This year, there will be two divisions for the competition -- Collegiate and High School.
- Collegiate: Each team must have at 66% of its members from an educational institution in the Stark Entrepreneurship Alliance (Walsh University, Stark State College, University of Mount Union and Kent State University at Stark)
- High School: Each team (hereafter also referred to as company must have 100% of its members from a high school that is enrolled in the Junior Achievement Program in Stark County.
Prizes will be awarded to the
top three teams:
Collegiate
Contest |
JA- High School
|
|
First Place
|
$1500
|
$500
|
Second Place
|
$500
|
$300
|
Third Place
|
$350
|
$200
|
There are three stages to the competition (more detailed instructions and rules posted below):
- Stage 1: Executive Summary -- DEADLINE - MARCH 16, 2015, 5:00pm
- Stage 2: Written Plan -- DEADLINE - APRIL 7, 2015, 5:00pm
- Stage 3: Oral Presentations -- PRESENTATIONS - APRIL 16, 2015, 2:00-5:00pm
Stage 1: Executive Summary, Deadline:
March 16th, 2015. 5:00pm
- Executive summaries must be 2 to 5 pages of text and should include information on:
- Company summary
- Customer/market analysis: market size, potential market share and the problem or need your company solves
- Product or service description including current state of development
- Intellectual property: status of patents and licenses (if applicable)
- Competitive differentiation
- Management team and/or advisors, including relevant experience
- Financial: 3-5 year projection of revenue, profit and cash flow
- Amount of investment you are seeking and use of funds
- Executive Summaries must be submitted to: SEABusinessPlan@gmail.com by 5:00pm on March 16th
- A first-stage judging panel will select up to 25 plans to move forward to Stage 2
Stage 2: Written Plan, Deadline:
April 7th, 2015. 5:00pm
- Your business plan should include (max 10 pages -- cover page or table of contents is not included in count):
- Cover Sheet (Company Name, School. Presenting Team Members, Team Leader contact info)
- Executive Summary
- Product or service description (incl. current status of development – beta, prototype, etc.)
- Customer/Market analysis (market size and potential market share)
- Sales and Marketing Plan (how you will go-to-market)
- Intellectual property status (e.g., patents, licenses, etc.)
- Competitor Analysis (competitors and your competitive differentiation)
- Management team and/or advisors, including relevant experience
- Financial highlights (cash flow, income statement, & balance sheet)
- Offering of the company (how much investment you are seeking, uses of funding, possible exits)
- Business Plan Financial Data: Financial data should include a cash flow statement, income statement, and balance sheet. This data should be included in a summarized fashion in the main section of the business plan. 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.) and possible exit strategies. Detailed financial data and tables should be included in the appendix.
- Please note: The team is not required to reveal the exact desired terms of the deal (i.e., proposed company valuation and percentage of company being offered). However, teams should expect to be asked about these terms and should be prepared to answer these questions in some fashion (if this information is not already provided in the written plan.) It is up to the team to assess the BEST way to address this question; however, past experience indicates that some judges will want to know a team’s estimated company valuation.
- 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 (10 pages) must contain all pertinent information in a clear and concise manner. All appendices must fall within a 6 page limit; any pages over this limit will not be posted or otherwise provided to the judges.
- Changes to Your Business Plan: Once your written business plan is submitted on April 7, 2015 it will be provided for review by the judges, and you will receive written feedback on your plan from the judges prior to your arrival on campus on April 16. You will not have a chance to modify your written business plan after April 7. However, if you feel the need to modify your plan, when you make your oral presentations on campus, you can incorporate these changes into your presentation.
Teams should submit their business plans as one document (teams are encouraged to use PDF format) via email to SEABusinessPlans@gmail.com. No more than one document will be accepted per team.
All teams will receive written
feedback from judges. Stage 2 judges will select up to 10 plans to be presented
during the Stage 3 Oral Presentations.
Stage 3: Oral Presentations, April
16, 2015, from 2:00-5:00pm
- Upon notification of their qualification for Stage 3, each team will be provided a time slot for their presentation. These time slots are final and cannot be changed or traded.
- Each team (or individual) will present their business plan in a 10-minute presentation, followed by up to 10 minutes of Q&A from the Stage 3 judges. These time regulations will be strictly enforced
- Each business plan will have been provided to the Stage 3 judges ahead of time
- Teams will be required to provide any presentation media (e.g., PowerPoint, Prezi, video, etc.) by April 15, 2015 via email to SEABusinessPlan@gmail.com and these will be pre-loaded on a computer at the presentation site
- teams are not required to use any computer-based presentation, but if they wish to use any, they must provide it ahead of time.
- The presentation room(s) will be equipped with a large-screen projector, though teams are strongly encouraged to have a contingency plan if technology fails
Prizes:
Prizes will be awarded to the
top three teams as determined by the Stage 3 judges:
|
|
Collegiate Contest
|
JA- High School
|
|
First Place
|
$1500
|
$500
|
|
Second Place
|
$500
|
$300
|
|
Third Place
|
$350
|
$200
|
Eligibility, Rules, and Legal issues:
·
Eligibility:
The competition is open to individuals or teams of up to 6 people.
o
2 Divisions:
§
Collegiate:
Each team (hereafter also referred to as
“Company”) must have at 66% of its members from an educational institution
in the Stark Entrepreneurship Alliance
(Walsh University, Stark State College, University of Mount Union and Kent
State University at Stark).
·
Teams may include members from more than one of
these institutions
·
Team members must be currently enrolled (Spring
2015) as students, (undergraduate or graduate level)
·
Non-students may be involved in the
team/management structure, but are prohibited from being involved in the oral
presentation and/or Q&A
§
Junior-Achievement High School: Each team
(hereafter also referred to as company must have 100% of its members from a
high school that is enrolled in the Junior Achievement Program in Stark County.
·
Teams may include members from more than one of
these schools
·
Team members must be currently enrolled (Spring
2015) as students
·
Non-students may have been involved in the
advising process, but are prohibited from being involved in the oral
presentation and/or Q&A.
·
Non-students may not be part of the formal
organizational structure
·
Only one entry may be submitted per Company
·
The SEA Business Plan Competition has been
designed for new businesses. Businesses should meet the following criteria:
o
Less than two years old, as of January 1, 2015
o
Gross sales of less than $250,000, as of
December 31, 2014
o
New businesses that are in the beginning stages
and have yet to be legally formed, are also encouraged to apply
·
Use of
Business Plan Materials: The SEA and/or Walsh University reserve the right
to use any material prepared for the SEA Business Plan competition to publicize
and promote the event, whether for the current or future years.
o
The SEA and/or Walsh University may use these
materials in any printed materials and any videotape or other medium that it
may produce. The SEA and Walsh University may record (video and/or audio) any
portion of the Competition and utilize these recordings in any way that its
sees fit
·
Entry
Fees: The SEA Business Plan competition does not have an entry fee.
·
Changes
to Competition Rules: While not anticipated, these rules and prizes are
subject to change at the discretion of the SEA and/or Walsh University at any
time. The SEA and Walsh University staff have the right to interpret these
rules according to their own judgment.
·
Decisions
regarding the Competition and the Winners: All decisions regarding the
competition rules, procedures, and processes are at the sole discretion of the SEA
and/or Walsh University. Changes and/or interpretations of these rules may be
made by the SEA and/or Walsh University at any time, even though they may be
(or may appear to be) in conflict some previously published information. The
selection of the teams to compete and the decision of the winners are at the
sole discretion of the judges and the SEA and/or Walsh University.
o
Best efforts will be made to make decisions in
accordance with this Official Rules document, and to update this document and
related websites in an expedient manner where applicable.
·
Non-confidentiality:
All 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 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 could possibly 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.
o
Due to the nature of the competition, we are not
able to ask judges, reviewers, staff, or the audience to agree to or sign
non-disclosure statements. However, the SEA and Walsh University will make
every effort to limit distribution of business plans presented at the
competition. The SEA and/or Walsh University cannot guarantee that other
individuals will not obtain access to electronic or hard copies of the business
plan. All presentations are open to the general public, and some presentations
may be videotaped. Attendance by media personnel is expected.
·
Copyrights
& Permissions: If a team uses copyrighted materials and/or images from
a third-party in their submissions or presentations, they must obtain
permission and authorization in advance from the owners to use this material.
·
Information presented by the Company at the SEA
Business Plan Competition is the sole responsibility of the Company. The SEA,
its member institutions and any of its affiliates (collectively, “SEA”), have
not taken, and do not intend to take, any steps to verify the adequacy, accuracy
or completeness of any information, materials or statements presented by the
Company. The Company, and not the SEA and/or Walsh University, is responsible
for ensuring the Company’s compliance with all applicable federal, state and
other securities laws, and it is solely the Company’s responsibility to comply
with any of such laws that are applicable. The SEA and/or Walsh University does
not give investment advice, endorsement, analysis or recommendations with
respect to any securities and is not a broker, venture fund or an investment
advisor.
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