Applications Invited For Worlds Largest and Richest Student Startup Business Plan Competition

Organization:

Set in the heart of Houston, Texas, the nation’s fourth-largest city, Rice is a comprehensive research university that fosters diversity and an intellectual environment that produces the next generation of leaders and advances tomorrow’s thinking.

About the Event:

The Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) is the world’s richest and largest graduate-level student startup competition. It is hosted and organized by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. The Rice Alliance is Rice University's internationally-recognized initiative devoted to the support of entrepreneurship. This will be the 19th year for the competition. In that time, it has grown from nine teams competing for $10,000 in prize money in 2001, to 42 teams from around the world competing for more than $1.5 million in cash and prizes.

Objective:

The competition is designed to give collegiate entrepreneurs a real-world experience to pitch their start-ups to investors, receive mentoring, network with the entrepreneurial ecosystem, enhance their startup strategy, and learn what it takes to launch a successful startup. Judges will evaluate the teams as real-world entrepreneurs soliciting start-up funds from early-stage investors and venture capital firms. The judges are asked to rank the presentations based on which company they would most likely invest. In fact, 87% of the 275 judges at the 2018 RBPC said they were considering investing in a team they saw pitch or met, or said they referred a team to an investor in their network. Alumni from the RBPC have raised more than $1.9 billion in funding and have generated more than 30successful exits, valued at nearly a billion dollars.

Benefit:

Provide an intense, immersive experience over the course three days for student startup founders to pitch to investors, receive multiple rounds of feedback and advance their startup.There will be over $1.5 million in prizes, and all 42 teams who compete at Rice University in Houston are guaranteed to win cash prizes. Currently, the minimum cash prize is $500 and the grand prize winner receives a $300,000 investment (typically in the form of a convertible debt note, without geographic restrictions.)

Eligibility Requirements:

• Team composition: The startups competing at Rice must include at least two degree-seeking students
• Startups should fall into one of four categories or sectors: Energy/Clean Technology, Life Sciences, Tech, Other Innovations
• All ventures must be seeking outside equity capital, typically early-stage venture capital investment or early stage angel investment.
• Nature of Ventures: The competition is for new, independent ventures in the seed, start-up, or early growth stages:
• Prior Activity: Both student and other startup members may have worked on an idea or new technology in previous academic years, or prior to entering graduate school
• Student Involvement: The competition is for student-created and student-managed ventures,
• Faculty Involvement: Each startup that makes it to the RBPC will need the endorsement of a faculty or staff advisor at their school:

How to Apply:

• One member of your startup, the designated leader, should complete the simple online application.
• The application consists of a answering a short survey, attaching an Executive Summary (maximum 5 pages), and including an optional Video Elevator Pitch (maximum 2 minutes).
• Multiple student startup teams from the same school, institution or university center may apply to compete.
• There is no limit on the number of applications per school.
• There no fees to apply or to compete.
• Once an application is submitted, no changes can be made.
• Submit your application online from the competition website: www.rbpc.rice.edu
• Teams invited to compete in the Rice Business Plan Competition will be notified via our Facebook Live video event and by email on Wednesday, February 27, 2019.

Application Deadline: 10^th February; 2019

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