Boise State Business Plan Challenge

Sponsored by Boise State University College of Business and Economics and the Center for Entrepreneurship

The Spirit of the Competition
The Boise State Business Plan Challenge purports to stimulate and nourish the Entrepreneurial Spirit in students attending Boise State University. In particular, we seek to encourage entrepreneurially oriented students to develop and grow new ventures based either on their own ideas and technologies or those developed by others, including faculty members at their respective colleges. We also seek to provide participating students with forums in which they develop skill in pitching their ventures to investors and receive constructive feedback for increasing the probability of successfully launching their ventures. To this end, the Boise State Business Plan Challenge will provide the “best” of these ventures with substantial resources to assist the “winning” student team in launching its venture.

The Boise State Business Plan Challenge is open to all students enrolled in Boise State University, regardless of their college or major. Students participating in the Boise State Business Plan Challenge are eligible to go on to represent Boise State University in various other business plans across North America.

To provide a relatively level “playing field” for student teams from across the university, our competition has developed the following set of rules that all participating teams are expected to satisfy. At the same time, we recognize that no set of rules, no matter how thorough or carefully developed can ever cover all circumstances. Accordingly, all teams are expected to abide by the specific rules enumerated below as well as the overall spirit of these competitions. The directors of the Boise State Business Plan Challenge reserve the right to disqualify any team that violates the rules, regulations or the spirit of the competitions.

Participating 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 students in exchange for writing their business plan.

Team Composition. The Boise State Business Plan Challenge is open to both undergraduate and graduate students. For the graduate student competition track, 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 and encouraged 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. For the undergraduate student competition track, only undergraduate are allowed to make up the presenting team. Other rules as noted above apply.

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.

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 are encouraged assuming they have not been commercialized previously. All ventures must be seeking outside equity capital as part of their business launch plan.

Prior Activity. Ventures may compete in the Boise State Business Plan Challenge in different academic years, provided that they meet all other Prior Activity and Boise State Business Plan Challenge Qualification Rules. Ventures with revenues in prior academic years are excluded. Ventures that have raised equity capital from sources other than the members of the student team before the current academic year are excluded. However, both student and other team members may have worked on an idea or new technology in previous academic years or in the case of the student team members even prior to entering school, provided that their venture had no revenues and raised no outside equity capital., and/or did not undertake any other formal startup activities prior to the current academic year.

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. The business plan must represent the original work of members of the team.

Boise State Business Plan Challenge Submission Requirements
Confidentiality and Intellectual Property Guidelines
• The authors of the business plan will retain all rights to the plan regarding its use at all times prior to and following the competition except as stated below. Due to the nature of the competition, we will not ask judges, reviewers, staff or the audience to agree to or sign non-disclosure statements for any participant.
• All public sessions of the competition, including but not limited to oral presentations and question/answer sessions, are open to the public at large. Any and all of these public sessions may be broadcast to interested persons through media which may include radio, television and the Internet. Any data or information discussed or divulged in public sessions by entrants should be considered information that will likely enter the public realm, and entrants should not assume any right of confidentiality in any data or information discussed, divulged or presented in these sessions.
• Boise State University and the College of Business and Economics, the organizer of the Boise State Business Plan Challenge, may make photocopies, photographs, videotapes and/or audiotapes of the presentations including the business plan and other documents, charts or material prepared for use in presentation at the Boise State Business Plan Challenge. Students retain all proprietary rights. The University may use the materials in any book or other printed materials and any videotape or other medium that it may produce, provided that any profits earned from the sale of such items is used by The University solely to defray the costs of future the Boise State Business Plan Challenge. The University has non-exclusive world rights in all languages, and in all media, to use or to publish the materials in any book, other printed materials, videotapes or other medium, and to use the materials in future editions thereof and derivative products.
Business Plan Guidelines
• Seven (7) printed copies or one (1) digital PDF copy of the final plan are due at Boise State University on or before Monday, November 16, 2009. Teams not meeting this deadline may be disqualified. For ease in handling, all copies of business plans should be professionally bound. Three-ring binders are not acceptable. Three (3) copies will be distributed to the Opening Round judges prior to the competition. Three (3) copies will be distributed to the next round judges should your team move forward into the next round of the Competition, if appropriate. Plans will be returned to the teams after the Competition with judges’ comments included. One copy will be retained by Boise State University and the College of Business and Economics, the organizer of the Boise State Business Plan Challenge.
• Plans must be limited to 20 pages (typed and double-spaced, #12 font, and 1-1-1-1 inch margins) of text, including the executive summary and summary financial data. Detailed spreadsheets and appropriate appendices may follow the text portion of the plan but will be limited to 10 pages. In total, the plan should be no longer than 30 pages.
• Financial data should include a cash flow statement, income statement, and balance sheet. Include an explanation of the offering to investors indicating how much money is required, how it will be used, and the proposed structure of the deal, i.e., stock, debentures, etc. The team is not required to reveal its desired deal, although the judges may ask questions about it. Also, delineate the possible exit strategies.
• Appendices should be included only when they support the findings, statements and observations in the plan. Because of the number of teams in the Competition, judges may not be able to read all the material in the appendices. Therefore, the text portion of the plan (20 pages) must contain all pertinent information in a clear and concise manner.
• Judges will use the three-part Boise State Business Plan Challenge Judge’s Evaluation form. Part I (valued at 40%) is designed to help assess the written business plan focusing on key elements and the effectiveness of the summary financial data. Part II (20%) assesses the poise and professionalism of the presentation. Part III (40%) evaluates the perceived viability of the venture. This quantitative assessment is meant to complement, not replace, the qualitative evaluation of the judges in their determination of winners.
• A useful guide for structuring the business plan is Ernst & Young’s Outline for a Business Plan.
• Plans should be sent to Kent Neupert, Department of Management, College of Business and Economics, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Boise, ID 83725-1600. Dr. Neupert may be reached at kneupert@boisestate.edu or at 208-426-2397.
Presentation Guidelines
• In the Opening Round and Semifinals Round, each team will be given 10 minutes to present its business plan followed by a 5 minute or 10 minute question and answer session between the presenting team and the judges.
• Each member of the team must participate in the formal presentation of the plan.
• Teams may not observe other teams’ question and answer sessions in their division until after they have presented their own plan. A team, once it has finished its presentation, may observe both the presentation and Q&A session of the teams that follow it.
• Equipment needs: Each presentation room will be set up with a projector and screen. Each team will need to bring its own laptop computer.