High Growth Tech Start-Up:
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The 2010 Business Plan Competition at The Merage School of Business is one of the nation's premier business plan competitions offering all UC Irvine students, staff and researchers the opportunity to form a team, create a business plan and potentially fund their business idea all within seven months.
The competition starts with our Kick-off event at the UC Irvine Student Center on Tuesday, November 17 in Doheny Beach Rooms A-B, from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. (to RSVP for the Competition Kick-Off, follow the link below.) At the Competition Kick-off, participants will learn more details about the competition prizes, rules, registration procedures and meet some of the winners from previous years.
The Final Presentations and Awards Ceremony for the Competition will be held on Friday, May 21, 2010, where $30,000 in cash prizes will be awarded. Between the kick-off and finals, we offer four workshops covering a broad area of business plan development skills led by expert practitioners from across Orange County. The Competition also provides individual team coaches to all teams that qualify for the semi-finals.
The Business Plan Competition is being sponsored by Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth Attorneys at Law
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The 2010 Business Plan Competition Description and Rules
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Key Upcoming Dates and Deadlines
Nov 17, 2009
Competition Kick-Off Student Center, Doheny Beach A, 5:30 PM
Jan 8, 2010
Competition Registration Closes Midnight
Jan 13, 2010
WORKSHOP: Assessing the Market Cal IT 2 Auditorium, 6:00 PM
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| 1. Competition Format |
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The Competition has Two Phases:
Phase One: Concept Paper Phase
Winter quarter, 2010, the Concept Paper Phase begins with all teams self-registering on YouNoodle.com and then joining the 2010 Business Plan Competition at the Merage School of Business Group by Midnight, Friday, January 8, 2010. This is required. To register for the 2010 Business Plan Competition at the Merage School of Business:
- Go to YouNoodle.com and click on the green "Join YouNoodle" button.
- Fill out the resulting form and click on the green "Join" button. (Note: you can upload your resume and search for friends from your contacts list who are also on YouNoodle at this point too or skip.) YouNoodle will let you know when your account has been created. Click on the My Account tab to go to your YouNoodle homepage.
- To join the 2010 Business Plan Competition at the Merage School of Business from your YouNoodle homepage, use the YouNoodle Search function to search for "2010 Business Plan Competition at the Merage School of Business." The 2010 Competition should be at the top of the search result.
- Find the green "Join Group" button to the right of the entry for 2010 Business Plan Competition at the Merage School of Business and click.
- Congratulations!! You have now joined the 2010 Business Plan Competition at the Merage School of Business.
- You may now create your team homepage, upload pictures and documents, post your logo and e-mail friends and family about your new business opportunity
Following joining the 2010 Competiton on YouNoodle, two workshops are provided to assist competitors with their concept papers. Teams then submit a three-page Concept Paper about their business opportunity by uploading their concept paper in .pdf form on YouNoodle. (Concept papers are due by Midnight, February 8, 2010.) With the Concept paper, please provide a cover sheet that gives the names of the team members including their respective school affiliations, graduate/undergraduate status and e-mail address. This cover page does not count against the 3-page maximum of the concept paper. This initial three-page document is the equivalent to the Executive Summary of the business plan that the team will develop during the second phase of the competition. A suggested outline for the concept paper is provided at the bottom of this page. Teams must join the 2010 Business Plan Competition Group on YouNoodle before submitting their concept papers.
From the concept paper submissions, a panel of judges will select a maximum of 20 teams for participation in Phase II of the competition. The teams selected to continue in the competition will be notified on March 1, 2010 and coaches will be matched with each of the semi-finalist teams soon thereafter. Awards are given to recognize the team with the best concept paper for the overall competition as well as to the team with the best undergraduate concept paper.
Phase Two: Business Plan Development Phase
Teams that are selected for the second phase will work with their coach to submit a 15 page business plan (including all appendices) for the competition. (Business Plans are due by Midnight, April 19, 2010.)
The 15-page business plan must be submitted on time in order to compete in the final round of the 2010 Business Plan Competition at the Merage School of Business. Please provide a cover sheet that gives the names of the team members including their respective school affiliations, graduate/undergraduate status and e-mail address. This cover page does not count against the 15-page maximum of the business plan. All submitted business plans are required to be uploaded through YouNoodle in .pdf format.
The judging of the written business plans is completed by the judges prior to May 21. The judging of each semi-finalist's presentation will be made to a panel of judges on Friday, May 21, 2010 in our presentation rooms the UCI Student Center on the UCI Campus. This will be an all day event. Judges will make their decisions and the formal recognition of all award winners will be acknowledged that day.
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| 2. Teams |
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All UC Irvine Graduate and Undergraduate students are invited to participate in the business plan competition and to form or be part of a competing team.
Teams must have at least three (3) members: at least two (2) members must be registered UCI students, and at least one (1) member must be a student in one of the Merage School’s degree programs (full time MBA, fully employed MBA, executive MBA, health care executive MBA, joint-MBA and Masters programs with other UCI Schools, Doctoral or Undergraduate (major and minor) programs), A “registered student” is defined as a bona fide student registered at UC Irvine for at least two (2) quarters during the 09-10 academic year.
May teams include any non-UCI student members? Yes, once the team is organized by a UCI student and has at least one Merage School student member, non-students may participate as Auxiliary Members of the team. There is no official upper limit on the number of team members, however about five (5) members is the practical upper limit for an effective team, including any auxiliary members. Auxiliary (non-student members) are expected to be present with their team during all competition events.
Undergraduate Teams: An undergraduate team is defined as a team where all team members are current undergraduates. The team leader must be a registered UC Irvine undergraduate student in the Merage School of Business (majors as well as minors.) Undergraduate teams may compete for all overall competition prizes as well as specific undergraduate Awards.
Changes to your team's composition are allowed up to April 19-- the point at which business plans are submitted. Your final team composition will be considered to be the individuals listed on your business plan cover pages submitted through YouNoodle. Please keep in mind that should your team win a cash award, University policy requires that all team members split the award evenly.
If you Need More Team Members: Please use the YouNoodle message facility to advertise your interest in recruiting additional team members. Similarly, use YouNoodle to solicit your interest in joining a team if you don't have team. Of course, use the Competition kick-off on November 17, 2009 to network with others.
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| 3. Business Plan/Idea |
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Teams must present an original idea for a company which may not have been in existence prior to 2008. Teams must be in a "pre-incubator" form and must not be backed by incubators, existing companies or venture capitalists.
Concept Paper and Business Plan Format:
Concept Papers must not be over three pages, excluding the cover page
Business Plans must not be over 15 pages, excluding the cover page
For both documents:
Margins must not be smaller than ½ of an inch on any side
Body text should be between 11 and 12 points inclusive.
Document text should be single-spaced
Submit documents only as a single file in Adobe Acrobat format (.pdf format).
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| 4. Judging Guidelines |
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The judges are professionals who come from various business backgrounds and they include experienced investors (angels, venture capitalists, investment bankers), experienced entrepreneurs and senior business people and service professionals who interact with early stage companies like intellectual property attorneys and early stage accounting and consulting firms. Each judge is an expert in the process of starting a business. The judges consider specific criteria when evaluating concept papers and business plans, however ultimately, winning teams usually are those in which the judges would most likely invest their own money. This decision is influenced heavily by several factors:
- Size and growth rate of the market addressed.
- Likelihood that the team can create a sustainable competitive advantage.
- Simplicity of the business model described.
- Believability of the business plan, which includes:
- Is this a realistic business opportunity?
- Is the business model well thought out & have potential to be effective?
- Do any prior benchmarks exist that the plan can be measured against?
- Size of the initial (outside) investment required?
- Length of the implementation process.
- Can the team build the venture capabilities to become a market leader?
- Does a clear target market and customer exist?
- Does the management team have the skills to succeed?
- When does the venture team expect to achieve profitability (break even &profit)?
- Is the plan concise and well written?
- What will allow this business plan to have initial and sustained success?
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| 5. Award Divisions |
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The 2010 Business Plan Competition at the Merage School of Business is organized into two award divisions:
· Overall Competition Award Division
· Undergraduate Award Division
All teams, including undergraduate teams compete in the Overall Competition Division, as it is open to all UC Irvine students, researchers and staff. Overall Competition Division teams, must have at least three (3) members of which two (2) of members must be registered students at UCI and one (1) of which must be a Merage student. Students and researchers may be from any UCI school or department.
On the day of the final presentations, Undergraduate teams not placing in the Overall Competition will be considered for awards given in the Undergraduate Award Division. Teams considered for the Undergraduate Award Division must have at least three (3) members and be composed of only undergraduates of which two (2) of members must be registered students at UCI and one (1) of which must be a Merage student. International teams are encouraged in both Divisions as are teams including members from other US universities.
Tech Coast Angels Seed Financing Invitational
The teams placing 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the 2010 Business Plan Competition at the Merage School of Business will automatically be invited to the Tech Coast Angels Seed Financing Invitational. In addition, at the discretion of the Tech Coast Angels, two “wild card” teams will be invited to the Tech Coast Angels Seed Financing Invitational. All five teams invited to the Invitational will have the opportunity to be assigned a Tech Coast Angel executive as a coach and be screened by the Tech Coast Angel membership for up to $1,000,000 in seed financing. Teams will have 6 months to prepare their presentation before the Tech Coast Angels and another 6 months to secure financing through the Angels.
Teams competing in the 2010 Business Plan Competition at the Merage School of Business with the objective of being invited to the Tech Coast Angels Seed Financing Invitational should focus on business ideas that have a potential for high growth, a strong market position, and a sustainable advantage. Specifically, Tech Coast Angel investors look for:
- A market opportunity sufficiently large to create a business with at least $50 to $100 million in annual revenues within 60 months.
- A compelling, well articulated strategy for capturing and defending a significant market share.
- Proprietary technology or other strong barriers to entry.
- Strong management (not necessarily a complete team) with relevant and successful experience.
- An exit strategy for the investors.
- A desire for advice and coaching.
- Last, the company valuation must fit within the Team's risk/reward expectations for the investment.
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| 6. Competition Registration |
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Registering for the 2010 Business Plan Competition at the Merage School of Business is easily completed by:
- Go to YouNoodle.com and click on the green "Join YouNoodle" button.
- Fill out the resulting form and click on the green "Join" button. (Note: you can upload your resume and search for friends from your contacts list who are also on YouNoodle at this point too or skip.) YouNoodle will let you know when your account has been created. Click on the My Account tab to go to your YouNoodle homepage.
- To join the 2010 Business Plan Competition at the Merage School of Business from your YouNoodle homepage, use the YouNoodle Search function to search for "2010 Business Plan Competition at the Merage School of Business." The 2010 Competition should be at the top of the search result.
- Find the green "Join Group" button to the right of the entry for 2010 Business Plan Competition at the Merage School of Business and click.
- Congratulations!! You have now joined the 2010 Business Plan Competition at the Merage School of Business.
- You may now create your team homepage, upload pictures and documents, post your logo and e-mail friends and family about your new business opportunity
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| 7. Competition Calendar |
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
2010 BPC Kick-Off
UC Irvine Student Center
Doheny A&B
5:30-8:30 pm
Friday, January 8, 2010
Competition Registration Closes
Midnight
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
2010 BPC Workshop
Assessing the Market
Calit2 Auditorium
6-8:30 pm
Andy Mindlin, RealWorld Marketing
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
2010 BPC Workshop
How to Develop a Winning Concept and Lead Your Team to Success
Calit2 Auditorium
6-8:30 pm
Kristen Parrinello, Merage School of Business
Charlie Baecker, Don Beall Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Monday, February 8. 2010
Competition Deadline:
Concept Papers Due
Submit via YouNoodle by 11:59 PM
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Competition Advisory Board Meeting
Merage School Executive Commons
MPAA 100
7:30 am
Monday, March 1, 2010
Competition Semi-Finalists Announced
5:00 PM
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
2010 BPC Workshop
How to Write a Business Plan
Calit2 Auditorium
6-8:30 pm
Seth Yakatan, Yakatan and Associates
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
2010 Team/Coach Breakfast
University Club
7:30 AM
Monday, April 19, 2010
Business Plans Due
Submit via YouNoodle by 11:59 PM
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
2010 BPC Workshop
Presentation Skills for Pitching Investors
Calit2 Auditorium
6:00-8:30 pm
Mike Cannon, Mainpoint Communications
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Elevator Pitch Video Taping
Anteater Instructional Resource Building, Room 1030
6:00 pm
Monday, May 10, 2010
Vator.tv People's Choice Poll (On-line Event)
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Competition Judges Orientation Breakfast
Merage School Executive Commons
7:30-9:00 am
Friday, May 21, 2010
2010 BPC Competition Final Presentations and Awards Ceremony
UC Irvine Student Center
Doheny A-D, Emerald Bay A-E, and Crescent Bay A-D
7:30 am-5:00 pm
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
2010 BPC Volunteer Recognition Luncheon
Steelhead Brewery Patio
11:30 am – 2:00 pm
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| Resources for Participants |
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There will be numerous resources available to the teams throughout the competition. They are as follows:
- List of reading materials on this site
- Links to various websites and online publications
- Guidelines on what is expected in the concept paper and final business plans
- Workshops on the key elements of a business plan will be offered from January through April
- Team coaches for teams selected for Phase II
Also contribute to the innovative spirit and economic success of Southern California.
2009 Merage School of Business Campus-Wide Business Plan Competition Resources
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