, divulged, or presented in these
sessions
 Due to the nature of the competition, we
are not able to ask judges, reviewers,
staff, or the audience to agree to or sign
non-disclosure statements.

24. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
 Guidelines
Executive summaries must be 2 to 5 pages of text and should
include information on:
 Company summary
 Customer/market analysis: market size, potential market
share and the problem or need your company solves
 Product or service description including current state of
development
 Intellectual property: status of patents and licenses (if
applicable)
 Competitive differentiation
 Management team and/or advisors, including relevant
experience
 Financial: 3-5 year projection of revenue, profit and cash
flow
 Amount of investment you are seeking and use of funds

25. WRITTEN BUSINESS PLAN
 Contents of the Written Business Plan
your business plan should include (max 10 pages—Cover page or
table of contents is not included in count):
 Cover Sheet (Company Name, School. Presenting Team Members,
Team Leader contact info)
 Executive Summary
 Product or service description (incl. current status of development
– beta, prototype, etc.)
 Customer/Market analysis (market size and potential market share)
 Sales and Marketing Plan (how you will go-to-market)
 Intellectual property status (e.g., patents, licenses, etc.)
 Competitor Analysis (competitors and your competitive
differentiation)
 Management team and/or advisors, including relevant experience
 Financial highlights (cash flow, income statement, & balance
sheet)
 Offering of the company (how much investment you are seeking,
uses of funding, possible exits)

26. ELEVATOR PITCH
 The Elevator Pitch is your business overview that you
should be able to deliver powerfully and concisely to
any investor who happens to ride the same elevator
as you.
 All Teams will compete in the Elevator Pitch
Competition
 Each team will be given a maximum of 60 seconds to
present its elevator pitch to the panel of judges, as
well as general audience
 Index cards or other notes should not be used in the
Elevator Pitch Competition, as you would not expect
to have the benefit of these notes in a real life
situation. This presentation will be given by one team
member.

27. ELEVATOR PITCH
 Judges Evaluation Criteria
 Clear explanation of their product/service and the
problem it solves (i.e., the customer need)
 How their company is unique and differentiated
 Sizable market opportunity and ability to
penetrate that market
 Current Development Stage
 Viable business model
 Clear measures of success and potential exit
opportunities
 Understanding of how much money is needed
and how it will be used

30. THE CONRAD SPIRIT OF
INNOVATION CHALLENGE

31. THE CONRAD SPIRIT OF
INNOVATION CHALLENGE
 WAS FOUNDED BY NANCY CONRAD IN HONOR OF
HER LATE HUSBAND, ASTRONAUT, INNOVATOR, AND
ENTREPRENEUR, CHARLES “PETE” CONRAD JR.
 THE CONRAD CHALLENGE IS AN ANNUAL, MULTI-
PHASE INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURIAL
COMPETITION THAT BRINGS TOGETHER A DYNAMIC
COMMUNITY OF INNOVATORS AND ENTREPRENEURS
DRIVING A COLLABORATIVE MOVEMENT TO DEVELOP
EXTRAORDINARY AND VIABLE SOLUTIONS TO BENEFIT
OUR WORLD IN ONE OF FOUR AREAS:
AEROSPACE & AVIATION, CYBER TECHNOLOGY &
SECURITY, ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT, AND HEALTH &
NUTRITION.

32. Aerospace & Aviation
 describes the human effort in science,
engineering and business to fly in the
Earth’s atmosphere and surrounding
space. Aerospace organizations research,
design, manufacture, operate, or
maintain aircraft and/or spacecraft.
 Examples include: avionics,
aerodynamics, human factors/cockpit
design, and propulsion systems.

33. Cyber-Technology & Security
 is information technology and security as applied to
computing devices, as well as computer networks such as
private and public networks. The field covers all the
processes and mechanisms by which computer-based
equipment, information and services are protected from
unintended or unauthorized access, change or destruction.
The field also includes protection from unplanned events
and natural disasters.
 Examples include: artificial intelligence applications,
network defense systems, counter intelligence technologies
for government, data-driven energy management
technologies, smart security technologies, and database
models to track, predict, and categorize natural disasters.

34. Energy & Environment
 includes all fields that study the human
use of natural resources and the impact
of human activity on the environment.
 Examples include: energy storage, energy
efficiency, renewable resources,
sustainable land use, recycling solutions,
environmental health, water resources,
biodiversity, climate change, waste
management, and other clean
technology innovations.

35. Health & Nutrition
 encompasses fields of study regarding
the human body and behavior as they
relate to wellness and medicine.
 Examples include: prosthetics, nutrition
science, exercise science, medical
technology, hunger solutions, mental
health, assistive technology, healthcare
services, healthcare safety, and
biomedical engineering.

36. PETE CONRAD SCHOLARS
Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge winning
teams are recognized as Pete Conrad Scholars.
This prestigious ranking acknowledges top
entrepreneur achievers and encourages the
continued development of their innovative
product. These young entrepreneurs are eligible
to receive exclusive opportunities as provided
by our sponsors including consultations,
internship introductions, contacts, intellectual
property guidance and additional funding as
provided by our partners.