business plan contest

The 20 Best Business Plan Competitions to Get Funding

Business plan competitions can provide valuable feedback on your business idea or startup business plan template , in addition to providing an opportunity for funding for your business. This article will discuss what business planning competitions are, how to find them, and list the 20 most important business planning competitions.

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What is a Business Plan Competition?

How do i find business plan competitions, 20 popular business plan competitions, tips for winning business plan competitions, other helpful business plan articles & templates.

A business plan competition is a contest between startup, early-stage, and/or growing businesses. The goal of the business plan competition is for participants to develop and submit an original idea or complete their existing business plan based on specific guidelines provided by the organization running the contest.

Companies are judged according to set criteria including creativity, feasibility, execution, and the quality of your business plan.

A quick Google search will lead you to several websites that list business planning competitions. 

Each site has a different way of organizing the business planning competitions it lists, so you’ll need to spend some time looking through each website to find opportunities that are relevant for your type of business or industry.

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Below we’ve highlighted 20 of these popular competitions, the requirements and how to find additional information. The following list is not exhaustive; however, these popular competitions are great places to start if you’re looking for a business competition.

Rice Business Plan Competition

The Rice University Business Plan Competition is designed to help collegiate entrepreneurs by offering a real-world platform on which to present their businesses to investors, receive coaching, network with the entrepreneurial ecosystem, fine-tune their entrepreneurship plan, and learn what it takes to launch a successful business.

Who is Eligible?

Initial eligibility requirements include teams and/or entrepreneurs that:

• are student-driven, student-created and/or student-managed
• include at least two current student founders or management team members, and at least one is a current graduate degree-seeking student
• are from a college or university anywhere in the world
• have not raised more than $250,000 in equity capital
• have not generated revenue of more than $100,000 in any 12-month period
• are seeking funding or capital
• have a potentially viable investment opportunity

You can find additional  eligibility information on their website.

Where is the Competition Held?

The Rice Business Plan Competition is hosted in Houston, TX at Rice University, the Jones Graduate School of Business.

What Can You Win?

In 2021, $1.6 Million in investment, cash prizes, and in-kind prizes was awarded to the teams competing.

This two-part milestone grant funding program and pitch competition is designed to assist students with measurable goals in launching their enterprises.

Teams must be made up of at least one student from an institution of higher education in Utah and fulfill all of the following requirements:

• The founding student must be registered for a minimum of nine (9) credit hours during the semester they are participating. The credit hours must be taken as a matriculated, admitted, and degree-seeking student.
• A representative from your team must engage in each stage of Get Seeded (application process, pre-pitch, and final pitch)
• There are no restrictions regarding other team members; however, we suggest building a balanced team with a strong combination of finance, marketing, engineering, and technology skills.
• The funds awarded must be used to advance the idea.

The business plan competition will be hosted in Salt Lake City, UT at the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute at the University of Utah.

There are two grants opportunities:

• Microgrant up to $500
• Seed Grant for $501 – $1,500

Global Student Entrepreneur Awards

The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards is a worldwide business plan competition for students from all majors. The GSEA aims to empower talented young people from around the world, inspire them to create and shape business ventures, encourage entrepreneurship in higher education, and support the next generation of global leaders.

• You must be enrolled for the current academic year in a university/college as an undergraduate or graduate student at the time of application. Full-time enrollment is not required; part-time enrollment is acceptable.
• You must be the owner, founder, or controlling shareholder of your student business. Each company can be represented by only one owner/co-founder – studentpreneur.
• Your student business must have been in operation for at least six consecutive months prior to the application.
• Your business must have generated US $500 or received US $1000 in investments at the time of application.
• You should not have been one of the final round competitors from any previous year’s competition.
• The age cap for participation is 30 years of age.

You can find additional   eligibility information on their website.

Regional competitions are held in various locations worldwide over several months throughout the school year. The top four teams then compete for cash prizes during finals week at the Goldman Sachs headquarters in New York City.

At the Global Finals, students compete for a total prize package of $50,000 in cash and first place receives $25,000. All travel and lodging expenses are also covered. Second place gets US $10,000, while third place earns US $5,000. Additional prizes are handed out at the Global Finals for Social Impact, Innovation, and Lessons from the Edge.

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The collegiate entrepreneurs organization business plan competition.

The Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization Business Plan Competition (COEBPC) exists to help early-stage entrepreneurs develop their business skills, build entrepreneurial networks, and learn more about how they can transform ideas into reality. It also offers cash prizes to reward entrepreneurship, provide an opportunity for recognition of top student entrepreneurs around the world, and provide unique opportunities for networking.

To compete, you must:

• Be a currently enrolled student at an accredited institution
• Have a viable business concept or be the creator of an existing business that generates revenue.

If you are among the top three finalists of the business plan competition and successfully receive prize money, you will be required to submit a class schedule under your name for the current academic semester. Failure to do so will result in the forfeit of the prize money.

All competitions are held online. The finalist will receive a trip to the International Career Development Conference, where they have an opportunity to win additional prizes from CEO’s sponsors.

• First Place – $7,000
• Second Place – $5,000
• Third Place – $3,000
• People’s Choice Award – Collegiate Entrepreneur of the Year – $600

MIT 100k Business Plan Competition and Expo

The MIT 100K was created in 2010 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to foster entrepreneurship and innovation on campus and around the world. Consists of three distinct and increasingly intensive competitions throughout the school year: PITCH, ACCELERATE, and LAUNCH. 

• Submissions may be entered by individuals or teams.
• Each team may enter one idea.
• Each team must have at least one currently registered MIT student; if you are submitting as an individual, you must be a currently registered MIT student.
• Entries must be the original work of entrants.
• Teams must disclose any funding already received at the time of registration.

Hosted in Cambridge, MA at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology beginning in October through May of each academic year.

Top finalists will have a chance to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges at a live event for the chance to win the $5,000 Grand Prize or the $2,000 Audience Choice Award.

20 Finalists are paired with industry-specific business professionals for mentorship and business planning and a $1,000 budget for marketing and/or business development expenses.

The 10 Top Finalists participate in the Showcase and compete for the $10,000 Audience Choice Award while the 3 Top Finalists automatically advance to LAUNCH semi-finals.

The grand prize winner receives a cash prize of $100,000 and the runner-up receives $25,000.

Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Business Plan Competition

The FAU business plan competition is open to all undergraduate and graduate student entrepreneurs. The competition covers topics in the areas of information technology, entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, operations management, etc.

All undergraduate and graduate students are eligible to participate.

The business plan competition will be held at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.

• First prize: $5,000 cash
• Second prize: $500 cash

Network of International Business Schools (NIBS) Business Plan Competition

The Network of International Business Schools (NIBS) Business Plan Competition is designed to offer an opportunity to develop your business plan with the guidance of industry experts. It provides the opportunity for you to compete against fellow entrepreneurs and explore big ideas.

• Participants must be the legal age to enter into contracts in the country of residence.
• Participants may not be employed by an organization other than their own company or business that they are launching for this competition.
• The plan should be for a new business, not an acquisition of another company.

The Network of International Business Schools (NIBS) Business Plan Competition is held in the USA.

There is a cash prize for first, second, and third place. There is also a potential for a business incubator opportunity, which would provide facilities and assistance to the winners of the competition.

Washington State University Business Plan Competition

The Washington State University Business Plan Competition has been serving students since 1979. The competition is a great opportunity for someone who is looking to get their business off the ground by gaining invaluable knowledge of running a successful business. It offers a wide range of topics and competition styles.

• Any college undergraduate, graduate, or professional degree-seeking student at Washington State University
• The company must be an early-stage venture with less than $250,000 in annual gross sales revenue.

The Washington State University Business Plan Competition is held in the Associated Students Inc. Building on the Washington State University campus which is located in Pullman, Washington.

There are a wide variety of prizes that could be won at the Washington State University Business Plan Competition. This is because the business plan competition has been serving students for over 30 years and as such, they have offered more than one type of competition. The common prize though is $1,000 which is awarded to the winner of each class. There are also awards for those who come in second place, third place, etc.

Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition

The Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition is one of the most well-known competitions in the country. They have partnered with many prestigious institutions to provide funding, mentorship, and expertise for the competition.

Education ventures with innovative solutions to educational inequity from around the world are encouraged to apply, especially those ventures founded by and serving individuals from marginalized and historically underrepresented communities.

We encourage applicants working in every conceivable educational setting–from early childhood through corporate and adult training. We also welcome both nonprofit and for-profit submissions.

The competition is held at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

All finalists receive $1,000 in cash and $5,000 in Amazon Web Services promotional credits.

Next Founders Business Plan Competition

Next Founders is a competition geared towards innovative startups with a social impact, looking to transform society by addressing key global human needs. The competition inspires and identifies energetic, optimistic entrepreneurs who are committed to achieving their vision.

Next Founders is for Canadian business owners of scalable, high-growth ventures.

Next Founders is held at the University of Toronto.

You could win up to $25,000 CAD in cash funding for your new business.

Hatch Pitch Competition

The Hatch Pitch competition is one of the most prestigious business competitions in the US. The winners of the Hatch Pitch Competition are given access to mentorship courses, discounted office space with all amenities included, incubators for startups, tailored education programs, financial counseling & more.

The competition is for companies with a business idea.

• The company’s product/service must have launched within the past 2 years, or be launched within 6 months after the Hatch Pitch event.
• Founders must retain some portion of ownership in the company.
• Received less than $5 million in funding from 3rd party investors.
• The presenter must actively participate in Hatch Pitch coaching.

The Hatch Pitch Competition is located at the Entrepreneur Space in Dallas.

The grand prize for this business plan competition is access to resources like incubators and mentorships that could prove invaluable in bringing your startup company to the next level.

TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield

The Startup Battlefield is a business plan competition that is sponsored by TechCrunch.  It awards the winner $50,000. There are two different rounds to this competition:

• First Round – 15 companies from all of the applicants that submitted their business plans for this round.
• Second Round – Two finalist companies compete against each other at TechCrunch Disrupt NY’s main stage.

At the time of the application process, companies must have a functional prototype to demo to the selection committee. In selecting final contestants, we will give preference to companies that launch some part of their product or business for the first time to the public and press through our competition. Companies that are in closed beta, private beta, limited release or generally have been flying under the radar are eligible. Hardware companies can have completed crowdfunding but those funds should have been directed to an earlier product prototype. Existing companies launching new feature sets do not qualify.

TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield is held at different locations.

The Startup Battlefield rewards the winner with $50,000. In addition, the two runner-ups get a prize of $5,000 each.

New Venture Challenge

New Venture Challenge is a competition hosted by the University of Chicago. There are 3 main categories that will be judged:

• Innovative Concept – Arguably the most important category, this focuses on uniqueness, originality, and suitability.
• Market Fit/Business Model – Are you solving an actual problem for your target market? Does your project have the potential for profit?
• Presentation – Did you make a compelling, impactful presentation? Did you clearly communicate your goals and vision to potential investors?

You can find  eligibility information on their website.

The New Venture Challenge competition is held in Chicago, IL.

Finalists are awarded:

• First Place: $50,000 equity investment and access to industry mentors and other resources.
• Second place: $25,000 equity investment and access to industry mentors and other resources.
• Third place: $15,000 equity investment and access to industry mentors and other resources.

New Venture Championship

The New Venture Championship is hosted by the University of Oregon and has been since 1987. The championship brings new ventures and innovative business ideas to life and the competition offers plan writing as a service to those who need it.

The University of Oregon New Venture Championship is open to university student teams with 2-5 members that have at least one graduate student involved with their venture. Students should be enrolled in a degree program or have finished their studies in the current academic year.

The New Venture Championship hosted by the University of Oregon is held in Eugene, Oregon.

Every business plan has a chance of winning a cash prize from $3,000 to $25,000 and additional benefits like plan coaching and office space rental.

Climatech & Energy Prize @ MIT

The Climatech & Energy Prize @ MIT is a competition that focuses on companies that are involved in the area of energy, environment, and climate change.

• Participants must be a team of two or more people.
• At least 50% of formal team members identified in the competition submission documentation must be enrolled as half-time or full-time college or university students.

The Climatech & Energy Prize @ MIT is held in Cambridge, MA.

The grand prize winner receives $100,000 and other winners may receive other monetary prizes.

Baylor Business New Venture Competition

This competition has been offered by Baylor for the last 20 years. It is designed to help aspiring entrepreneurs refine business ideas, and also gain valuable insights from judges and other entrepreneurs.

Must be a current undergraduate student at Baylor University or McLennan Community College.

The Baylor Business New Venture competition will be held at the Baylor University, Waco, TX.

The grand prize winner will receive $6,000. There are also other prizes given out to the other finalists in each category which are worth $1,500 – $2,000.

13th IOT/WT Innovation World Cup

The 13th IOT/WT Innovation World Cup was organized by the 13th IOT/WT Innovation World Cup Association. It was organized to provide a platform for innovators from all over the world to showcase their innovative ideas and projects. The competition aimed at drawing the attention of investors, venture capitalists, and potential business partners to meet with representatives from different companies and organizations in order to foster innovation.

The revolutionary Internet of Things and Wearable Technologies solutions from developers, innovative startups, scale-ups, SMEs, and researchers across the world are invited to participate. Eight different categories are available: Industrial, City, Home, Agriculture, Sports, Lifestyle, and Transport.

Only those submissions that have a functional prototype/proof of concept will advance in the competition, mere ideas will not be considered. 

The competition is held in Cleveland, Ohio also an important center for innovation and cutting-edge technology.

Win prizes worth over $500,000, connect with leading tech companies, speed up your development with advice from tech experts, join international conferences as a speaker or exhibitor, and become part of the worldwide IoT/WT Innovation World Cup® network. 

The U.Pitch is a competition that gives you a chance to share your idea and for the community of budding entrepreneurs, startup founders, CEOs, and venture capitalists to invest in your enterprise. It also provides mentoring by experts in the field.

• Currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program
• Applicants may compete with either an idea OR business currently in operation
• Applicants must be 30 years of age or under

The U.Pitch is held in San Francisco, California.

Enter to win a part of the $10,000 prize pool.

At the core of CodeLaunch is an annual seed accelerator competition between individuals and groups who have software technology startup ideas.

If your startup has raised money, your product is stable, you have customers, and revenue, you are probably not a fit for CodeLaunch.

CodeLaunch is based in St. Louis, Missouri. 

The “winner” may be eligible for more seed capital and business services from some additional vendors.

New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition

The New York StartUP! is a competition sponsored by the New York Public Library to help entrepreneurs from around the world to develop their business ideas.

• You must live in Manhattan, The Bronx, or Staten Island
• Your business must be in Manhattan, The Bronx, or Staten Island
• All companies must have a big idea or business model in the startup phase and have earned less than $10,000

The New York StartUP! competition is held in New York, NY.

Two winners are chosen: 

•  Grand Prize – $15,000  
•  Runner-up – $7,500  

First, determine if the competition is worth your time and money to participate.

• What is the prize money?
• Who will be on the judging panel?
• Will there be any costs associated with entering and/or presenting at the competition (e.g., travel and lodging expenses)?

Once you’ve determined the worth of the competition, then shift to focusing on the details of the competition itself.

• What are the rules of the competition?
• Are there any disqualifying factors?
• How will you be judged during the different parts of the competition?

After conducting this research, it’s best to formulate an idea or product that appeals to the judges and is something they can really get behind. Make sure you thoroughly understand the rules and what is expected from your final product. Once you know what is expected from you, you’ll be able to refine and practice your pitch to help you move through the stages of the competition.

These competitions are a fantastic method to get new business owners thinking about business possibilities, writing business plans, and dominating the competition. These contests may assist you in gaining important feedback on your business concept or plan as well as potential monetary prizes to help your business get off the ground.  

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The Best 20 Business Plan Competitions to Get Funding in (2024)

Free Business Plan Template

Radhika Agarwal

• October 18, 2023

11 Min Read

Brilliant business ideas deserve 2 things for sure – Feedback and Funding.

And if you think you have a good business idea and have some bit of groundwork figured out, you may want to look into business plan competitions.

Now, what is a business plan competition? Why should you participate in one? How to find one that’s just right for your business?

We’ll discuss all of the above and more through this article.

What is a Business Plan Competition?

A business plan competition is an event that allows small businesses and startups to compete with each other, get feedback and advice on their business, and also can help you get your business funded.

Businesses are judged on several factors including execution, feasibility, innovation, etc.

How to Find a Business Plan Competition?

There are several business plan competitions listed on Google that you can look through. Different competitions have different eligibility criteria and guidelines. Go through all of that to know if it fits your business or not.

At the same time, it is important to check the credibility and check for any scams or illegitimate sites.

To make finding business plan competitions a little easier we have compiled a list of 20 popular and credible competitions that you can apply for.

Business Plan Competitions

• Global Student Entrepreneur Awards
• tecBRIDGE Business Plan Competition
• HATCH Pitch
• Rice Business Plan Competition
• New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition
• MIT 100k Business Plan and Expo
• FAU Business Plan Competition
• NIBS Business Plan Competition
• Pistoia Alliance President’s Startup Challenge
• College of New Jersey’s Mayo Business Plan Competition
• Next Founders Business Plan Competition
• TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield
• New Venture Challenge
• New Venture Championship
• Climatech & Energy Prize @MIT
• Baylor Business New Venture Competition
• 13th IOT/WT World Cup

1. Global Student Entrepreneur Awards

To encourage students across the globe to become entrepreneurs GSEA organizes this competition for students from all disciplines and countries. The main aim of the awards is to draw people towards entrepreneurship, shape their ideas, and become a catalyst for their business’s growth.

Eligibility

The student must enroll in a part-time or full-time undergraduate or graduate course.

The student should own or work as a founder or co-founder of the startup.

Only one person from the startup can represent it.

The person should either be 30 or under 30 years of age.

The startup should be running for at least 6 months from the date of application.

The startup should either generate $500 or get $1000 as investments at the time of application.

The startup shouldn’t have reached the final round of the competition in previous years.

For more details check out their website.

The competition is held at several locations across the world over months during a school year. The finals among the Top 4 teams are held at Goldman Sachs New York.

• First Prize: $25,000
• Second Prize: $10,000
• Third Prize: $5,000

Lodging and travel expenses are covered and additional prizes are handed out at the event.

2. tecBRIDGE Business Plan Competition

The tecBRIDGE competition is divided into two parts, with one for college students across 14 colleges and universities and a non-collegiate one for early-stage entrepreneurs.

( For Collegiate )

At least one member as a college student

The product must identify commercial solutions through technical processes.

( For Non-Collegiate )

The startup must gross less than $250k in revenue from its start date up to the last tax filing date.

It is held in Northeastern Pennsylvania every year. The businesses that win have to establish their headquarters there as well.

Prizes worth $100,000 are shared amongst the winning teams.

3. HATCH Pitch

Through the Hatch Pitch program, you get access to mentorship courses, discounted spaces, funds, education programs, financial consulting, and so on.

The product/ Service was launched within 2 years.

Founders should retain some part of the ownership.

Must actively participate actively in Hatch Pitch coaching.

Must receive less than $5 million in funds from third-party investors.

The competition is held at Entrepreneur space in Dallas.

Access to high-level incubators and mentorship.

4. Rice Business Plan Competition

The Rice University business plan competition is specially designed for college students to present their ideas to investors , get mentorship and help shape their ideas and business journey better.

Students managed or created businesses.

Consists of at least 2 college students, and one student pursuing a graduate degree.

Have raised less than $250k in equity capital.

Have generated less than $100k in any 12-month period.

Houston at Rice University, graduate school of business, hosts this event.

In 2021, the winners were awarded investments worth $1.6 Million , cash prizes, etc.

5. New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition

New York Public library sponsors this competition to help entrepreneurs from around the world. They give wings to their ideas.

Must live in Manhattan, Staten Island, or The Bronx.

Your business should be in any of the above places as well.

The idea or business model is in the startup phase and shouldn’t have earned more than $10,000.

The competition is held in New York.

A grand prize worth $15000 and a Runner Up prize worth $7500 .

6. MIT 100k Business Plan and Expo

MIT organizes this competition to promote innovation in the university as well as the world. It consists of 3 competitions throughout the year namely Pitch, Accelerate, and Launch.

Each team should enter one idea.

Participants must have original work ideas

Should disclose the received funding.

Hosted in Cambridge MA MIT campus from October to May through the academic year.

• Pitch: $5000 jury award and $2000 audience choice award.
• Accelerate: 20 finalists get industry-specific mentorship programs with a budget of $1000 each. The top 10 finalists compete for the Audience Choice award worth $10,000. The top 3 finalists immediately get into the finals of the launch.
• Launch: The winner gets a whopping amount of $100,000 while the runner gets $25000 .

Official Website MIT 100k

7. FAU Business Plan Competition

The Florida Atlantic University Business Plan Competition is for graduate and undergraduate students spanning all continents.

Undergraduate or graduate participants.

The competition is held at Florida Atlantic University, in Boca Raton, Florida.

First Prize: $5000 and Second Prize: $500

8. NIBS Business Plan Competition

The NIBS competition helps you discuss and give a boost to your ideas. It also helps you get industry experts guidance.

Entrants of legal age to have contracts as per the rules of their country of residence.

Should not hold any employment apart from their own company.

The plan must stand for a startup business and not an acquisition.

It is held in the USA.

There’s a cash prize for the first three places as well as an opportunity to get an incubator program for the winners.

9. Get Seeded

Get Seed is a two-part funding program for students in launching their businesses.

At least one student from a higher education institution in Utah is a must.

Should be enrolled for nine credit hours during that semester.

Utilization of funds to take the idea further.

Salt Lake City in Utah hosts the business plan competition.

A micro-grant worth $500 and a seeded grant from $501 to $1500

10. Pistoia Alliance President’s Startup Challenge

This competition was designed for startups focusing on digital and health technology.

Legally formed entities

The company must have less than 50 people.

Annual sales under $5 million.

The product should have been launched within 3 years.

Your country should not have USA’s trade restrictions imposed.

You can submit your ideas from anywhere.

Five finalists win $5000 and 2 winners receive $20,000 .

Official Website

11. College of New Jersey’s Mayo Business Plan Competition

This competition is held for students to appreciate new challenges.

The teams must consist of two and bot more than four students from the College of New Jersey.

The College of New Jersey hosts this event.

The winners get mentorship and guidance programs.

Check Official Website

12. Next Founders Business Plan Competition

This competition focuses on startups with an innovative approach to solving social problems and global needs.

It is for Canadian entrepreneurs with scalable, high-potential ventures.

The University of Toronto.

Up to 25,000 CAD$ in cash for funding your startup.

13. TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield

TechCrunch sponsors this competition which comprises two levels.

The companies must have a functional prototype of their product or service to present to the committee.

Different locations.

The winner gets $50,000 and two runner-ups get $5000 each.

Check Competition Website

14. New Venture Challenge

This competition is held at the University of Chicago. Three evaluation points for participants are – Innovation, Product Market Fit , and presentation.

The eligibility information is available on their website.

Chicago, IL.

1st Place: $50,000 ; 2nd Place: $25,000 ; 3rd Place: $15,000 . In addition to that, the winners get access to mentorship and resources.

15. New Venture Championship

This competition is for those with a good business idea. Even if you don’t have a business plan, you can participate as the competition provides optional plan writing services.

The team should have 2-5 members.

Should have at least one graduate student.

The students should be pursuing their undergraduate or graduate degrees.

Eugene, Oregon.

Teams have a chance to win cash prizes ranging from $3000 to $25,000 with additional benefits like mentorship and rented office spaces.

16. Climatech & Energy Prize @MIT

This competition is ideal for companies with a core focus on energy, climate change, and the environment.

The team must have more than 2 members.

At least 50% of part-time or full-time university students.

Cambridge, MA hosts this competition

The winner gets a sizable sum of $1,00,000 .

17. U.Pitch

This competition gives entrants a chance to present their ideas to people from different levels and spectrums in the business space and get an opportunity for investments and mentorship programs.

Undergraduate or graduate program students.

Functioning Business

Age up to or below 30

San Francisco, California hosts this competition.

Prizes worth $10,000 are given.

18. CodeLaunch

It is a seed accelerator competition for entrepreneurs who have technology startups.

The detailed eligibility criteria can be found on their website.

St. Louis, Missouri hosts these competitions, usually.

The winner gets seed fund capital and access to other additional resources.

19. Baylor Business New Venture Competition

Baylor launched this competition to help entrepreneurs discuss their ideas and get advice from judges.

An undergraduate student at Baylor University and McLennan Community College.

Baylor University, Waco, Texas hosts this competition.

The first prize winner receives $6000 . The other finalists win prizes ranging from $1500-$2000 .

20. 13th IOT/WT World Cup

The innovation world cup was started to give startups a chance to display their ideas and business. The competition aims to attract venture capitalists, investors, and potential business partners .

The startup should have a concept of innovative technologies.

You should have a functional prototype of the product.

Cleveland, Ohio hosts this event.

You get a chance at winning prizes worth $500,000 and connect with leading tech companies in your field.

Even if you don’t receive funds, there’s a lot of chance to network, get exposure, and get your ideas validated. Especially, if you are someone who’s new in the business space business plan competitions are a great way to learn the ropes of the trade.

So, go ahead, write your business plan , look up the details, and register for a competition that fits your business the best!

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About the Author

Radhika is an economics graduate and likes to read about every subject and idea she comes across. Apart from that she can discuss her favorite books to lengths( to the point you\'ll start feeling a little annoyed) and spends most of her free time on Google word coach.

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How to Win a Business Plan Competition

8 min. read

Updated May 10, 2024

Have you considered business plan competitions as part of your startup strategy? I’ve personally seen startups get more than a million dollars in investment at the annual Rice University Business Plan Competition, held every April. I’ve also seen startups raise tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars of grant money at competitions hosted by the University of Oregon and the University of Texas. And I’ve read about startups getting good money from outside universities, in competitions held by business development organizations and businesses. And this is now worldwide, not just in the U.S. 

As I write this, I just did a web search for business plan competitions, and came up with dozens of them coming up in 2022. I judged a University of Oregon business plan competition just last month. 

I’ve never entered a business plan competition, but I’ve been judging them since 1997. I’ve done multiple stints at several of the majors. And I’ve developed some pointers and tips to help you win your next business plan competition. 

• 1. Know the judging guidelines

As business plan competitions have grown and developed, most of them have fine-tuned the details of judging procedures and criteria. For example, many ask judges to choose which entrant is the best investment for outsiders. That’s different from which is the best business or which they would rather own or share in. The key point there is that criterion essentially dismisses good startups that don’t need outside investment to grow. 

I’ve seen startups successfully tailor their plans and pitches to aim at outside investment rather than self funding. That, in my opinion, is the right way to adjust to the specific criteria. 

You should also be aware of judging guidelines governing questions, comments, interruptions of pitches, plan and pitch length, and so forth. Some business plan competitions ask the judges to listen quietly to a pitch, without interrupting. Others encourage judges to interrupt at will, as they would in a real investment pitch. Startups have to know and plan accordingly. 

• 2. Research who you are pitching to

In most of the business plan competitions I’ve seen, judges are a collection of venture capitalists, angel investors, entrepreneurs, and local business leaders. That’s predictable. The organizers of these competitions ask local people to participate, as volunteers, as judges. So they look for people who know the general territory of startups, business plans, pitches, and investment. 

Different judges have different sets of expertise. I’ve seen attorneys, accountants, and medical doctors as judges, along with investors in general. Read their biographies before you finalize your pitch. Know what experience and background they have. This can help a lot as you deliver a pitch and field questions.

• 3. Refine your pitch deck and get feedback

Start with a good deck of slides . Understand what your slide deck is supposed to do: ideally, it’s a collection of useful and/or beautiful images that focus attention on what you are saying, add depth to what you are saying, and sets the structure to what you say. For example, as you discuss the problem your startup solves, you project a beautiful image that illustrates the problem you solve. You want your investors to focus on you and your words, not read words from your slides. Avoid the so-called “death by PowerPoint” meaning the boredom of a speaker reading slide bullet points to a captive audience.   

We have a lot of information for you, on this site, about doing your slide presentation for a business pitch. All of that applies to the pitch component of a business plan competition. That includes How to Create a Pitch Deck , 15 Tips for a Successful Pitch , T he 11 Slides Your Need for a Pitch Deck , and others. 

Practice makes perfect . Trite but true. In my experience, the best pitches are practiced a lot but not memorized. The slide images stand as placeholders to set the flow of topics. They provide visual emphasis. But the speakers use their own words and let it flow differently each time they do it. The best have been over the pitch a lot, with others listening and poking holes where they can. So they have a good guess on what questions might come up, and how they will respond to those questions when they do. You might look at this article on how to get feedback on your pitch . 

• 4. Develop a memorable hook

You have just a few seconds to make that important first impression. Call that a hook. You want judges’ attention from the very beginning. Maybe you tell a story of a real person suffering the problem you want to solve. Ideally, in that case, your first slide is a picture of that problem. Maybe you share the vision of how this will help the world. That can start with an image too. 

Hooks are hard to generalize, but it’s all about getting the judges to care. It’s most often about the problem a startup solves, the size of the need, the importance of the solution. But it might also be the ambitious goals, if you can make the judges care about that. Be creative. Put yourself in the place of an investor, sense business plan competition judges are usually thinking as investors. What makes this exciting to the investor? What’s the best thing to make them care from the beginning. 

• 5. Share any traction

Being able to show actual achieved traction is a huge advantage in a business plan competition. Most competitions invite startups at very early stages, often long before launch or even serious steps towards execution. The startup that already has traction is way ahead of the competition. 

What makes traction depends on your type of business. Maybe it’s proven research, subscribers, customers, distributors, letters of intent, users, and so forth. Generally, there’s nothing stronger than actual paying customers. 

• 6. Show realistic market potential and growth

Don’t ever think that in a business plan competition the biggest market wins. It’s so very much not that simple. Credibility and realism are critical. I’ve seen judges not choose a startup that was going to cure cancer, with a projected market of billions, because they just didn’t believe it. I’ve seen judges routinely reject unbelievable big numbers. 

Yes, of course, bigger is better, but only within that framework of credibility. The method and assumptions and transparency of a projection is very important. The best market projections build from the bottom up, with believable assumptions about drivers: stores, channels, web views, traffic, sales funnels. Numbers should start at the base drivers and build up to the bigger numbers. 

• 7. Prepare relatable stories

Stories are vital to business success and that includes in business plan competition. Your hook is a story. Your problem and solution are a story. How people find and buy that solution is another story. Business planning is in many ways telling stories first and then planning how to make them come true. The stories are vital to your success in a business plan competition. You hint at them in an elevator pitch, tell them in the business pitch, and show them and how they can come true in your business plan. 

• 8. Keep things short and straightforward

Business plan competition judges are busy people. They have a lot of distractions. Boredom is your enemy. Time is the scarcest resource. Keep your pitches moving. Once you lose their attention, it is very hard to get that back. Stay on point. Move it forward fast. 

In a pinch, use your slide deck to help. Click on the next slide. That should move you to the next topic. 

• 9. Prove you are uniquely qualified

Most business plan contest judges are investors and most investors agree that choosing a startup is often more about the jockey than the horse. I’ve often seen judges reject a good plan with a good product and market but an unconvincing team. Show why your team background and qualifications make you uniquely qualified. Usually that means track records, industry experience, related credentials, accomplishments, market knowledge, product knowledge, and commitment. Simply put: why you?  

• 10. Have your business plan prepared to share

Start with the obvious: Make sure you are aware of each business plan competition’s specific requirements for the plan itself. Most of them set down standards for how many pages. Some set just page count while others will distinguish between text pages and pages containing illustrations and/or financial projections. Many business plan contests also specify pagination and details for the executive summary. 

Pay special attention to the summaries. Many judges will read just the summaries well and skim the rest, and then screen and grade plans based mainly on the summary information. Make sure you show the highlights first, and well. What highlights? That depends on your unique plan. For some, technology is most important. For others, it’s the market, or the team experience. You have to know what best sets you apart, and put that where judges will see it. 

In a business plan competition, the quality of presentation in the plan — writing and formatting as well as content — is especially important. Be careful with text, diction, spelling, grammar, and formatting. Don’t let important information get lost in details. You are going to be graded on the quality of the document. 

• Get funding for your business

Finally, maybe as a conclusion, let’s remember that winning a business plan competition is one way to get funding for your business. Winnings can be very helpful. I’ve seen startups come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars and in a couple specific cases (at the Rice Business Plan Competition in Houston) more than a million dollars in angel investment by winning a business plan competition. And I’ve seen startups come up with tens of thousands of dollars as simple grants, no strings attached, as prizes for winning a business plan contest. 

Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software , a co-founder of Borland International, and a recognized expert in business planning. He has an MBA from Stanford and degrees with honors from the University of Oregon and the University of Notre Dame. Today, Tim dedicates most of his time to blogging, teaching and evangelizing for business planning.

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How to Win Any Business Plan Competition, From a 4-Time Winner

Alison alvarez has gotten really good at understanding what judges want. here are her top tips..

Alison Alvarez is a master of the business plan competition. 

Her expertise grew out of necessity. When she and her co-founder, Tomer Borenstein, founded BlastPoint in 2016, they knew they had a winning business idea : Leverage artificial intelligence to help public utilities, banks, and automotive companies analyze their massive customer lists. In their estimation, most data tools weren't built for salespeople or others who might really benefit from them. Plus, the pair of computer scientists knew their stuff--both had graduate degrees from Carnegie Mellon; Alvarez had also earned her MBA at the University's Tepper School of Business. 

But neither had financial resources. "Often you hear about the 'friends and family round,'" comments Alvarez, referring to founders bootstrapping their companies by way of benevolent relatives. She wondered, "If you don't have those, what do you do?" 

Alvarez and Borenstein decided to bootstrap the Pittsburgh-based BlastPoint through competitions and grants . Alvarez viewed it as something akin to scholarship applications, which she had grown expert at as a student. She funded both her undergraduate and graduate educations with scholarships. 

The strategy worked. In the past four years, the company has won four such competitions, ranging in size from 2017's UpPrize, which came with a $160,000 reward, all the way to a small $2,000 payoff in the GSV Labs AI Pitch competition in 2020. 

"We got really good at that as a way to get capital for basic things," says Alvarez. "Like, we need a printer, let's go to a quick pitch competition," referencing how she entered and won TiE  Pittsburgh . She notes an additional benefit of her business-competition funding strategy: "Investors show up." At that point, she says, "it becomes less about the money, more about expanding our network," which is key, especially when Covid-19 has made socializing normally so hard. 

Here, Alvarez shares a few the tricks she uses to prevail. 

Ask to see the judging guidelines.

Competitions often try to make life easy for their judges, who tend to be high profile, busy, and donating their time, by providing them with scoring rubrics. These are handy guides that explain how to weight companies' merits in various categories as they evaluate one application after the next.

It never hurts to ask to see these judges' guidelines ahead of time, suggests Alvarez. "Usually if you ask, they'll just give it to you."

"You should know what rules you're being held to," she says. "And if you do that you'll know how to tailor your presentation to address the whole rubric."

What's more, she says, "they'll also remember your name as someone who had the initiative to reach out." 

Small, real stories beat big, vague ideas.

Before entering UpPrize, the social innovation challenge funded by BNY Mellon, Alvarez and Borenstein used an example of a nearby watershed whose director wanted to understand how to balance the needs both rich and poor constituents equitably. Armed with real, quantitative calculations of the benefits--and a portrait of the watershed's executive director--Alvarez had a real-world example to look to. She then explained how her company had the potential to help both nonprofits and companies save money and increase equity, across the nation at scale. 

"If you can get just one person to say you actually saved them $100 or a $1,000, it has a lot more impact than if you just said, 'We have the  potential  to save people millions of dollars,'" she says. 

Find a memorable hook.

Even if you have real results and check all the boxes of a winning pitch, there's still a chance your application can get lost in the shuffle. 

"Know that you are part of a really big group of people. You might be lucky if judges remember one thing about you," she says. "But know that you have control over what that one thing is." 

Put something powerful and memorable in the beginning, middle, and end of your presentation--you never know whether judges might get distracted at some point as you're talking, so hedge your bets. BlastPoint's founders summarized their mission by highlighting the importance of data: "Data enables you to see where you're going and where you've been; without it, you're operating without vision." 

Boil your business down to one sentence.

On stage, Alvarez makes all the complex data analysis BlastPoint performs sound clear and easy to remember: "It's big data for human brains," she says. The idea is to make your company easy to talk about during judge's deliberations. 

"If someone walks away from what you're doing, can they tell somebody about your business in a sentence?" she says. "And if they can't, you need to rethink what you're doing." 

A refreshed look at leadership from the desk of CEO and chief content officer Stephanie Mehta

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How To Win A Business Plan Contest

A well-developed business plan creates the foundation on which a successful startup will be able to establish itself, and is especially necessary when considering participation in a business plan contest or pitch event. When every factor is considered – market and industry, finance, marketing, operations, and etc. – success becomes a long-term plan as opposed to a hope for a stroke of startup luck. Along with a solid pitch and pitch deck, a business plan is a critical element in your journey to landing a successful seed funding round. Writing an  investor-ready business plan  can be difficult, but securing funding without a solid plan in place is pretty much impossible.

Once you finally get the perfect business plan written, what’s next? For those who are far enough along in their business, submitting the plan directly to investors might be a wise step. For those who aren’t quite ready to approach VCs yet, but could use a financial boost to get things going, participating in business plan contests can be a tremendous help. Not only do these competitions often provide significant rewards for the winners, but they also often draw the attention of angels, VCs, and even corporations looking to invest in or partner with the next billion-dollar startup.

Unfortunately, where there is honey there are bees – business plan contests often attract some of the brightest minds, and the higher the reward, the more competition you can expect. In this post, we’ll explore everything you need to know to find a great business plan contest, enter it with confidence, and win against other participating startups!

The Benefits of Winning A Business Plan Contest

Business plan competitions are beneficial platforms that allow entrepreneurs to showcase their idea, product, or startup to a group of judges. Often, these competitions involve pitching the idea or startup to judges over one or more rounds. Once each competing startup has presented, judges vote on which business (or businesses) will receive the offered reward.

While business plan competitions highly benefit winning startups, they offer immense benefits to investors who attend them also – access to early-stage businesses that they can invest in before others have the opportunity. Furthermore, these competitions work to even out the playing field for entrepreneurs who otherwise may not have access to investors – winning a business plan contest could be the difference between funding your business’ launch or failing before you even get the chance to begin.

The most obvious benefit of winning a business plan contest is winning the offered reward. The reward value of these contests can vary from small amounts to extremely large amounts.  For example, the Panasci Business Plan Competition by Syracuse University offers around $35,000 in total rewards, while the Rice Business Plan Competition offers over $1.2 million in seed funding to its winners and runner-ups. Winning the right competition can impact your business greatly; providing you with the  app funding  required to progress your business from the app idea phase to launch and beyond. There is something that should be considered though – some business plan competitions may come with specific conditions that must be met to receive the funding; such as headquartering the business in a certain location, offering up an equity percentage, or being involved in a startup incubator for some length of time.

High-profile angels and VCs often attend larger business plan competitions, and even participants that don’t win the contest may attract the attention of an investor. In some cases, teams that don’t win may end up with larger investments than those that the judges selected for first place. Investors aren’t always looking for the same things in a startup; your idea might not be of much interest to the judges, but may be exactly what an attending investor was looking for! These investors aren’t only good for the funds they bring – some of them may provide a critical mentorship component to your startup; helping to advise your team for greater success down the line.

Lastly, one of the least recognized but most effective benefits of participating in a business plan competition is having your business plan and startup critically reviewed by experienced judges, entrepreneurs, and investors. Even if you don’t win, the insight provided by the panel of judges will offer different perspectives regarding your startup. Ultimately, by applying this insight, you can further position your startup for success when participating in future events.

Finding The Right Business Plan Contest

The unique beauty of business plan contests is that they are relatively ubiquitous – and today, more competitions are popping up than ever before. A variety of organizations, educational institutions, and even individuals organize business plan competitions to seek out investable and fundable business ideas. In general, most business plan contests can be grouped into two categories:

• University Competitions: Many major universities organize some type of business plan contest through their business school. Eligibility may vary from contest to contest, but these contests are typically only available to those connected to the business program – students, alumni, and in some cases, even on-staff professionals. Due to these eligibility requirements, competition is generally limited – which means that participants have a much larger chance of winning when compared to contests with less regulation. Furthermore, universities know that any successful startups launched through these contests will give their business program a major boost in visibility and credibility. As a result, universities often go a step above to support winners of these programs – providing additional on-campus resources or even access to alumni professionals that can help them advance their businesses.
• Sponsored Contests: Sponsored business plans are those that are planned and hosted by an organization, corporation, individual or other entity. Specifically, these organizers ‘sponsor’ the competition – organizing the event, involving investors and judges, and securing rewards to incentivize winners and participants. Sometimes, these competitions may be sponsored by companies within a specific sector such as biotech, healthcare, urban transit, architecture, and etc.; while other times they may be part of a larger  startup incubator  or accelerator program.  

Business plan and  pitch deck  competitions take place several times each year in most major cities – and even in many less popular upcoming startup regions. If you are a student or alumni, check with your university to see if they have a business plan competition in place – if not, maybe you can help them organize one! For those who are not eligible to join a university-sponsored competition, a simple Google search will provide you with several options. Search for “industry name + business plan contest” or “city + business plan contest” to see what upcoming business plan contest events you may be eligible to participate in.

Winning Big At Your First Business Plan Contest

Participating in a business plan contest can be extremely valuable, but the real goal is to win – and to win big! The key to winning a business plan competition of any type is to know what the judges are looking for and to position your startup, business plan, and pitch to exceed their expectations.

Judging The Judges

In general, whether you win a business plan contest or not will hinge upon how your business idea is perceived by the panel of judges, and how they perceive you as an entrepreneur and presenter. It is worth noting that judges often come from various backgrounds with varied experiences; what may be a top consideration for one judge may make little difference to another. However, most judges compare businesses on at least the following three factors:

• Originality: Successful business ideas need to be original in nature and able to improve upon an existing solution, solve a wide-scale problem, or effectively meet the current market demand. Businesses that simply spin-off from other successful ideas are not looked upon favorably by judges or investors – since they usually have little advantage to compete against already established players. To win a business plan contest, it is essential that your idea is fresh, scalable, sustainable and eventually, profitable.
• Ability To Generate Profit: Even the most creative ideas need to be able to turn a profit at some point. Understandably, most investors aren’t interested in funding businesses that won’t provide them with a return in the long-run. In order to gain interest in your business during a contest, your business plan should show exactly how your business will provide a return for investors in the long-term. While some investors may be interested in other aspects of a business, such as their social consciousness or involvement, the majority of investors are looking for opportunities to grow their portfolio by investing in businesses that are capable of generating strong profits.
• Effective Presentation : It’s not always the best idea that wins a business plan competition. A perfect business plan and an exciting idea means very little if an entrepreneur can not properly convey their message during their presentation. In most contests, participants are given a set time limit (such as 10 minutes) to present – and expressing all the necessary information within this time period can be rather difficult. Judges look for confident entrepreneurs who can articulate their business enough to convey the efficacy and scalability of their idea properly. The knowledge an entrepreneur needs to possess doesn’t end with just the text presented in their business plan or  pitch deck . Most often, there is a Q&A portion during these events in which the entrepreneur will be required to answer specific questions by judges and investors. The inability to answer these questions properly and confidently can quickly dissuade an investor from investing, or can cause a judge to give a lower score than they would have otherwise.

Preparing For Business Plan Contest Success

Success at these events is often linked to how well an entrepreneur has prepared themselves beforehand. One thing is certain – your competitors will be prepared; and if you aren’t, it will be embarrassingly noticeable. Unfortunately, in a business plan contest, there is no way to mask unpreparedness, especially among an audience of experienced entrepreneurs and investors. To best prepare for an upcoming business plan competition, consider the following tips:

• Sell A Strong Team:  There is one thing that’s more important than having a great business plan – having a strong and experienced team that can actually execute it. Management teams are what bind all the elements of a business plan together; combining the skills necessary to put the plan into action successfully. It is vital that your team encompasses a broad range of skills and that each team member has a specific job that will lead to the startup’s success.
• Present The Problem First : Startups that win (in contests and in general) are those that truly solve an existing problem – whether the problem is shared by a mass group of people, or by a niche audience. There’s a lot of “cool tech” out there, but even simple ideas can solve major problems. Taxis have existed for decades, but a simple idea like ride-sharing changed the way the world views personal transportation. Prepare a pitch that is challenge/solution heavy by focusing on what the problem is, why individuals experience the issue, why current solutions don’t solve the challenges effectively, and why your product/service is the right solution for the problem.
• Know Your Funding Requirements : Investors don’t want their funds to just sit in an account; they want to know that there is a plan in place to use these funds and effectively scale a startup from its current position. Have a funding plan in place – know how much funding is required, what actions need to be completed to successfully progress the business, and how each dollar will be spent to meet your launch or growth objectives.
• Be The Expert : If there is any gap in your business plan, it will be uncovered during the Q&A stage. Investors and judges are highly experienced in asking the right questions to get a full picture of your startup and to gauge whether you are well-informed about your business, market and the issue that you are attempting to solve. It’s not a good sign when an investor or judge knows more about your business than you do. Ensure that your business plan is all-encompassing with vital information, and that you can answer any necessary questions without needing to reference your business plan. During the Q&A session, you should be able to answer questions proficiently, confidently, and with enough expertise to prove that you know exactly what you are talking about.
• Listen, Learn and Apply : You can’t win every business plan or pitch contest, but you can definitely take the insights given during one competition and use it to propel your potential for success in future contests. It’s not everyday that you’re able to receive critical feedback from a group of investors, and when you can, you should take advantage of it as much as possible. Even if you don’t win anything in a business plan competition, the insights gained can be used to catapult your business to the next level.

Writing A Business Plan That Wins

Even if everything else is perfect – if you want to win, you must begin with a well-thought-out, perfectly articulated, and investor-ready business plan that tells your startup’s story in an effective manner. There are many factors to consider when writing a business plan from proper market analysis to financial projections – and any weak point in your plan will decrease your chances of winning. If you need more advice on writing a business plan, contact one of our experts today for a free business plan consultation!

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About the Contest

Submit your idea, deadline: january 31.

The mission of the  Governor’s Business Plan Contest  is to encourage entrepreneurs in the startup stage of tech-enabled businesses in Wisconsin. The contest links up-and-coming entrepreneurs with a statewide network of community resources, expert advice, high-quality education, management talent and possible sources of capital.

Commentary & Interview Video

Since its inception in 2004, about 4,805 entries have been received across four categories – advanced manufacturing, business services, information technology and life sciences. The contest has led to cash and in-kind prizes (such as legal, accounting, office space and marketing) valued at about $2.9 million. More important: Contest finalists have raised more than $320 million in angel, venture, grants and venture debt over time. Those same finalists have stayed in business much longer than normal when compared to U.S. startup rates – and they are creating jobs. Distribution of submissions by category:

Advanced Manufacturing

Business Services

Information Technology

Life Sciences

Produced by the  Wisconsin Technology Council  and a growing list of partners, the Governor’s Business Plan Contest engages contestants in a five-month process that includes the opportunity to work with mentors and receive feedback from judges. It also leads to valuable public and media exposure for the top business plans and helps spur economic growth in Wisconsin.

How did it go in 2024?

The 2024 Governor’s Business Plan Contest began in late January with entries received from more than half of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. To get started, contestants created a simple account through our website and continued to use that account throughout the contest to gain access to mentors and to review judges’ comments and feedback.

From the initial submissions, 52 semi-finalists were chosen to write and submit 1,000-word executive summaries. That field was narrowed to 25 finalists, who submitted 15-minute pitch decks that covered eight fields: company overview; product or service description; customer definition; market description, size and sales strategy; competition; management team; financials; and capital needs. The final business plans were reviewed by a panel of more than 70 judges in late May.

The “Diligent Baker’s Dozen” squared off with live presentations at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference in Milwaukee. Category winners, as well as the 2024 Grand Prize Winner, were announced during the BPC Awards Session on June 6.

This statewide contest is an opportunity to compete for cash and prizes, but it’s also a chance to get constructive feedback on your business plan and to help move it from a virtual business to a reality. In 20243, finalists shared in about $121,000 in cash and service prizes!

New York StartUP! 2024 Business Plan Competition

Are you an entrepreneur looking for the chance to launch your business? Join the New York StartUP! 2024 Business Plan Competition! Turn your ideas into reality with access to Library resources, mentorship, and cash prizes between $7,500 and $15,000. Learn more below about the requirements of the competition and how you can get involved.  

Participation requirements, step 1: view the online orientation  .

View the online orientation for an overview of the competition including how it works, the requirements, and the timeline.  Click here for details.  

Step 2: Submit Your Entry Form

The competition entry period is now closed. You are welcome to attend any remaining workshops and access the resources.

Step 3: Attend Virtual Q&A Sessions

You must attend one session of all four StartUP! competition workshops.   

Step 4: Schedule a Virtual Consultation with a Business Librarian   

Business Center librarians can provide resources for marketing and industry research, sample business plans, and business service providers. You must schedule at least one consultation.  

Step 5: Meet with a Business Advisor

You must meet at least once with an expert business advisor to review your plan.  See a list of potential business advisors and the form to document your meetings.  

Step 6: Upload a PDF of Your Business Plan

Upload your completed plan to the competition site by September 18,  2024 at 11:59 PM. 

For any questions about the StartUP! Competition, please contact [email protected].

Eligibility

To be eligible for the StartUP! Competition cash prize:

• You must live in Manhattan, The Bronx, or Staten Island.*
• Your business must be in Manhattan, The Bronx, or Staten Island.
• All businesses must have ideas or business models in the start-up phase and have earned less than $10,000.

Click here to review the full rules and eligibility requirements of the competition.

• First Prize:  $15,000  
• Second Prize: $10,000
• Third Prize :  $7,500   

* Do you live in Brooklyn or Queens? We welcome all to participate in the competition and learn how to put a business plan together. However, only residents of Manhattan, The Bronx, or Staten Island who start a business in one of these three boroughs are eligible to win a prize.

Similar competitions are available for residents of Brooklyn and Queens. The Brooklyn Public Library runs the Brooklyn PowerUP! Competition for Brooklyn residents. The Queens Economic Development Corporation (QEDC) offers the StartUP! Competition for Queens residents.

Past Winners

Looking for inspiration for your business plan? Meet the past winners of the NY StartUP! Business Plan Competition !

The StartUp! Business Plan Competition is made possible by the generous support of the Wells Fargo Foundation. 

Top 20 Student Business-Plan Competitions

Say you have an awesome idea for a startup, something with real potential. There is, however, a pretty big problem: launching a business isn’t cheap, and as a student or recent graduate, it’s difficult to finance a business on your own. But, your idea is good. So what happens next? We’ve compiled a list of the top competitions aimed at current college undergraduates, graduate students, recent alumni, and high school students from all over the world to not only help you test your business model against what your peers are doing (and gain meaningful experience in the process), but also transform your idea into a reality.

1. High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge

Hosted by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute at the University of Utah with sponsorship from Zions Bank, this competition is targeted at high schoolers with big ideas.

• What you need : A business idea that includes the following: a problem, a proposed solution, a targeted audience/customer and a prototype.
• Who can apply : Any Utah high-schooler aged 14-18. Teams are not required but can include up to 5 members.
• Where: This year’s events are expected to be virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• What you could win : Prizes vary in amount and type based on award received.
• 2020-21 Deadline : Apply by Feb. 17, 2021.
• Website : https://lassonde.utah.edu/hsuec/

2.  Blue Ocean High School Entrepreneurial Leaders

A global, virtual pitch competition for high school students aimed to provide feedback, advance ideas, and launch students’ futures.

• What you need : A 3-5 minute pitch for a big idea.
• Who can apply : Any student currently in high school.
• Where: This is a virtual event conducted through video submissions.
• What you could win : The grand prize winner receives $1,000, with other awards receiving up to $750. There are also opportunities for high schools to receive grant money, too.
• 2020-21 Deadline : Apply by Feb. 19, 2021.
• Website : https://blueoceancompetition.org/

3.  Get Seeded

Designed to help get ideas off the ground, this two-part milestone grant funding program seeks out students with measurable goals and helps fund the entrepreneurial process. This program is managed by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute at the University of Utah and sponsored by Chad and Kristen Anselmo and doxy.me.

• What you need : A startup with short-term measurable milestones (prototyping, marketing, etc.) that can be achieved within 30-90 days.
• Who can apply : Any college student in Utah.
• Where: The University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, though location is subject to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• What you could win : There are two grants opportunities: a microgrant of up to $500, and a Seed Grant for $501-1,500.
• 2020-21 Deadline : Regular grant intervals. See website for details.
• Website : https://lassonde.utah.edu/getseeded/

4. TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield

A competition for early-stage startups to receive equity-free prize money, as well as general investors and media attention.

• What you need : A mid-stage startup with clear ideas and product or service in the development stages.
• Who can apply : Anyone with a startup idea is invited to participate.
• Where: The first round of competition is regional, and is subject to change due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
• What you could win : Global competition winners receive $100,000 in prize money.
• 2020-21 Deadline : Application dates have not yet been updated, as they vary by region.
• Website : https://techcrunch.com/

 5.  Hatch Pitch

Hosted with SXSW in Austin, Texas, until 2016, this is a competition focused on startups with information technology angles.

• What you need : A company in which the founders retain some portion of ownership, as well as a product or service that launched sometime in the past 2 years (or within 6 months after the Hatch Pitch event.)
• Who can apply : Anyone who meets the above criteria. There is no specific age limit or education requirement.
• Where: Houston, Texas, though location is subject to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• What you could win : Winners can receive any amount of funding based on investors’ interest. All contestants receive active coaching and mentoring, as well as publicity for their concepts.
• 2020-21 Deadline : Applications are received on a rolling basis.
• Website : https://www.hatchpitch.com/apply-full-form

6. Rice University Business Plan Competition

A virtual three-day competition that accounts for pitches, feedback, and judge interaction, designed to give entrepreneurs real-world experience.

• What you need : A business in the seed, startup, or early growth stages
• Who can apply : Any full-time or part-time U.S. graduate students. Teams must have at least one graduate student and a faculty advisor, but only students can present.
• Where: Rice University in Houston, Texas.
• What you could win : The grand prize winner receives $125,000 in equity capital from a Houston investment group as well as $20,000 in cash and about $80,000 in services. This includes a year’s worth of office space.
• 2020-21 Deadline : Apply by Feb. 2, 2021, for the April 5-9, 2021 competition.
• Website : https://rbpc.rice.edu/

7. New Venture Championship, University of Oregon

This virtual competition attracts students who want to “create something extraordinary,” and can bridge the gap between a market need and a real solution.

• What you need : A business majorly owned by students that has a faculty advisor, looking for seed capital.
• Who can apply : Teams of 2-5 students who created, manage, and own their ventures and who are allocated at least 50% of the startup’s equity. At least one member of the team is required to be enrolled in a graduate program from any field.
• Where : Portland, Oregon.
• What you could win : Up to $50,000 in prize money is up for grabs. If you don’t make it to the top round, you can still compete in a lightning round for prize money during the finals.
• 2020-21 Deadline : Applications are due by Feb. 14, 2021, to compete in the qualifying round (Feb. 15 – March 20).
• Website : https://business.uoregon.edu/nvc/details

8. ClimateTech & Energy Prize @ MIT

A competition aimed at any student who wants to change the way we handle energy.

• What you need : A business focused on one of four categories: Generating Energy, Delivering Energy, Improving Energy Usage or Energy for Developing Economies.
• Who can apply : University teams from across the United States.
• Where : Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• What you could win : The top two teams in each category go on to compete for a $100,000 Grand Prize and other monetary prizes.
• 2020-21 Deadlines : Applications due on Feb. 5, 2021.
• Website : https://cep.mit.edu/intro

9. Baylor Business New Venture Competition

Hosted by Baylor University, this two-track competition is nationwide.

• What you need : A business in one of two competition tracks: Internet and Consumer Technology and Non-Internet and Consumer Technology Companies. Internet and Consumer Technology companies must aim to impact one of the following industries: Internet Services, Internet Security, Info Tech, Software Cloud, Mobile Tech, Mobile Apps, Mobile Commerce, Web/e-Commerce, Social Commerce, Social Networking, Social Media, Social Gaming, Video Gaming.
• Who can apply : Current students or recent alumni (within the last 15 months) in teams with 2-4 members.
• Where : Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
• What you could win: All prizes are in cash and range from a grand prize of $60,000 to $1,500 for second and third-round winners.
• 2021-2022 Deadlines : Dates have not yet been updated for the following year. The 2021 competition can be streamed from Mar. 25-27, 2021.
• Website : https://www.baylor.edu/business/newventurecompetition/

10. Innovation World Cup Series

This is a global competition split into categories where participants connect and compete in a convention setting.

• What you need : A business that is involved in the internet of things or wearable technology in the fields of Home, City, Lifestyle, Industrial, Transportation, Healthcare, and Retail.
• Who can apply : If you are 18 or older and in no way affiliated with Navispace, the host, you can apply.
• Where : Munich, Germany.
• What you could win: Prize pool of $500,000, with networking and exposure included
• 2020-21 Deadlines : Applications are open now, and due by Sept. 22, 2021.
• Website : https://www.innovationworldcup.com/13th-iot-wt-innovation-world-cup/

11.  Utah Entrepreneur Challenge

A business-model competition for all college students in Utah. This competition is hosted by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute at the University of Utah and sponsored by Zions Bank.

• What you need : A business model of any type.
• Who can apply : University students currently enrolled in Utah colleges.
• Where : The University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, though location is subject to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• What you could win : Grand prize is up to $40,000 in cash, with additional prizes, like Best Speed Pitch, ranging in dollar amounts
• 2020-21 Deadlines : Applications close on Feb. 8, 2021.
• Website : http://lassonde.utah.edu/uec/

12. Postcode Lottery Green Challenge

One of the largest sustainable entrepreneurship competitions, participants compete with international entrepreneurs for the best green business plan.

• What you need : A business must have the potential to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by a measurable amount, should be developed enough to execute should be realizable as a usable product or service within the next two years.
• Who can apply : Anyone 18 years or older whose business is located in Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Norway, or Sweden.
• Where : The finals are hosted in Amsterdam, where you will present your idea to the jury (reasonable expenses covered for one person).
• What you could win : Grand prize winner receives €500,000. Second place receives €200,000, and other finalists receive €100,000.
• 2020-21 Deadlines : Dates have not yet been updated.
• Website : http://www.greenchallenge.info/entry-criteria

13. University Startup World Cup

This competition is hosted and organized by a Danish non-profit, Venture Cup. Their mission is to establish connections among student entrepreneurs internationally, as well as teach and advise young people about the world of business.

• What you need : Preferably, a business that fits into one of the following categories: Healthtech, Greentec, Fintech, Hightec & Robotics, or Information Communication technology. However, if your idea is cool enough, they’ll accept anything.
• Who can apply: Only student startups may enter. Therefore, all teams must have at least one person who is a student, faculty member, or recent graduate (within the year they’re applying). However, if you’re looking for team members, Venture Cup can help connect you to people with similar ideas.
• Where: The location is not certain due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• What you could win : Grand prize is $15,000.
• Website : https://venturecup.dk/uswc/

14. Get in the Ring  

One-on-one, regional, and global face-off between startups that takes place in a literal ring.

• What you need : A “high potential” startup that is 8 years or younger with an innovative and scalable business idea or model.
• Who can apply : Anyone with a business fitting the above-described model.
• Where : The beginning stages of the competition are regional, and vary based on your location. Finals are hosted in a different location internationally every year. Travel cost to finals is covered.
• What you could win : GITR offers immense exposure for your business by placing you in a ring where you “battle” other entrepreneurs using your business pitch in front of investors and businesspeople. Grand prize winners receive a seat at the table with hand-picked advisors and investors, and title.
• 2020-21 Deadlines : Dates vary by region.
• Website : https://getinthering.co/gm2021/

15. U. Pitch

This national competition brings university students from all disciplines together to contend for the best 90-second pitch.

• What you need: A company or idea to start a for-profit company with headquarters in the U.S.
• Who can apply : Current university students or graduates within the last six months.
• Where : 100% virtual.
• What you could win : Up to $10,000 in prizes and cash.
• 2020-21 Deadlines : Applications open in the fall of 2021. You can sign up to get notified here .
• Website : https://futurefounders.com/startup/upitch/

16. Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards

This competition brings women from six regions of the world to showcase their ideas.

• What you need : A for-profit startup with at least one year of revenue.
• Who can apply : Only women may apply for this competition.
• Where : Finalists attend awards week in Singapore, where the final round commences.
• What you could win : Grand prize is $100,000. All runner ups receive $30,000.
• 2020-21 Deadlines : Application deadlines have not yet been updated.
• Website : https://application-form.cartierwomensinitiative.com/new-application

17. G-Startup Worldwide  

This is a global competition that supports young entrepreneurs in the early stages of a startup with funding and a network of investors.

• What you need : A product that is making a positive impact, showing traction in the market, and is involved in AI, Mobile, IoT, Wearables, FinTech, Cyber Security, Smart Cars, AR/VR, Space, Robotics/Drones, Education, Enterprise, Health, AggTech, or Social and eCommerce.
• Who can apply : Any startup meeting the previous requirement that is registered as a company.
• Where : First rounds are regional. Finalists compete in Silicon Valley.
• What you could win : Winners of regional competitions receive cash prizes, travel opportunities, and networking invites.
• Website : http://g-startup.net/

18. Axel Springer Plug and Play

While competitive, this 100-day program is more of an accelerator than an out-right competition. They require 5% equity in exchange for participation.

• What you need : A business model for digital entrepreneurship.
• Who can apply : Anyone with an early-stage company and a Pitch-Deck.
• Where : Location varies. Check the website below for more details.
• What you could win : €50,000, valuable time to pitch in front of investors, and experience.
• 2020-21 Deadlines : Deadlines vary based on location and stage of company.
• Website : http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/#home-section

19. Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition

Inspired and promoted by the United Nations, this competition takes place through three stages of online submission and selection.

• What you need : Innovative ideas and projects with a societal impact. Must involve one or more of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals .
• Who can apply : Anyone aged 13-29 (or 30+ in the Adult Citizen Entrepreneurship category).
• Where: Winners are invited to the Summit in Berlin in October of every year.
• What you could win : Recognition at the Summit and the UN’s acknowledgement.
• 2020-21 Deadlines : Applications open in Spring 2021.
• Website : https://www.entrepreneurship-campus.org/about-the-competition/

20. CodeLaunch

Annual seed accelerator for people and groups with ideas for “apps” who are seeking seed funding. Entries are submitted online.

• What you need : Any software ideas are taken, even just having an idea for an app is acceptable.
• Who can apply : Anyone that fits the previous criteria.
• Where : Finals are hosted in Texas, dates change every year and might be impacted by COVID-19.
• What you could win : Applicants chosen to attend CodeLaunch pitch day compete in front of judges poised to invest. Overall winner receives custom software design, development, and/or website development, hosting services, and a partnership with Code Authority. Winners may also judge the following year’s competition.
• Website : https://www.codelaunch.com/

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About the author: jacqueline mumford.

2 thoughts on “ Top 20 Student Business-Plan Competitions ”

Thanks Jacqueline for this comprehensive list. I wish I had this information 15 years ago. Had a great idea, pitched it to some venture firms and was turned down and saw the same idea skyrocket to the top two years later when someone else came with the same idea and presented it in a much more convincing way to the investors.

The Draper Competition for Collegiate Women Entrepreneurs is another event that provides microfinancing for undergraduate women-led ventures. Total cash prize pool is $100,000. http://www.smith.edu/draper

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San Angelo Business Plan Competition

The Annual San Angelo Business Plan Competition is a two-phase business plan competition open to those who want to develop a new business or expand an existing business in San Angelo with grant prizes totaling $100,000.

The San Angelo Business Plan Competition allows entrepreneurs to develop viable business plans to expand their business in San Angelo by competing for cash and in-kind prizes.

The 2024 application is now closed. The 2025 San Angelo Business Plan Competition will launch in the summer of 2025. 

For more information review the 2024 Competition Guidelines .

Complete the form below to be notified of important competition updates. 

In the meantime, feel free to reach out to one of our Certified Business Advisors to get no-cost, confidential assistance to help you start or grow your business. 

Meet with an Advisor

2023 San Angelo Business Plan Competition 

• First Place: Ascend Contractor Solutions, LLC
• Second Place: Wilde Engineering and Surveying, LLC
• Third Place: Bubba D’s Barbecue

All Past Winners

Competition Coordinators and Judges

The Competition Coordinators are The City of San Angelo Development Corporation (COSADC), ASU Norris-Vincent College of Business (NVCOB), and the ASU Small Business Development Center (SBDC). A Judging Panel will be assembled from a pool of successful entrepreneurs, business leaders, financial professionals, and other economic development supporters. The Competition Coordinators and the Judging Panel are considered the “Competition Officials.” The competition is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to develop viable business plans that will create new ventures or expand existing businesses in San Angelo.

Comments, questions, inquiries about the Annual San Angelo Business Plan Competition? Please fill out our form to be notified about future competition updates and entry deadlines.

All fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.

Contact Us!

Harriet Stephenson Business Plan Competition

Since 1998, the Harriet Stephenson Business Plan Competition has been providing a platform for all Seattle University students and alumni to pitch entrepreneurial ideas and launch their businesses.

• Albers School of Business & Economics
• Student Life
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC)
• Business Plan Competition

A Launchpad for New Business Ideas

The Harriet Stephenson Business Plan Competition (HSBPC) is designed to help students and alumni in launching new business ventures, including for-profit businesses, not-for-profit businesses, corporate entrepreneurship, and social enterprise. Participants enhance their Seattle University learning experience, gain feedback on ideas, develop networks, and expose their ideas to potential investors.

The competition has become a testing ground for a wide range of Seattle University business ideas, from automated sunscreen dispensers to a nonprofit school for children with autism. It has given away over $400,000 in prize money and started numerous former contestants on their first entrepreneurial journeys.

Teams led by Seattle University students and alumni advance through three rounds of judging and feedback to see who will take home the $20,000 Grand Prize.

The HSBPC is a public event and draws hundreds of investors, advisors, business leaders, community members, students, alumni, and faculty as audience members. 

2025 HSBPC Key Dates

• March 23: Entry Deadline (11:59 p.m.)
• March 25-30: Screening Round Judging
• April 1: Announce Semi-Finalists
• April 13: Pitch Retreat for Semi-Finalists (12-4 p.m.)
• May 2: Semi-Finals (3-6 p.m.)
• Mid-May: Finalist Team Coaching
• May 30: Finals & Awards (5-8 p.m.)

Cash Prizes

The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center is grateful for the continued support of our generous prize sponsors who make this competition possible.

Grand Prize: $20,000 The Herbert B. Jones Foundation and The Madeline Haydon Award for Entrepreneurship

2nd Place Prize: $10,000 John Meisenbach and The Madeline Haydon Award for Entrepreneurship

3rd Place Prize: $3,000 In Memory of Don Leuthold and Friends of the IEC

4th Place Prize: $2,000 Lindsey McGrew, '19 MBA

John Castle Award for Grit & Resilience: $2,000 John Castle Family and Ro Health

Social Innovation Award: $,1000 Elaine Baylor and Friends of the IEC

Pitch Judge Award: $500 Kurt Wedgwood

Tradeshow Judge Award: $250 Friends of the IEC

Semi-Finals Audience Choice Award: $250 Friends of the IEC

What contestants gain from the competition "Relationships; stronger ideas; personal growth."

Lindsey mcgrew, 19 mba.

"Meeting with my mentors and practicing my pitch over 300 times drove our concept into winning the grand prize. Being a successful entrepreneur is about having great ideas and continuing to grow those ideas with rewarding relationships, persistence, and follow-through. Even if you don't place in the finals, you will walk away with new relationships, stronger ideas, and personal growth."

2016 winner for The Madrone School

Confidentiality

The Seattle University Business Plan Competition considers all submitted business plans as confidential and treats all team matters accordingly. But due to the nature of the event, we cannot guarantee complete confidentiality for proprietary matters.

Ultimately, protection of sensitive materials such as intellectual property, copyright, or patent confidentiality is the sole responsibility of the individual or team participating in the competition. Non-Disclosure Agreements will not be signed by judges, mentors, or any SU staff associated with the business plan competition.

Business Plan Competition in the News

SU Professor and Researcher at the Forefront of Organ and Tissue Preservation

Past winners.

Our Prize Winning Teams

Grand Prize: BioLegacy

Vincent Rettinger (BSME '25)

Technology to extend transplant organ viability from 24 hours to months to significantly improve organ transplantation accessibility.

• Pursuing patents and prototyping
• 2nd Place Prize: JANE - Heidi Dishneau (LEMBA '23)
• 3rd Place Prize: Oakmoss Laboratory Setup Services - Irina Mueller (PMBA '23)
• 4th Place Prize: SmartDash AI - Zachary Jeffreys (MSCS '23)
• The John Castle Award: HomeFiltered - Aaron Bekken (LEMBA ’23)
• The Swilo Social Innovation Award: Campalicious - Shilpa Allimatti (LEMBA ’23)
• Pitch Judges Award: Idli on Wheels - Preeti Suryakumar (MSBA ’23)
• Tradeshow Judge Award: FaceMarket - Yamato Suizi, (BSEE ’26)
• Audience Choice Award: Encocoa - Dawn Meader McCausland (PMBA ’23)

Grand Prize: Ellebit

Anna Del Toro (LEMBA ’20)

All-in-one private dining booking platform for customers and venues to easily manage reservations in real-time.

• Accepted into the 2022 WTIA Founder Cohort accelerator program: WTIA launches cohort for 34 Washington startups, providing free business 101 training and mentoring (GeekWire)
• 2nd Place Prize: 45th Street Seating - Blake Garfield (LEMBA '22), Krystal Garfield (PMBA '22)
• 3rd Place Prize: Lynk - Jaidev Vella (Business Management ’22), Joseph "JP" (Interdisciplinary Studies ’22)
• 4th Place Prize: Loqui - Anthony Ansay, Sanjana Satheesh, Melissa Kallander, Kenny He (Bridge MBA ‘22)
• The John Castle Award: OutPlayed Gaming - Jessica Berlin, Kevin Hernon, Alvaro Vazquez, Emma Tamura, Ahmed Ugas (Bridge MBA ‘22)
• The Swilo Social Innovation Award: Inspire Kids Early Learning Center - Ananya Jauhari (MS Finance ‘22 ), Nasteha Muse (Alumni- MBA)
• Pitch Judges Award: Tech4REFUGEES - Afrikaan Sahra (Computer Science ‘22)
• Tradeshow Judge Award: Sanima Millk - Chris Dempewolf (LEMBA ‘22), Ellen Zouras, Joelle Prokupek
• Audience Choice Award: Spin Doctor - Siddarth Bhagwat (MBA Alumni), Casey Gould (MBA ‘22), John Tran

Grand Prize: Syntek Medical

Tawny Fajardo (BS Nursing ’13 & BA Humanities ‘13)

Innovative and simple medical device to ensure safe intra-hospital transportation for patients.

• Semi-Finalist in the Women's Venture Summit 2021 Women's Fast Pitch Northwest
• 2nd Place Prize: Spirited - Kendal Swinski (LEMBA ‘21)
• 3rd Place Prize: Happy Hound Products - Camberly Gilmartin (LEMBA ’21)
• 4th Place Prize: Ethos - Lysie Taylor (LEMBA ’21)
• The John Castle Award: James & Son - Stephanie Jamieson (MBA ’20)
• The Swilo Social Innovation Award: Handimaps - Vishaal Diwan (MSBA ’22)
• Pitch Judges Award: Smash Bakery - Olivia Moore (Bridge MBA ’21)
• Tradeshow Judge Award: Offset.Life - Alexander Kipp (MBA ’21)
• Audience Choice Award: Davis, Stover, Vranizan PLLC - Christopher Davis (JD ’21)

Grand Prize: Nature's Label

Arya Mathew (BA CS ‘20)

Eco-friendly alternative to plastic PLU produce stickers

• Arya Mathew featured on Entrepreneur.com: 3 Lessons on Launching From 3 Young, Early-Stage Founders
• 2nd Place Prize: Delta Bee - David King Traub (LEMBA ‘20)
• 3rd Place Prize: Pail - Kristian Swank (LEMBA ‘20)
• 4th Place Prize: Solar Dot - Jake Zeigler (BABA ‘21)
• The John Castle Award: Better Mankind: The HappyGo App - Derrick Peters (MBA ‘11)
• The Swilo Social Innovation Award : Up & Up - Sharon Ideguchi (BABA ‘20)
• Pitch Judges Award: One2Cook - Thomas Martig (LEMBA ‘20)
• Tradeshow Judge Award: MODICA - William Gibbs (BS Mechanical Engineering ‘08)
• Audience Choice Award: Votegrity - Tom Thomas (LEMBA ‘20)

Grand Prize: eDoula (previously 'Hatch')

Bettina Paek (LEMBA '19)

Digital pregnancy and birthing support app used in hospitals.

• Pilot launched at Evergreen Health
• 2nd Place Prize: Teak & Timber - Daniel McConnell (PMBA), Darby Stearns (PMBA)
• 3rd Place Prize: Start Date - Jessica Bishop (LEMBA '18), Taysser Gherfal, Ali Anderson
• 4th Place Prize: Cash Butte Distillery - Julia Bringolf (PMBA), Arielle Newcomb (PMBA), Eric Lein (PMBA)
• The John Castle Award: Lyfe Tech - William Luckett (BABA), Alexis Figueroa-Guttierez
• The Swilo Social Innovation Award: Garden Grounds - Audrey Nevue (BABA, Finance & Marketing), Kyla Cantillo (BABA, Marketing), Matt Heffel (BABA, Finance & Marketing), Alejandro Ramirez (BABA), Jake Zeigler (BABA), Caleb Dickinson-Cove (BABA), John Gavin (BABA, Accounting & Business Analytics), Andrew Freemuth (BA, Graphic Design)
• Pitch Judges Award: Erudition Construction - Denise Burnside (LEMBA), Brian Burnside
• Tradeshow Judge Award: 2nd Degree Snacks - Teresa Slosson (LEMBA), Kristy Foster, Ally Nisbet, Randy Henson
• Audience Choice Award: Neural Synergy - Duron Jones (Alumni, Business '14), Nina Cook (Neuroscience '17)

Grand Prize: Vita Inclinata Technologies

Caleb Carr (JD), Brittany Bourcy (BABA)

Drone technology to stabilize helicopter swing loads.

• Received $150m valuation in Fall 2019
• CEO Caleb Carr Named  Forbes 30 Under 30
• 2nd Place Prize: Arevo Health - Ryan Fix (LEMBA)
• 3rd Place Prize: GrowZones - Tim Sipiora, Mike Laveson (MBA)
• 4th Place Prize: No Fry Zone - Danielle Quint, Michelle Draper, Ashley Quint, Bailey Quint (LEMBA)
• Runner Up: Air in Action - Bayley Guy (BABA, Finance), Patrick Curtis (BABA, Marketing), Kavya Shanmuganathan (BABA, Business Analytics), Allie Saunders (BA, Economics)
• Swilo Social Innovation Award: Jose’s Little Taste of Venezuela - Jose Maragall (Bridge MBA), Samuel Chanen (Bridge MBA), Taylor Cloud (Bridge MBA), Demetra Annest (Bridge MBA), Chase Wilson (Bridge MBA)
• The John Castle Award: CareerLight - Yan Tang (PMBA), Mohand Alturky (PMBA), Shreya Mehta (PMBA)
• Above & Beyond Award: Lykosa - Tyler Wade (JD), Kon Petrov (JD/MBA), Derik Vranizan (JD), Lauren Fletcher, Michael Saito (BABA, Finance; Economics) Kendell Snow (BABA, Business Economics)
• Pitch Judges Award: Knotted Titans Workshop - Jessica Bishop (LEMBA)
• Tradeshow Judge Award: WAT Upfitting - Kim Nakatani (LEMBA)
• Audience Choice Award: Wellness Getaways - Chelsea Adamson (LEMBA)

Grand Prize: Discovery Health

Ann Jarris (LEMBA), Ray Jarris, Afsar Ali, Matthew Bateman, Marina Furtado

Specialized healthcare and patient support for maritime workers.

• Accepted in to the first cohort of the Washington State  Maritime Blue Innovation Accelerator established by Washington Maritime Blue, the Port of Seattle and WeWork Labs in January 2020.
• 2nd Place Prize: Mot Mot Coffee Company - Braden Wild, Hannah Rips, Sadie Lopez, Bayley Guy (BABA)
• 3rd Place Prize: Brew University - Zach Johnston, Ian Bedell, Ilse Torres, Parker Funai (Bridge MBA)
• 4th Place Prize: CooperKade - Alyssa Goodchild (MBA)
• Runner Up: Nuciano - Joy Egbejimba (LEMBA), Jude Egbejimba, Alicia Tang (BABA)
• Social Innovation Award: MiMi Globe Goods - Scott Fetz, Matt Heffel, John Gavin (BABA; Enactus)
• Pitch Judges Award: RecruiterReach - Gagan Khinda, Chase Jenkins, Emily Barr, Malu Tang (MBA)
• Tradeshow Judges Award: Cosmopolitan Choices - Spencer Townley (PMBA), Cindy Townley
• Tradeshow Audience Award: Pearls for Girls - Sierra Harden, Samantha Garrard, Caroline Engs, Lauren Fricke (Bridge MBA)

Get answers to your HSBPC questions

Amelia marckworth.

Director of Community Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center

• 206-296-5715
• [email protected]

Peter Rowan, MBA, MA

Executive Director, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center Clinical Professor, Department of Management Lawrence K. Johnson Chair in Entrepreneurship

• 206-296-2469
• [email protected]

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Health Sciences

Physical therapy professor takes second in Life Sciences category at the 21st annual Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest 

• August 29, 2024
• 2 min. read

Dr. Sheila Schindler-Ivens , associate professor of physical therapy in the College of Health Sciences, took second place in the Life Science category at the annual Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest with her startup Venus Rehabilitation Technologies.

Out of over 150 entries, Schindler-Ivens and Venus Rehabilitation Technologies qualified for the Diligent Dozen, 13 finalist start-up companies that pitched in the competition finals at the 21st annual Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference , June 5-6 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Two Marquette-affiliated start-up CEOs served as panelists at the Conference where the theme was “Mapping the Entrepreneurial Mind.”. New this year, Economic Engagement, the Graduate School and the Law School sponsored 20 graduate students to attend the conference. The interdisciplinary cohort of students represented colleges across campus including the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business Administration, Opus College of Engineering, College of Health Sciences, College of Education, and the Marquette Law School’s Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic. For the third consecutive year, Dr. Kalpa Vithalani, Marquette’s executive director of technology transfer, was invited by the Tech Council to co-chair the conference and serve on the conference steering committee which she hosted on campus. She also represents Marquette on the Tech Council Board of Directors.

Schindler-Ivens invented CUped, an assistive lower limb rehabilitation device for stroke patients for which Marquette has granted patents in the United States, China and Europe. Launched in 2021, many Milwaukeeans were introduced to the company during the 2022 Healthcare Innovation Pitch competition when Venus Rehabilitation Technologies won the Emerging Company award .

The Entrepreneurs’ Conference and the Business Plan Contest are produced by the Tech Council, the non-profit and non-partisan science and technology adviser to the governor and the Wisconsin State Legislature. Each plan described the core product or service, defined the customer base, estimated the size of the market, identified competition, described the management team and provided key financial data.

Networking, new connections and lessons from other entrepreneurs are valuable take aways. Sponsors for the contest are contributing cash, office space, legal assistance, accounting, information technology consulting, marketing, event space and more. About $2.5 million in cash and in-kind prizes have been awarded since the inception of the contest in 2004. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp . is a major sponsor.

Marquette start-up CEO panelists

Two Marquette entrepreneurs were among the panelists at the conference:

• Dylan Waldhuetter, CEO of Rapid Radicals Technology. Rapid Radicals Technology was founded by three-time Marquette alumna Dr. Paige Peters and was the grand prize winner of the 2022 Governor’s Business Plan Contest .
• Tom Quinn, CEO of Marquette Energy Analytics. Started in 1993 by Dr. Ronald Brown at Marquette University as the GasDay Lab to develop and provide maximum accuracy natural gas demand forecasting models to utilities, MEA was spun out of the University in 2018. Today MEA predicts 25% of the nation’s natural gas demand.

Related Articles

Research & Innovation

60-second Marquette on Dr. Chelsea Cook, assistant professor of biological sciences

Campus Life

Student listening session for presidential search, Sept. 5; join for free pizza, beverages

Homecoming to be celebrated in spring in connection with National Marquette Day

Dempsey Startup Competition

The Dempsey Startup Competition (Dempsey Startup), organized by the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, provides a real-world experience for student entrepreneurs, promoting student ideas and new venture creation to the entrepreneurial community. Participating in the Dempsey Startup gives students practice in the dynamics of venture creation by developing an idea, putting together a founding team, writing a business plan, and presenting to investors. In fact, many ideas that started as a class project turned into a start-up company through the competition process! The Dempsey Startup Competition is open to undergrads and grad students at accredited colleges and universities across the Cascadia Corridor – Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia, as well as Alaska.

• 26  years of the Business Plan Competition/Dempsey Startup
• $1.79 million in prize money awarded to 218 student companies
• 6,100+ student participants
• 1,935 teams have entered since 1998
• 350+ entrepreneurs and investors who took part in the 2022 competition as judges, advisers, and mentors

2024 Awards and Honors

Learn more about the 2024 event and the winning teams

BioLegacy won the $25,000 Herbert B. Jones Foundation Grand Prize

BioLegacy aims to extend donor organ viability from 24 hours to years by utilizing patent-pending organ cryopreservation and electromagnetic rewarming technologies, while working with clinical partners to save more lives.

Read more about 2024 winners

MoodRoom won the $15,000 BECU Second Place Prize

MoodRoom is a virtual, mental health and dialectical behavior therapy toolkit for managing mood and mental disorders, negative thought patterns, suicidal ideation, self-harm, and substance abuse.

Joy Bucket won the $10,000 WRF Capital Third Place Prize

Joy Bucket created an affordable, clinical grade wearable health technology for safe and healthy pregnancies with the goal of empowering pregnant mothers against rising maternal mortality and morbidity in the United States.

CivicImpact.ai

CivicImpact.ai won the $7.5k Friends of the Dempsey Startup Fourth Place Prize

CivicImpact.ai’s RFPGo, a GenAI-powered tool, aims to transform the documents cities use in the public procurement process to create a virtuous flywheel that creates more business opportunities, increases market competition, and improves the quality of goods and services delivered to all citizens.

SecondSite won the $5k Glympse Internet of Things (IoT) Big Picture Prize

SecondSite offers total job-site reality capture and AI analysis for construction risk management so mistakes can be caught as they happen.

The Integrity Project

The Integrity Project won the $5k MìLà Social Impact Big Picture Prize

The Integrity Project is a nonprofit platform leveraging AI and big data to enhance governance through political integrity analysis and political systems mapping, while empowering voters with actionable insights into candidate trustworthiness and integrity.

LiveUp won the $2.5k eBay Best Marketplace Idea Prize

LiveUp provides students with a simple and easy to follow process for subleasing and renting in an all-in-one platform with the goal of providing greater access to affordable housing.

BioSyft won the $2.5k Perkins Coie Best Innovation/Technology Idea Prize

BioSyft is combining deep learning technology with the tracking of animal movements to develop models for neuropsychiatric and behavioral diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Happy Pop won the $2.5k Thatcher & Shannon Davis Best Consumer Product Idea Prize

Happy Pop offers guilt-free snacking with delicious Indian-inspired snacks, all handmade from wholesome and non-GMO ingredients.

CivicImpact.ai won the $2.5k Saara Romu Community Impact Prize

AffordAid won the $2.5k David & Patty Helberg Smukowski Best Sustainable Business Idea Prize

AffordAid is a non-profit initiative aimed at mitigating the financial strain of acquiring medical aids by offering refurbished, high-quality medical equipment at reduced prices.

Orbi won the $2.5k Voyager Capital Best Business to Business Idea Prize

Orbi is an AI software engineer that helps teams go from development tasks to solutions in minutes, while curbing technical debt, streamlining development, and boosting productivity.

Greener Pastures

Greener Pastures won the $2.5k DLA Piper Best Idea with Global Reach Prize

Greener Pastures has developed a regenerative agricultural solution that aims to revolutionize the way seeds are planted for optimal growth, while allowing farmers to increase crop yields and decrease inputs.

BioLegacy won the $2.5k Karr Tuttle Campbell Best Health & Wellness Impact Prize

See the full list of winners here .

Competition Details

The application site will open for submissions on Thursday, February 22 , 2024 and will be due by 11:59pm on Monday, April 1. The competition begins with the initial online Screening Round between April 4-9, 2024.

There are four competitive elimination rounds (and one non-competitive round) between April 1 – May 23, 2024. The Buerk Center will schedule information sessions, workshops, and office hours with mentors to help participating student teams prepare for each round!

Dempsey Startup Competition Event Schedule 2024

Competition Rounds + Deliverables for Teams Advancing Past Screening Round

Teams in the Dempsey Startup Competition must comply with the following criteria to be eligible for the competition.

• The business plan must be developed during the student’s tenure at the university. Students working with outside entrepreneurs must create an original business plan.
• All submissions to the Dempsey Startup Competition must live up to the higher ideals of the University of Washington. Your idea must be appropriate for a university-sponsored event. The Buerk Center reserves the right to disqualify any entry that in its judgment violates the letter or the spirit of the competition or exceeds the bounds of social convention.
• Companies that have received more than $500k in seed or grant funding are not eligible to apply. If the company is revenue positive, the company’s total revenue cannot exceed $500k. Please note this is different than the company’s projected revenue. This rule does not apply to projected revenue.
• Eligible students can form a team with non-student business community members or alumni, but there are restrictions to this involvement (see below).
• In the Investment Round, no more than four team members, including both students and non-students, can present the new business concept to the judges. In the Sweet Sixteen and Final Rounds of the competition, only student team members will be allowed to make presentations to the judges.
• Students must have an ownership stake in the business or the potential for equity or employment.
• Only student members of a team may use the Startup Tree and Office Hours resources. Non-student members may not reach out to mentors nor should they attend any Office Hours appointments, even if accompanied by a student. These resources are for students only.
• Only student team members based in WA, OR, ID, AK and British Columbia are eligible to earn prize money. No payments will be made to non-students or student team members located outside of the region.
• Teams that have participated in the Jones + Foster Accelerator may not apply to the Dempsey Startup Competition.
• Students graduating within this academic year (Summer 2023 and forward) are eligible as student members for the current competition.

Note: The Director of the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship reserves the right to make the final determination of the eligibility of submitted business ventures .

Confidentiality

The Dempsey Startup Competition considers all submitted business plans as confidential and treats all team matters accordingly. However, we cannot guarantee complete confidentiality for proprietary matters.

Therefore, we strongly encourage any team with concerns regarding intellectual property, copyright, or patent confidentiality to either contact their University’s intellectual property office (for University-developed discoveries) or competent legal counsel (for non-University related discoveries). The University of Washington, the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, the Foster School of Business, and the organizers of the competition are not responsible for any proprietary information and/or intellectual property included in a submitted business plan.

Ultimately, protection of sensitive materials is the sole responsibility of the individual or team participating in the competition.

Judging criteria

The Dempsey Startup Competition is comprised of four competitive rounds (Screening Round, Investment Round, Sweet 16, and Final Round) and one non-competitive Coaching Round, designed to prepare teams for the Sweet 16 and Final Round.

Screening Round

The Screening Round takes place online, and is the first major hurdle for students participating in the Dempsey Startup Competition. Student teams submit their business plan executive summaries online. Over the course of a weekend, each business plan executive summary is read and scored by eight to ten judges who are encouraged to provide written feedback for students. After the Screening Round, an announcement of teams advancing to the Investment Round is sent via email. Please also review the submission checklist .

NOTE: Scoring based on 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest), with 3 being of the caliber to advance to the next round

Overall Impression of the Executive Summary

Does the summary adequately describe the idea — does the idea make sense? Has the team adequately described the pain in the marketplace? Do you believe the team has presented a feasible solution? Is the summary well written and succinct? Does the summary create excitement?

Management team

Does this management team have the skills required to execute the plan? Does this team have the experience to lead a new venture?

Market opportunity

Have they adequately described the market and economic opportunity? Have they clearly stated their value proposition? Is it a viable model?

Competitive strategy

Has the team completely analyzed its competitive space? Does the summary clearly identify the company’s initial competitive advantage or differentiator? Does the team have an adequate strategy for defending their market position?

Go to market strategy

Is it clear how the company will reach its initial customer? Does the summary clearly identify a sales strategy? Is the distribution plan clearly defined and reasonable?

Has the team made progress toward any milestones (licenses, patents, etc…) Has the company signed customers and/or channel partners? Has the company booked any revenue?

Are the financials consistent with the overall plan? Are the assumptions realistic? Are contingencies and exit strategies addressed? Does the plan describe the funding/resources required to execute on the plan?

Social Impact

Does the entry have the potential to make a significant positive impact on society? Will it improve the quality of life for people and our planet and help contribute to a better, safer and more prosperous world? Does the team discuss measurable efforts to minimize consumption, use, and byproduct waste, while bolstering profitability/cost containment?

Investment Round

The Investment Round, arguably the most exciting event of the competition, follows a trades show format in which teams set up intricate displays and interact with judges to pitch the team’s idea. The judges, all prominent members of the local entrepreneurial community, are given one thousand “Buerk Center dollars” to invest in a portfolio of teams that they consider the “most viable” – that is, with the best chance for success in the real world. At the end of the event, investment dollars are collected and tallied. The sixteen teams receiving the highest “funding” are announced at a reception immediately following and advance to the next round, the Sweet Sixteen.

We ask the judges to invest their $1,000 “Buerk Center dollars” in a minimum of 5 companies (student teams) and a well-rounded portfolio of companies. We also tell them: when you’re deciding which teams to invest in, ask yourself:

• Does this business seem well thought out?
• Has the team demonstrated knowledge of the industry and potential customers?
• Is there a real opportunity here?
• Has the team answered your questions?

Coaching Round

The Coaching Round is a noncompetitive round in which no teams are eliminated. This round gives teams the opportunity to practice their presentations in front of a panel of coaches from the local entrepreneurial community. This round is designed to provide teams with in-depth and constructive feedback that they can use to hone their business plans and pitches prior to the Sweet 16 and Final Rounds.

Sweet 16 Round and Final Round

After honing their presentations in the Coaching Round, each of the sixteen remaining teams is assigned to present to one of four panels of judges. Judges select the advancing teams based on the following criteria:

• The Team: What are the team dynamics? What is the quality of the team? Does the team demonstrate the ability to execute on its plan? (Student-driven teams are a plus.)
• The Market: Does the company’s product or service address the target market’s needs? (Opportunity size is a plus, but not the primary concern)
• Viability: Is the business model viable, well-articulated, and reasonable? (The team’s IP position should be clear.)
• Presentation: Did the team make a quality presentation? What was the quality of the team’s materials and data? How was the team’s ability to answer tough questions?

Each panel of judges will see four teams’ presentations. After all presentations are finished, judges will discuss the merits of each of their four teams and by process of consensus select one or two teams to go on to the Final Round in the afternoon.

The Final Round is open to viewing by all competition participants, faculty, students, and the public. Each team has 30 minutes to present to and answer questions from a panel of judges (these judges have not seen any teams’ presentations prior to the Final Round.) The judges reach their decisions about team ranking by consensus using the same criteria as the Sweet 16 judges.

Partners & Prizes

BECU Herbert B. Jones Foundation Neal Dempsey

Thatcher + Shannon Davis Glympse WRF Capital Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

DLA Piper eBay Fenwick & West Fran’s Chocolates Karr Tuttle Campbell Keiretsu Forum Madrona MìLà Perkins Coie SEBA Voyager Capital

Friends and Family

Cairncross & Hempelmann Cercano Management LLC David Smukowski Family Evolution Capital Advisors Fuse Keeler Investments Miller Nash Moss Adams Pack VC Saara Romu Silicon Valley Bank

Friends of the Dempsey Startup

Davis Wright Tremaine (Science & Technology Showcase) Farah Ali (Science & Technology Showcase) WRF Capital (Science & Technology Showcase)

Learn about Dempsey Startup Competition partnership opportunities here.

2024 Prizes

$25,000 Grand Prize sponsored by the Herbert B. Jones Foundation $15,000 Second Place Prize sponsored by BECU $10,000 Third Place Prize sponsored by WRF Capital $7,500 Fourth Place Prize sponsored by Friends of the Dempsey Startup

Big Picture Prizes ($5,000)

The Big Picture and Best Idea prizes were created to reward student teams in the Dempsey Startup Competition for their exceptional work in several distinct categories. The teams are selected by a special group of judges during the Investment Round, and the winners are announced at the dinner and awards ceremony in May. Please note that no team can take more than one Big Picture and/or Best Idea prize.

Glympse > Internet of Things (IoT) Prize Recognizes a business venture that has incorporated new products or services that contribute to the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem—devices, vehicles, infrastructure and/or other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity—that enables these objects to collect and exchange data to create new consumer experiences.

MìLà > Social Impact Prize Recognizes a venture that “not only demonstrates the capacity to deliver financial performance, but also shows how it makes a positive contribution to society.” This contribution can be a strategy that incorporates values into their company to develop and implement solutions to social issues or a product/service that helps develop and implement solutions to these same issues.

Best Idea Prizes for $2,500

eBay >  Best Marketplace Idea Targeted for teams that creates a commerce or payments platform for communities of buyers, sellers or businesses.

Thatcher + Shannon Davis > Best Consumer Product Idea For a venture that offers a compelling new consumer product, focusing on a well-defined market.

Perkins Coie > Best Innovation/Technology Idea Targeted for a venture that has a new application for a current technology, a disruptive technology, or an idea that represents a substantial improvement in a product or process.

DLA Piper > Best Idea with Global Reach A venture that has aspirations for acquiring customers around the world.

Smukowski Family > Best Sustainable Business Prize Recognizes a venture that has incorporated best practices toward resource reduction while bolstering profitability/cost containment.

Saara Romu > Community Impact Prize Recognizes a venture that has a direct impact on the lives of women or other underserved communities, with a preference to a team with female-forward leadership.

Voyager Capital > Best Business to Business Idea Recognizes a venture that offers an innovative B2B product or platform.

Karr Tuttle Campbell > Best Health & Wellness Impact Idea prize Recognizes a venture with significant potential to prevent, diagnose, or treat diseases or disorders that impact human health.

Follow-on funding: Jones + Foster Accelerator

Up to $25,000 in follow-on funding is available to student-led start-ups coming out of the Dempsey Startup Competition, the Health Innovation or Environmental Innovation Challenges, or entrepreneurship coursework.

In the Jones + Foster Accelerator, student teams transition to becoming early-stage start-ups. Teams admitted to the program will devote six months to completing a list of milestones with coaching from a committee of mentors. Learn more about the Jones + Foster Accelerator.

Submission Resources

Information sessions + office hours.

Student teams planning to apply to the Dempsey Startup Competition are strongly encouraged to attend an upcoming informational session or office hours .

Submission Checklist

In order to prepare your own executive summary, download the  Submission Checklist , which includes the judging criteria judges will be using in the Screening Round to evaluate all entries.

Pay particular attention to the Administrative Checklist at the end of the document.

Learn By Example

Take a look at 5-7 page executives summaries submitted in previous years. These summaries should be considered a guide for what to include in your own plan, regardless of industry area.

• Aurora Plasmonics
• FlashVolunteer
• GSD Devices
• Urban Harvest
• Xylamed (PatientStream)
• Afterlife Listings

Startup Resources

The Buerk Center’s  start-up resources  feature our favorite tips, blogs and resources for writing solid business plans, making a great pitch, securing funding, marketing, and more.

Generative AI Policy

The Buerk Center recognizes that there are a variety of AI programs available to assist with written work and visual models or presentations. While these programs are useful tools, they are not a replacement for human creativity, originality, and critical thinking. However, within limited circumstances and with proper attribution, AI programs may be used as a tool by Teams to prepare for our competitions. Please see below for our expectations around AI usage:

Check Its References

Make sure to double check any market, scientific, or other data you receive from a generative AI model. You want to avoid repeating “made up” facts or reciting information from an out-of-date training set. AI models have built-in biases as they are trained on limited underlying sources; they reproduce, rather than challenge, errors in the sources.

Responsible Data Use, AI, and IP:

Beware of putting any proprietary data into open-source models. Your data, ideas, models, etc. may no longer be considered protected data that is confidential. AI generated work is also in most cases not patentable or copyrightable and may even be considered automated plagiarism because it is derived from previously created texts, models, etc. without cited sources.

Stay True to You

Generative AI is great at analysis and feedback, but as mentioned above, it cannot replace your unique creativity or thought process. Judges do not want to hear what ChatGPT thinks about your idea – they want to hear the excitement and enthusiasm directly from you. You and your team must craft and verify your work. Cutting and pasting without understanding will not advance or validate your ideas. Remember that AI tools lack the critical thinking and abductive reasoning to evaluate and reflect, as well as make judgements.

Cite Your Sources

Acknowledge work done by a generative AI model like you would another team member. For example, indicate in a footnote or other citation where rough drafts or graphics were generated by AI and through which platforms. You are ultimately responsible for the impact of any content produced and presented by your team, including AI-generated material.

Business Plan Practicum

Business plan practicum: entre 440/540.

ENTRE 440/540 Business Plan Practicum is offered throughout winter quarter by the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, bring in experts from the local entrepreneurial community to teach various aspects of creating a startup venture, from idea generation to legal issues to raising capital. Attending Resource Nights (ENTRE 440/540) is a great way to prepare for the Dempsey Startup Competition (Dempsey Startup), the Environmental Innovation Challenge (EIC), and the Health Innovation Challenge (HIC).

Class recordings from the 2020 course can be found on the Buerk Center’s Startup Resources page (under RESOURCE NIGHTS tab).

Consumer Product Workshop

2024 DAVIS CONSUMER PRODUCT WORKSHOP SERIES Students can register now for three upcoming 90-minute sessions featuring special guests. You’ll walk away knowing how to unlock the pivotal steps in starting and growing a consumer product business, whether it’s something you created with your hands or in the digital space.

Students may register for the entire series or individual sessions below. Each workshop takes place between Noon and 1:30 pm on a Friday in PACCAR Room 393 or Founders Hall Room 490.

REGISTER for “Finding Your Customers” – Fri., Feb 2 REGISTER for “Scaling Social Impact” – Fri., Feb 9 REGISTER for “Product Pitch Clinic” – Fri., Feb. 23

Success Stories & Winners

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Frequently asked questions

If I don’t find any team members that really seem like “the right fit”, is it OK to have a “team” of just one person? It is OK to have just one person on a team. However, if you advance to the Investment Round, you’ll want to add a few people to your team to help you pitch to judges

Can we submit a business plan into the competition for a business that is or may become a nonprofit / social business in the future? The competition is open to all types of businesses. Every year there are nonprofit or social-venture businesses in the competition.

Is there a Dempsey Startup archive that has a synopsis of the Dempsey Startup plans submitted so far? Yes, but you must come to the Buerk Center to look at it. Be sure to call or email the Buerk Center office to set-up a time.

Can a student submit plans for more than one team? You are allowed to participate in the Dempsey Startup Competition with more than one team. It can be a logistical challenge to do that at the Investment Round and Sweet 16, but it is possible.

Am I allowed to have a faculty member as a mentor for the Dempsey Startup? You can have a faculty member as a mentor.

I am part of a company looking to recruit students to assist in taking my idea through the Dempsey Startup Competition. How should I go about doing this? The Dempsey Startup is a process and competition for student-driven companies, and we have a strict policy guiding outside companies recruiting students to join their team in order to compete:

• Only student team members are eligible to earn prize money. No payments will be made to non-students.

Can I compete two years in a row? Students are welcome and encouraged to participate as many times as they want–as long as they are a student (enrolled in a degree seeking program in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, British Columbia or Alaska) or have a student on their team.

Can I change the name of the business at some point during the competition? You are allowed to change your company name during the competition. We recommend that you reference the name change in your documents (one-page executive summary or business plan).

Can I have more than four members on my team? Most teams are three to five people, but you can do whatever makes the most sense for you. However, only four teammates can pitch at a time during the Investment Round. If you have more than four team members, you can tradeoff.

Is the list of judges for the Dempsey Startup Competition available to the participants? We don’t release our judge lists for any of the rounds.

Do judges or coaches usually sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements)? Judges and coaches do not sign NDAs. This is common practice in the entrepreneurial world, especially when you are pitching your idea to investors. You should figure out a way to talk about your business, but not give away the confidential information that could be patented, trademarked, or that is simply your secret sauce.

How many judges are there at each round of the competition? This depends on the round. Here’s the approximate breakdown

Contact Yuko Oaku at [email protected]  or at 206-616-3742

The Dempsey Startup Competition is sponsored by Neal Dempsey.

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Sponsored by the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship

St. Thomas Business Plan Competition

You could win $10,000 to build your company.

The St. Thomas Business Plan Competition is open to all St. Thomas students and recent alumni (graduated within the last 10 years) with plans for a new company or with a business that has not have received more than $200,000 in equity-related capital (such as seed capital or institutional funding) or generated more than $100,000 in gross revenue prior to the current academic year. Revenue generated during a test-marketing project may be excluded from this provision.

Have you participated in the Fowler Business Concept Challenge, or any other business competition? This is the logical next step to get your plans on paper, move your business forward and get paid in the process.

There are two divisions of competition – undergraduate and graduate/recent alumni – with a top prize in each of $10,000 cash. Additional prizes totaling $8,000 more are awarded to teams that advance to the finals division.

Social Ventures can also compete for an additional award and an automatic bid to the 2025 Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge.

If your business is a social venture, you can compete for an additional $6,000 cash award and an opportunity to compete for up to $25,000 in seed funding at the Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge (FGSIC). After submitting to the Business Plan Competition, social ventures will also submit an additional 3-5 page problem and solution summary. Social ventures will compete in the morning, before the afternoon Business Plan Competition Finals, and the top two social ventures will receive automatic bids to head to San Diego in May and compete in the FGSIC. Being in the social venture finals DOES NOT preclude you from also competing in the Business Plan Finals in the afternoon.

Social Ventures must engage with one or more of the United Nation's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) . Participants can address any social or environmental problem as long as it is aligned with at least one of the SDGs.

Any current student of St. Thomas can compete in the FGSIC individually or as part of a team (with a maximum of five members per team). Alumni are welcome to compete. If an alumni team advances to the June Global Finals, at least one team member must be a current St. Thomas student at the time of participation. The rest of the team may belong to the same institution, another participating university, another non-participating institute, or not be a student at all.

To submit for the FGSIC Award, you must complete a 3-5 page summary in addition to your Business Plan submission. Read about the FGSIC requirements here.

Eligibility

Undergraduate Division

The competition is open to all currently enrolled University of St. Thomas undergraduate students registered in the semester of the competition with a valid St. Thomas student ID.

The competition is open to currently enrolled graduate students and post-doctoral fellows registered in the semester of the competition with a valid St. Thomas student ID. Recent alumni, students who have graduated within the past ten academic years, are also eligible to compete in this division.

In Either Division

• The business should not have received more than $200,000 in equity-related capital (such as seed capital or institutional funding) or generated more than $100,000 in gross revenue prior to the current academic year. Revenue generated during a test-marketing project may be excluded from this provision.
• Teams typically consist of one to four members.
• Each team must designate one student or alumni member as the team leader and point-of-contact for the competition.
• Teams may include non-student or non-alumni members, however, these individuals cannot make up the majority of the team, cannot take part in pitch presentations or win prize money.
• In the case of submissions from an existing organization, at least one student or alumni team member must be a C-level officer or a director of the organization (e.g., Executive Director, CEO, COO, etc.) or the majority owner of the business.

Confidentiality:

All sessions of the competition, including but not limited to oral presentations, video and slide deck submissions and question/answer sessions, are open to the public at large. Any and all of these sessions may be shared with interested people, through media that may include radio, television, printed materials 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. Due to the nature of the competition, we will not ask judges, reviewers, sponsors, staff or the audience to agree to or sign non-disclosure statements for any participant. By participating in the competition, entrants agree that no member of the Business Plan Competition team — The University of St. Thomas, members of the judging panel, sponsors and their designate organizations — will assume any liability whatsoever for any disclosures of business plan information that may be made (whether inadvertently or otherwise) by any judge, reviewer, staff member, audience member or other individual connected with, participating in, viewing, hearing, or receiving information from the competition.

Complete you submission on the Reviewr Portal! (Coming Soon)

Competition Process

Email schulzeschool@ stthomas.edu to indicate your interest in the competition and receive access to a LivePlan account, a software that can help build your business plan.

Submit full business plans via our Reviewer site , by 11:59 p.m. CST, Thursday, February 6, 2025 . Finalists will be announced on Tuesday, February 20. All teams, regardless of outcome, will be given feedback on their business plans.

Submit Here! (coming soon)

The top teams from each division will revise their business plan given the feedback from round 1, and prepare a professional pitch for the finals. Final presentations are in person on the Minneapolis Campus on Friday, February 28.

2025 Finalist Competition and Award Ceremony

Friday, February 28, 2025

Special Award: Fowler Global Social Innovation Finals: 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Business Plan Competition Final Round and Awards: 11:45 a.m. - 3:45 p.m.

Schulze Hall

Meet the 2023 Finalists

Concept Requirements

Business Plan submissions should be new business plans. If a business plan has won money in a previous St. Thomas Business Plan Competition, it is disqualified from the competition.

Teams can enter more than one business plan into the competition, but only one submission can advance to the finals.

FGSIC Requirements Here

Business Plan Requirements Here

Applicant Resources

Don't have experience creating a business plan? No problem. The Schulze School of Entrepreneurship will supply all entrants with a free LivePlan account, a user-friendly, business plan creation website. Email [email protected] to request access.

If you have a social venture and are wanting some assistance in thinking through your concept and putting together your business plan, contact our new Social Entrepreneur in Residence Kelli Nelson [email protected] .

Info Sessions and 1:1 Mentoring Opportunities

1:1 mentoring sessions are thirty-minute meetings per individual or team with mentors to help you prepare your business plan.

Schedule General Business Mentor Sessions Here

Schedule Social Venture-Specific Mentor Sessions:

• With Kelsey Joson Here
• With Kelli Nelson Here

Missed the Info Session? Watch the recording here.

Learn more about the Business Plan Competition and the Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge requirements and resources. There will be an opportunity for Q&A with a former competitor and a reviewer/judge of the competition.

Evaluation Of Initial Submissions

• The Opportunity – How well is it identified? How significant of an opportunity is it? What are the forces creating the opportunity?
• The Business Concept and Product(s) – What’s the core concept for the business? What is your value proposition? What does your product/service mix look like?
• The Market – Define your market. How large is it and what is its potential? Who is your target audience? Who are the purchasing decision makers and what are their processes?
• Economics of the Business – How will you make your money? What are your sources of revenue? What are your most significant costs?
• Marketing – What does pricing look like? How will you promote your product/service? How will you sell your product/service? How will goods be distributed?
• Operations – How will the product/service be produced, delivered and supported? What are the key activities that will need to be carried out to deliver your product and operate successfully? What are the key resources (physical/human/intellectual capital) that will be needed?
• Management Team – Who are the players and what are their roles? How much experience/credibility do they bring? What does compensation look like? Who are your key advisors and do you have a board of directors?
• Venture Financing – How much money is needed and from where? How will financiers receive their return and at what rate?
• Financials – Projected income statements and KPIs
• Pragmatism/realism
• Completeness/comprehensiveness
• Internal consistency
• Writing style
• Professionalism of the document

In addition to the content and written document mechanics scores, judges are asked to score your business plan based on their likelihood of investing, where 5 is an outstanding plan in which a judge would absolutely want to invest.

Evaluation Of Oral Presentations

• Is there a real opportunity? What are the forces creating the opportunity? Did they prove a market need?
• Is there an interesting business concept? Is it an innovative idea that could be implemented?
• Is there a clearly defined market? How large is it and what is its potential? Who is your target audience? Who are the purchasing decision makers and what are their processes?
• Do operations make sense? What are the staffing requirements? How will the product/service be produced, delivered and supported?
• Do they know how to make a sale? How good is the marketing, advertising, branding, promotion, selling and distribution?
• Is it clear how money will be made? What are the margins? What are the revenue drivers? What is the cost structure?
• Are the financial statements believable? Have they made realistic assumptions they can justify?
• Do they know how much money they really need to start? How much money is needed and from where? How will they get it? How will financiers receive their return?
• Ability to capture audience attention
• PowerPoint or other audiovisuals
• Mastery of facts and material related to venture
• Professionalism of the presentation
• Handling of questions

Judges will additionally score the plan on a scale of 1-5, where 5 is an outstanding plan in which a judge would absolutely want to invest. This score is separate from the scores above and is an overall assessment.

Enter a Search Term

2023 rice business plan competition, congratulations.

With access to mentors, real-world experience and investment opportunities, the Rice Business Plan Competition helps student founders stay on target and realize their potential. Our 2023 competitors set themselves apart from other student-led ventures, got in-depth mentoring to prepare for the event, and pitched to over 350 judges and investors who were looking for their next early-stage deal. It was the best RBPC yet!

Re-Watch the Live Final Round From Saturday, May 13th 

Voted on by over 350 judges after two rounds of competition, 7 startups moved onto the final round. Re-watch their pitches, from Shell Auditorium at the Jones Graduate School of Business. 

Watch the recording above or on YouTube.

Re-watch the Elevator Pitch Competition from Thursday, May 11th 

We kicked off the 23rd annual Rice Business Plan Competition live from Shell Auditorium at the Jones Graduate School of Business. During the Elevator Pitch Competition, you'll hear 60-second pitches from all 42 startups. Six winners will be named from the Elevator Pitch Competition, winning cash prizes sponsored by Mercury, along with the rest of the over $1.5 million in prizes announced at the Awards Celebration at the end of three days of competition. 

Watch the full recording above or each individual pitch on our YouTube.

May 11-13, 2023 | Houston, Texas | The Edge of the Future 

The Rice Business Plan Competition exists so that student founders pushing to create new possibilities in technology, energy, healthcare and more can surround themselves with a powerful network; learn what it takes to secure investor funding; hone your pitch; and compete for big money to make the future you’re building possible. After a competitive application season, 42 startups have risen to the top and will be invited to compete on a global stage for more than $1M in prizes at the 2023 RBPC .

More about the competition: 

Competitor resources and schedule.

Review important competition details, like when each Round takes place, and more. 

Eligibiltiy

Learn more about what makes an eligible startup, the various sectors and other info about the competition structure. 

Explore Past Competitions

Interested in what makes a top competitors? You can rewatch the finals and elevator pitches for our past competitions, and check out the prizes! 

New this year! Amazon Small Business Podcast!

We’re excited to announce that the Amazon Small Business Empowerment Team will be producing a podcast that  follows select RBPC participants in their journey this year —learning about the inspiration, the challenges, and the thrill of growing and showcasing startups in the largest and richest student startup competition.

Previous Competitions

For 21 years the Rice Business Plan Competition has provided student startups with mentorship, guidance and capital to help support them on their entrepreneurial journey! In 2020, the competition went virtual for the first time. Check out a few of our previous competitions' content, including elevator pitch videos, final pitches, photos and LivePlans.

• 2022 Competition - Grow Your Startup. Build the Future.
• 2021 Competition - Big Ideas. Brilliant Startups.
• 2020 Competition - First Virtual Edition
• 2019 Competition - The Art of Entrepreneurship
• 2018 Competition - One Wild Ride

Follow along with #RBPC23

WomensNet News

15 Best Business Plan Competitions for Startup Entrepreneurs

March 13th 2019

by Marcia Layton Turner

Many members of the WomensNet community have asked us about more opportunities to get start-up money.  Well, here’s an idea that might help you.

Business plan creation is an exercise required of many MBA students, as a teaching tool, which is why many colleges and universities sponsor business plan competitions – to help students apply what they’ve learned in class. Winners of these contests often receive a combination of startup cash, mentoring, and other resources to help them get their venture off the ground.

A number of successful companies have come out of these competitions, which may be why more organizations and institutions of higher education have begun admitting non-students to these events. There are also business plan competitions open to anyone, student or not.

If you’re looking for ways to land early stage funding, or to network with fellow entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, it may be worth your time to enter a business plan competition. Winning means money and bragging rights, which can open doors to other opportunities.

Deadlines for entries vary throughout the year, so if you’ve missed this year’s window, next year’s window of opportunity will be here before you know it. Most have no entry fee, though you’ll want to read the fine print to see what you’re responsible for (such as travel expenses).

Here are 15 of the best business plan competitions worth your attention:

Arch Grants Global Startup Competition

For entrepreneurs currently residing in or willing to move to St. Louis, Missouri. Prizes include a $50,000 equity-free grant and free business support services, as well as becoming eligible to pursue up to $1 million in follow-on funding for winners. Idea-stage to pre-Series A companies are welcome to apply.

“Where software startups are launched” is how Codelaunch bills itself, which is a combination competition and startup networking festival held in Frisco, Texas. You need to have an idea for a software product or app to participate, with the prize being training and mentoring. There is also an annual seed accelerator for entrepreneurs with ideas for apps in search of funding.

Get in the Ring

While not as much as competition as a networking event on steroids, Get in the Ring brings together 150 startups to participate in three days of workshops to “unlock business opportunities” with 350 mentors, investors, and advisors. In Berlin.

Jack Daniels’ Pitch Distilled

According to Jack Daniels, “Pitch Distilled is a multi-city pitch competition…pairing aspiring entrepreneurs with a diverse cast of judges tasked with helping them kick-start the next big idea.” The grand prize is $5,000.

MassChallenge Accelerator

Not quite a business plan competition, MassChallenge involves selecting the “highest-impact and highest-potential startups” to participate in an accelerator program. There are locations in Boston, Rhode Island, Texas, and Switzerland. The accelerator session involves receiving mentoring, business services, and, ultimately, the chance for funding if your company is selected as a finalist.

Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition

The Milken-Penn Graduate School of Education (GSE) business plan competition may be the best-funded competition around, having awarded more than $1 million in prize money in the last ten years and sparked more than $135 million in follow-on funding. It is open to anyone in the world, but particularly “entrepreneurs with innovative ideas in education.” Its goal is to foster innovation in the field of education.

New York Start Up! 2019 Business Plan Competition

This competition is for residents of New York City, the Bronx, and Staten Island only. Businesses must not have generated more than $10,000 in revenue since startup. The top prize is $15,000, plus access to guidance and resources available through the New York Public Library.

Next Founders

Canadian entrepreneurs should apply for the annual Next Founders program, which is designed to help build the skills of the company founder(s) and provide training, mentoring, and access to capital to help scale promising business concepts and companies.

North of Boston Business Plan Competition

Entrepreneurs currently operating a business on Boston’s North Shore, or are willing to commit to locating the company in the area, are eligible to compete in this annual competition. “The purpose of the Competition is to identify and support businesses who want to grow and expand on the North Shore and thereby build the region’s economy.” The top prize is $10,000, with runner-up awards of $6,000 and $4,000.

Pistoia Alliance President’s Startup Challenge

This competition is for startups focused specifically on informatics and technology. Two winners receive six months of mentorship from industry experts and $20,000. Five finalists also receive $5,000 each.

This U.K.-based event isn’t so much about winning free cash, but about participating in a free boot camp. The top 300 startups are invited to participate, rubbing elbows with mentors and investors, as well as peers.

Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation New Venture Challenge

The Edward L. Kaplan New Venture Challenge, now based at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center, is one of the leading business accelerators. It is “a year-long business launch program” that involves idea generation, critical feedback from advisors, and pitches to the investing community.

Startup Festival

Dubbed “the music festival for startups,” the 2019 Startup Festival, held in Montreal, provides numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs to pitch their startup concept to potential investors. Those pitches could result in funding or enhanced visibility, with the chance to pitch to the crowd or a group of grandmother judges. More than $750,000 in funding is on the line here.

tecBRIDGE Business Plan Competition

Students are separated into their own division in this competition for companies in the Northeast Pennsylvania region, with non-students in another. Early stage entrepreneurs from the area are welcome and can compete for prizes valued at more than $100,000. Concept must be technology-based and have had sales of no more than $250,000 in the prior 12 months to qualify for inclusion.

Y Combinator

Perhaps the best known business accelerator, Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator sponsors an annual competition to identify startups worthy of funding. Successful applicants are flown out to Mountain View, California for meetings and those funded are expected to spend 90 days in the area receiving support services.

Whether you’re looking for feedback on your new product idea, are looking for an advisory board, need space in which to locate your company, or really just need funding, these competitions will connect you with some of the most supportive startup organizations out there.

WomensNet Blog

Resource center.

Amber Grant Winners

Read winner interviews and see what advice they have to offer for other women entrepreneurs.

Read Their Stories »

How the Amber Grant Works

• Apply right now by telling us your story. No lengthy, complicated forms.
• Our Judges pick three $10,000 Amber Grant winners each month.
• Three of our 24 monthly winners will be awarded our $25,000 Amber Grant at the end of the year.

Get a Women’s Business Grant »

You could join this group of past grant recipients.

Apply today for the $25,000 amber grant.

Whether you’re starting or growing a business, WomensNet can help.

What people are saying about WomensNet

“You have to be in it to win it...seize the opportunity and apply.”

“Every month, WomensNet awards three $10,000 Amber Grants to women-owned businesses. At the end of each year, monthly grant winners are eligible to receive one of three $25,000 annual grants.”

“Launched 20 years ago this grant honors the memory of a young woman who wanted to be an entrepreneur but died at age 19 before she could achieve her goal.”

“The Amber Grant offers three $10,000 grants to women-owned businesses each month. Then, at the end of each year, WomensNet gives an additional $25,000 to three grant winners from that year.”

“This organization offers monthly grants of up to $10,000 to support female entrepreneurs starting businesses. Those who qualify for these grants are also in the running for a yearly $25,000 grant.”

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New Venture Competition

• Harvard Business School →
• New Venture Competition →

An annual student business plan contest with prizes totaling $225,000

Business track  , social enterprise track  , not sure which track is right for you.

Unsure of whether your idea is right for business or social track? The decision is not cut-and-dry. Here are some helpful questions to ask as you are considering the right track for you.

Eligibility Do I meet eligibility requirements for the track? See details for Business Track and Social Enterprise Track .

Focus What is the primary focus of your idea – economic or social returns? The Business Track focuses on ventures whose economic returns drive substantial market value. Ideas may also have social impact, but social impact is not the focus of your decision making, market entry, or funding. The Social Enterprise Track focuses on ventures that create social change, and can include nonprofit, for-profit and hybrid models. In recent years, approximately half of SE entries have been for-profit or hybrid. In all cases, ideas are evaluated for financial sustainability; and in for-profit plans, the focus is on social return while having economic returns.

Judging How do you want to be evaluated, where do you want feedback, and which judges do you want to make connections with? See more on Business Track judging and Social Enterprise Track judging .

Student & Alumni Journeys

• Harvard Business School

Winners & Success Stories  

Crop Diagnostix: Grand Prize Winner 2024 Business Track

• 28 MAR 2024

Solara: Grand Prize Winner 2024 Social Enterprise Track

Elisa: Grand Prize Winner 2024 Alumni Track

Calendar  , frequently asked questions  .

Business Track : Participating teams require at least one Harvard Business School MBA student who plays a primary role in the business. The HBS student should be a part of the founding team and a significant equity holder, if equity has been distributed.

There is a $1,500,000 limit in seed capital raised and a $2,000,000 limit in revenue generated. Please view the eligibility page for more information.

Business track judges will be drawn from a variety of backgrounds, including funders, founders, industry experts and executives, lawyers, , and other specialists deemed appropriate to understand the commercial viability of a business idea.

Social Enterprise track judges will be drawn from a variety of backgrounds representing a range of industries, including those from funding organizations (including impact investors, philanthropists, and venture philanthropists), capacity building organizations, and social entrepreneurs.

Resources  

Alumni competition  , get updates.

Two Businesses awarded $50,000 Grand Prize Packages in the Downtown Billings Battle of the Plans competition.

Tiffany Miller-O’Brien, owner of Frae EveryDay Goods , has been named the winner in our 2024 Battle of the Plans’ Expanding Business category. Her winning business plan consists of expanding her existing business Frae EveryDay Goods, located in the Shiloh Commons, into a second downtown Billings location called Frae Collective.

Frae Collective will provide customers with a variety of sustainable goods and services for daily living,  including locally sourced food items, eco-friendly household goods, health and beauty products, artisanal crafts, along with workshops and events that promote sustainability and educate the community on the importance of supporting local businesses. Her plan cited a report by Nielsen, showing that nearly 73% of global consumers are willing to change their consumption habits to reduce their environmental impact. With consumers increasingly prioritizing local products that support their communities and economies, local retail options like Frae aim to provide the Billings consumer with the fresher, higher-quality goods and a connection to local artisans and producers that they are wanting. 

Miller O’Brien is one of two Grand Prize winners in 2024 Downtown Billings’ Battle of the Plan business plan competition. Pete Lee, a passionate butcher, won the New Business Category with his business plan for Pete’s Meats. Pete’s Meats is a premium, traditional butcher shop for downtown Billings that will provide high-quality, ethically sourced meats to the community. Both businesses have already started the process of looking for their downtown Billings locations. Both businesses have been awarded a Battle of the Plans Grand Prize package with an estimated value of over $50,000. $40,000 of the grand prize package includes reimbursable funds toward eligible business expenses .

“We know these two businesses will be amazing additions to downtown Billings, but I truly believe that all the businesses that competed in this year’s Battle of the Plans competition would be welcomed and find success downtown.” – Katy Schreiner, CEO of Downtown Billings

The Battle of the Plans Business Plan Competition was created initially in 2016 as a program to help attract multiple new retail businesses to our Downtown Billings Expanded Tax Increment District (TIFD),  to strengthen our already established business base, and fill available retail space with new business base, and fill available retail space with new businesses that complement the existing mix and highlight the potential for businesses to stand out. The 2024 Battle of the Plans program concluded with 12 detailed business plans competing for the Grand Prize packages. There are a few participants from the Battle of the Plans program primed and ready to explore the next step of finding the location for their businesses. We have notably low ground floor vacancies in downtown Billings right now, and the spaces that are available are much larger than the majority of new small business owners are looking for. Mehmet Casey, our Development Director has been focused on connecting and bridging conversations with property owners and business owners to help find solutions to that challenge and match up businesses with locations around our TIFD.

The 12 businesses who competed in the final phase of the 2024 Battle of the Plans included:

Expanding business category:.

• WINNER: Frae Collective, Tiffany Miller O’Brien
• 2nd Place: Confetti Heart Studio, Beth Zitur
• Sweetwater Cafe, Katie Harrison

NEW BUSINESS CATEGORY:

• WINNER: Pete’s Meats , Pete Lee
• 2nd Place: Whimsie, Megan and Joe Vaden
• Kitty Corner Cafe, Anna Claypool and Juletta Gilge
• The Firestone Food Court, David and Erin Amato
• Magic City Battlegrounds, Jared Frerichs
• Contrast 406, Seth Clifton
• Haven Light Therapy, Amy Crook 
• The Good Wolf, Chase Pereau
• Moffee Mug, Nicholas Rogers and Jessica Johnson

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