Entrepreneurship

Judging & Prizes

Prizes

Judging

Business plans are judged by a group of professionals from various industries including venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. The social venture plans will go through a similar timeline and process as the Business Venture Track, but will be judged by a different pool of judges during the live presentations. The social venture judges will be a mix of philanthropists, venture capitalists, and social entrepreneurs. The objective of the first round of judging will be to reduce the pool of contestants to a smaller group of "semi-finalists."

Judging Criteria

Judges will be asked to evaluate the plans based upon their likelihood of actually becoming the basis of a viable business; or, in the case of an intrapreneurial venture, the likelihood of making a meaningful contribution to the existing business.

This consideration, in turn, will include such factors as

• the clarity and potential of the market opportunity defined in the plan, and the strength of the team's argument that their product/service meets that need,
• the overall evaluation of potential reward to risk,
• the appropriateness of the strategy for exploiting the opportunity,
• the reasonableness of the plan for financing the business,
• and the team's ability to actually implement the plan.

Download the Contest Judges Evaluation Sheet for specific judging criteria.

Note that while the Contest is referred to as a "business plan" contest, it is really about the commercial merit of the proposed new venture. The judges evaluate the plans not as documents per se, but as visions for a potential new venture and, as such, focus on the idea, its potential for economic success and the likelihood of achieving that success based upon the team's plan and experience.

Naturally, the more concrete the plan—all else being equal—the better. Thus, teams that have a proven technology, recruited partners, or even attracted "beta" customers will likely be seen to have raised their chances of success. On the other hand, where business plans reflect the work of individuals prior to the start of the Business Plan Contest (i.e., teaming up with scientists that have been working on the project for several years) then the judges will do their best to "level the playing field" by calibrating the degree of accomplishment to the additional time and resources expended.

Note that the Contest has a strong preference for operating, rather than "investing" businesses. That is, hedge funds, investment and private equity funds, where it is almost impossible to judge the merit of the idea without a substantial track record.

Social Venture Track to the Business Plan Contest will be judged using many of the same criteria as the Business Venture Track, however, there are also some important differences and additional areas to be considered:

• What is the social value created by the organization and what is the plan to measure it either from the beginning or as the organization matures?
• What sources of funds are available for start-up, and what is your plan for financial sustainability?
• In the social sector, organizational growth is not the only way to spread a program. What is the plan for replicating the program or its benefits if a strategy other than growing the organization is chosen?
• If you have chosen to be a for-profit organization, what criteria did you use in your decision making process?

Judges will make further distinctions based upon the potential of the business to create value, although they will be explicitly instructed not to use the typically very high venture capitalist's hurdle for the absolute scale of the business. We wish to preserve the opportunity for a small scale, "boot-strapped venture," which might not require much capital, and thus, would typically be uninteresting to a traditional venture fund.