Business Plan Contest
Registration Process
Key Dates and Process
These deadlines are firm and non-negotiable in order to participate in the contest and in fairness to all participants.
February 11 - Deadline to complete Entry Information and Faculty Advisor Confirmation in order to be eligible for the $1,000 expense reimbursement available to teams. The Poll serves as the Entry Form for the Contest. The information you submit is reviewed by the Business Plan Contest Review Committee to determine eligibility. You may access this at any point before data entry to see what information is required, and we suggest saving the data for your future reference.
(NOTE - we will accept entries from teams until April 1st, however any submitted after February 11 will not be eligible for reimbursement)
See Traditional Track Business Plan site for details on expense policy.
April 1, 12:00 noon
- Final deadline to complete Entry Information and Faculty Advisor Confirmation
- Final deadline to complete Intent to Present Form and Executive Summary (see section below)
Please note: the Intent to Present form is a binding agreement by teams to participate in the First Round of judging for the Social Enterprise Track.
April 7 - Team Status and Executive Summary Feedback: All executive summaries (received April 1) will be reviewed by a committee as a preliminary form of judging for teams to be invited to present on Super Tuesday. Teams will be notified of their status on April 7, and each team will receive feedback. Details will be announced as the contest progresses.
April 10, 12:00 noon - Final Business Plan Submission (see section below): The Business Plan submission is the actual plan you are submitting for judging, and will be sent to judges in advance for review. Plans should be turned in to the Social Enterprise Initiative, Loeb 31.
April 15 - "Super Tuesday" SE First-Round of Judging: Those teams selected by the executive summary review committee on April 7 will present their plans before the judges. Details will be announced as the contest progresses.
April 28 - Contest Finals: Four finalists from "Super Tuesday" will make presentations to a final judging panel of distinguished philanthropists and venture capitalists.
Executive Summary and Final Business Plan
The Executive Summary should be 2-3 pages, submitted as a pdf, and include brief overviews of the key elements in your plan, which will be forwarded to judges in advance of First-round presentations.
- Refer to Judging Criteria as you create your executive summary. In the past, judges have asked for financial projections to be included in the executive summary, so that they have background prior to your presentation and can focus their questions and feedback more effectively.
- At the top of the 1st page team name, members, and contact email(s). Name the document with an abbreviated version of your team name and submit as a Word file to the Social Enterprise Initiative (se@hbs.edu).
The Final Business Plan submissions must be on 8.5 x 11 paper and may not exceed 30 pages of text, graphs, and appendices, plus a "PowerPoint" style presentation not to exceed 20 slides. Plans should be turned in to the Social Enterprise Initiative, Loeb 31.
Please submit six copies of all materials for distribution to judges. At a minimum, final submissions should include:
- quarterly financial projections for two years and annual projections to five years with both a pro forma cash flow and budget analysis;
- social impact potential and funding model;
- other analysis, as appropriate (e.g., break-even analysis; estimated market share calculations);
- a working model or prototype, if practicable;
- market data based on customer research and customer response analysis; and
- no more than a 20-slide "PowerPoint" or similar overview/summary of the proposed business (does not count towards 30 page limit)
