Contest Instructions

Eligibility

The WPI Venture Forum Business Plan Contest is open to New England technology-based, pre-start, startup, and on-going businesses. Students are eligible. The venture must involve the development of a new product, a new application, or process in an existing business or the start-up of a new technology-based business. Mentoring is available to eligible entrepreneurs with a substantially developed and pre-screened business plan.

Mentoring

Eligible entrants may receive one complimentary contest mentoring session up to 30 days preceding the contest submission deadline, by qualified professionals and experienced entrepreneurs affiliated with the WPI Venture Forum.

A completed Mentoring Request Form must be mailed to: WPI Venture Forum, Business Plan Mentoring, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609-2280.

Download the mentoring request form [PDF].

Mentoring helps perfect and finalize business plans for submission. A substantially completed draft business plan must be submitted for pre-screening to ensure a constructive mentoring dialogue. Plans are not shared with the contest judges. Eligible applicants may receive expert advice related to business plan development. We do our best to pair applicants with appropriate mentors.

If you have questions regarding the criteria for the mentoring screening, please contact Gary Schall at 781-890-8800 or gschall@gunder.com.

Deadline, Form, and Fee

For applicants not requesting mentoring, applications and executive summaries are due by 5:00 P.M. October 15, 2007. The contest fee is $50.00 and should be submitted at the time of application. Mailing instructions are on the downloadable contest application.

Judging

Judging occurs in two rounds on the WPI campus: a semi-final and final presentation round. Those advancing from round one will present in round two. Entrants can expect feedback from the judges in the form of scoring criteria points and personal comments. Presentation details will be provided in ample time prior to each event. The winner will be the venture that the judges feel has the best chance for success. Judges decisions are final.

Semi-final Presentations

Semi-final presentations will be heard on Saturday, October 27, 2007, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in the WPI Campus Center. We provide a projection system and laptops with the most current version of Windows software. Semi-finalists will receive an email indicating the date and time of their presentations. Times and dates cannot be changed once set.

Do not bring your full business plan at this time.

Each semi-final team will have fifteen minutes to make a presentation in the format of their choice. We do not provide a template for presentations. Prototypes in any stage of completion are heartily welcomed. Judges will have fifteen minutes to ask questions. To learn more about the competitive scoring that will be used to rank each presentation, please see the Ranking Criteria [PDF]. Please check for updated versions as the ranking criteria may change this year.

Final Presentations

Finalists will be notified by email when they need to submit a full business plan. Finalists will present to a WPI Venture Forum audience on the evening of Tuesday, November 13, 2007 in the WPI Campus Center Odeum Room between 6:00-9:00 PM. Finalist presentations are a public disclosure. The winner will be announced at the conclusion of that program.

The Prize

Cash and professional business services are the result of an aggressive fundraising campaign and may vary from year to year. Generally the prizes range in the area of $20,000.

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Last modified: Sep 20, 2007, 15:50 EDT