General
The Competition will consist of a number of rounds so that participants are able to develop better and more detailed business plans. Professionals will be judging at each round-narrowing the contestant pool.
Launch
The competition will be announced and marketed in February with a pre-competition event held in early February. This formal launch event of the competition will be informational and serve to give students the opportunity to meet each other and receive information about the competition guidelines, mentoring, etc.
Registration & Submission of Executive Summaries
The first step of the competition is for teams to register with their team names and group members. Next, they will submit a short executive summary, which details the business concept, market opportunity, competitive advantage, resources required, and team membership qualifications. The executive summaries will be due in March of 2010, and are then judged by members of the business and technology communities, including venture capitalists in March. These judges will determine which teams qualified to advance to the semi-final round. The competing teams are invited to participate in a series of workshops throughout February, covering topics relevant to completing a business plan. Contestants will be encouraged to work with a team mentor(s) who have expertise in their selected industry. Mentors will be recruited by Competition Advisory Panel members, faculty and staff of UCSC. Mentors will be encouraged to attend events and submit brief biographical information to the competition web portal. Students will also be encourage to participate in independent study through the Economics Department, or their relevant academic division.
Semi-Final Round
In mid-April, all teams selected after the initial executive summary round to continue to compete will submit a complete business plan to the competition. At this judging event, the teams pitch their ideas and answer questions on their business plans from the judges. After approximately one week, and much deliberation, the judges will select the finalists to proceed to the final round of the competition.
Final Round
The selected finalist teams will each submit revised complete business plans to the competition one week in advance of the final judging events. Judges will review and make preliminary assessments preceding the final presentation events. Each team will give a private presentation to the panel of distinguished final round judges at end of May. The following day, teams will make presentations to a public audience, following which the competition winners will be announced. The winners and sponsors will be prominently celebrated during the final presentation and award ceremony. There, the prize winners will be announced with a keynote speech and recognition of sponsors, mentors and judges
The business plans will be evaluated on the basis of the originality of the idea, viability of the business model, and the potential for future financial success. The winners receive cash prizes and the possibility of venture financing.
Restrictions
The size of the competition will be limited only by the number of faculty, technology and business community mentors willing to guide students toward strong business plan creation. We anticipate that we will get a large number of applicants. After an initial round(s) of judging, the competition finals will consist of 10 to 15 teams. The number of members on a team will not be limited in any way.