USF Entrepreneurship Program - 2008 International Business Plan Competition

April 24 - 26, 2008


Rules and Judging Criteria

We expect an exciting and valuable event for everyone participating in the competition. In the following, we provide the event rules, judging criteria, and eligibility criteria. Rules are subject to change without prior notice.
There are 5 phases of the competition: 1) Initial Screening of proposals to determine the Invited Semi-finalists, 2) Ungraded Warm-up/Feedback/Coaching Round  3) Trade Show and Elevator pitch presentations, 4) Semi-finalist presentations, and 5) Finalist presentations. Every team that passes the initial screen, is invited, and attends the competition, will at least participate in the ungraded coaching round and compete in the Elevator pitch with Trade Show and Semi-final presentation events. The 5 finalists chosen from the approximately 20 semi-finalists will present their proposals in the final round.
The judging criteria are those of a venture capitalist; simply, how likely are the judges to invest their fund's capital into your business? This decision is, of course, based on the likely success of your enterprise, its competitive advantage, growth and profit potential, relative risk, management team strength, and payback or return on their investment, among other factors. (The competition is primarily for growth-oriented enterprises, not small-businesses. This does not rule out traditional businesses, such as restaurants, retail, etc., but these businesses should be growth oriented. That is to say, an individual sandwich shop business would likely not be selected; however, a franchise lunch business might be.) We provide the specific rules for each round of the competition below.

1. Initial Screening: February 18 - Mar. 3. All proposals received by the deadline will be evaluated by the Screening Panel. Teams should only submit a proposal if they definitely plan on attending if accepted. The judging will be based solely on your 5 - 7 page proposal. (Proposal Format is described in the Registration tab.) The proposal should be emailed by one of the student contestants from his/her (.edu) email address at his/her own university. No additional information or longer business plan is required, nor will it be evaluated. The submission should be in one document (word or PDF including all elements of the proposal and appendices). Any proposals with attached non-disclosure agreements will NOT be read, and will be discarded. Proposals should be emailed to the Contest Chair, Prof. Mark Cannice (cannice@usfca.edu) no later than February 18, 2008. Early submissions are encouraged and early decisions may be made on exceptional proposals. All teams will be notified of the judges screening evaluation by February 18. The Judges' decisions are final and not subject to appeal or negotiation. The selection criteria, again, are those of a venture capitalist (see above paragraph). Invited semi-finalists will be asked to re-confirm their acceptance of a semi-finalist position as soon as possible, and no later than 48 hours after the time of email notification of acceptance. If re-confirmation of an invitation is not provided within 48 hours of acceptance notification, the invitation may be withdrawn. Acceptance of a semi-finalist position indicates the team's commitment to travel to San Francisco for the entire competition weekend.
For the presentation rounds, the judges will make their assessment on your presentation alone. They will not have seen your proposals before (beyond a very brief description of your company).

2. Warm-up/Coaching round April 24 (Thursday morning). The warm-up round (55 minutes of presentation rehearsal and feedback before USF Entrepreneurship Program Coaches) is meant to enhance the presentation and success of each team. Teams typically comment how helpful and important this aspect of the contest is to them. The coaches in these sessions do not judge the graded parts of the contest (but often have judged previous contests) and so can give honest and helpful advice on how the team may enhance their full presentation and elevator pitch for maximum impact.

3. Meet & Greet Trade Show Display/Elevator Pitch Presentations April 24  (Thursday evening). Each team should come prepared with a small display describing their company, product, or service. Before and after the elevator pitches, judges and guests will have the opportunity to informally meet contestants at their display booth. This should be a good opportunity to gain exposure for your company to a group of interested investors and executives. Following the initial display booth reception, each team will be given a maximum of 90 seconds to present its elevator pitch to the panel of judges. This pitch should include the main concepts of your business proposal that you wish to communicate to the judges and audience. We suggest covering most of the items listed in the suggested proposal format that you completed for your initial entry. No projection/internet equipment will be available for this presentation. You may, if you wish, provide the judges' panel with a '1 page' handout (diagram, drawing, picture, or chart – no more than 6 copies to be distributed) of your product/service or provide 1 prototype device. The 1 page handout should provide very little, if any, text. You should plan to communicate the essence of your business orally within the 90 seconds you are allotted. This presentation may be given by one or by multiple team members. (However, we suggest no more than 2, and please remember that only current students may present at the competition.) These 90 seconds shall be uninterrupted. Following your elevator pitch, the judges may comment on your presentation for up to 3 minutes (e.g. would this pitch get you a meeting in their office?, what they liked and did not like about it, etc.), but will not proceed to Q&A. The 3 minutes is for judges' comments alone. Q&A may be done at the trade show exhibit before the elevator pitch and the semi-final and final rounds. The judges' panel will consist of 15 - 20 venture capitalist partners and chief executives. After all the pitches have been given (during the tabulation of the scores), judges may visit the trade booth displays to speak with contestants again.
The elevator pitch competition is scored by the judges, and a winner is announced; however, this phase of the competition does not directly affect each team's semi-final status. In other words, regardless of who wins the elevator competition, all teams will give a semi-final presentation the following day. However, the team's ranking in the elevator pitch presentation and Trade Show will determine the 'Wildcard' Finalist. The Wildcard Finalist will be chosen from amongst the second place teams in each semi-final session. The second place team in a semi-final session with the highest combined Elevator Pitch Competition and Trade Show ranking will earn a 'Wildcard Finalist' Position in the Final Round.

4. Semi-finalist Presentations April 25 morning or afternoon. Semi-final sessions (4) will run from 9am - noon, and from 1pm - 4pm. PowerPoint Projection equipment will be available. Five teams will be in each session. Each team will have 15 minutes to present its business proposal in its session (not including Q&A). After each presentation, the judges' panel (4 or 5 venture capitalists and senior executives) will be allowed 15 minutes of Q&A. The session judges will select a first and second place team in each semi-final session. The first place team in each session will present in the finals. The second place team with the highest combined ranking in the 'Elevator Pitch' and Trade Show Competition from among all of the second place teams in the semi-final sessions, will be awarded the 'Wildcard' Finalist Position. Teams should plan on being ready to present in either the morning or afternoon semi-final sessions, as the seeding of the sessions will not be made until after the elevator pitch contest the night before. This is necessary to ensure a fair seeding of each semi-final session based on your initial proposal as well as the evaluation of the judges at the elevator pitch contest and the expertise of each session’s judges (e.g. life science or IT).

5. Finalist Presentations April 26 morning. Each team will have 15 minutes to present their proposal, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A by the judges panel (8 - 10 venture capitalist partners and chief executives). After the 5 presentations, the judges will score their cards and select a winner and runner up. (Judges' decisions are final and not subject to negotiation or appeal.)

Eligibility

The USF Contest is a contest for currently enrolled Graduate Students from any discipline (e.g. science, engineering, business, etc.) and from every country. A team may have non-students in it. However, only students may present and answer questions during formal presentations at the competition. Non student team members are encouraged to attend the contest. All team members, students and non-students, must be indicated on the proposal, along with their titles in the company and their individual contact information (students and faculty should provide a .edu email). If a team is comprised of graduate students and non-students, at least one of the graduate students must be a principal of the company (have a significant equity position in the firm – see below guidelines). All teams must have a faculty advisor listed on their proposal. The faculty advisor must be with a university. The faculty advisor may be a Dean, Director, or Professor. The faculty advisor's main role is to a) be able to confirm enrollment of at least one of the team's members, b) assist the team in the preparation of its proposal and presentation when possible, c) assist the team in obtaining travel funding from the team’s own university when possible. The faculty adviser is highly encouraged but not required to attend. A team is considered to be from 1 – 4 students and 1 faculty adviser. There is no fee to attend the contest for each team. If a team wishes to have more than a total of 5 contestants or non-team supporters (e.g. spouses, friends, etc.) attend any part of the contest, a registration fee of $100/individual above the 5 cut-off is required. This fee should be made out to USF Entrepreneurship Program.

Venture and Team Eligibility Rules

Student Involvement. The competition is for student created, managed, and owned ventures. In other words, students must (1) have played a major role in conceiving the venture, (2) have key management roles in the venture, and (3) 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 should also own 50% or more of the equity allocated to the management team and key advisors. An equity position of less than 50% of the equity allocated to the management team and key advisers, and/or less than 20% of the total equity of the venture will be suspect and require the students to show evidence that they were a major cause in the venture creation. One objective of this rule is to exclude ventures formed and managed by non-students who have given token equity to MBAs for writing their business plan.

Team Composition. This is a competition for graduate students, and at least one graduate student must be a member of the venture’s startup management team. A team with a few undergraduates will be allowed to compete, and the undergraduates may participate fully. All graduate students, not just MBA candidates, are eligible to participate in the competition. This includes executive MBAs. Non-students may be members of the venture’s management team and may participate in planning the venture. However, only students may participate in the competition. In other words, only students may present the plan and answer questions from the competition judges. The maximum number of students on a competition team is five (5); although there is no restriction on the total size of the venture’s founding team.

Student Enrollment. The competition is for students enrolled in the current academic year. Students who graduated in the preceding academic year are not eligible to participate. However, an exception will be made for students who both wrote their business plans for academic credit and graduated during the preceding summer. An exception will also be made for students from universities south of the equator that have a different academic year.

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 not excluded and is encouraged assuming they have not been commercialized previously. All ventures must be seeking outside equity capital.




2008 Competition Details