1st Annual Alumni New Venture Contest
With over half of HBS alumni classifying themselves as entrepreneurs at some point in their lives, this Contest is designed to shine a spotlight on alumni ventures, support new ventures and award $25,000 prize to the winning team.
Contest Overview
This year's NVC is the first of what we hope will be an annual event for HBS alumni. For 2010, this contest will be conducted in 8 regions, with 11 HBS alumni clubs: Boston, NY, Chicago, Northern CA, Southern CA, London, Brazil and India. The winner from each of these local Contests will go on to compete in the Finals of the Contest, to be held on the HBS campus on April 26, 2010. This is a great way to gain broad exposure, get some feedback from seasoned HBS alum, and kickstart your funding efforts.
Contest Timelines & Process
Registration Due Immediately
The teams/companies should use the Registration Form to outline their qualifications and mail payment of Rs. 4,800 as indicated on the form. Fill out the registration form here and email mail it to HBS Club of India. Key guidelines, among others, require that 1) both annual revenues and invested capital before March 19, 2010 must be less than $250,000 and 2) at least one “material” member of the founding team/company must be an HBS MBA or Exec Ed graduate.
March 25, 2010 - Business Plans Due
Business plans should be emailed to the HBS Club of India. All business plans are held confidential and will only be shared with the NVC venture judges.
March 26 to April 2, 2010 - Presentations and India Representative Selection
Invited companies will present their plan (in person or by telcon) to the India NVC Selection Committee in Mumbai.
April 26, 2010 - Alumni NVC Finals at HBS Boston
The finals will be held in Boston and represented by one winning business plan from each region. Winning plan/team will be announced at an HBS school-wide awards ceremony.
Prize: There will be one $25,000 first prize awarded at the April Finals. In addition, every finalist team will receive some mentoring from an HBS faculty member prior to the judging, as well as participate in an educational session on campus during the Finals.
Criteria: Teams/plans will be judged on the likelihood of creating a successful, significant new venture. This "Evaluation Sheet", which will be used during both the local and finals rounds, will give teams a better sense of the specific criteria. Note that investment funds and acquisitions will generally not be considered as "new ventures."
Eligibility: Teams must meet the following requirements:
1) Each team must have at least one (1) HBS alumnus/a. The HBS alumnus/a needs to be a substantive member of the founding team, with a senior management and operating position and participation in the company's equity pool in a manner consistent with that role and position. At least one (1) of the HBS alumni must be among the group (of a maximum of two (2) team members) who appears in Boston and presents at the NVC Finals in April.
2)Participating teams may not have raised/utilized more than $250,000 in total debt and equity capital, and must have less than $250,000 in revenues. It is not necessary that the teams actually be seeking funding. I.e., they may already have raised the small amount (less than $250,000) of capital they need to reach an initial milestone, or they may have a very cash flow positive business model that essentially requires no outside capital.
Business Plan Guidelines: In general, written business plans are preferable to "PowerPoint" style plans because the reader can more fully grasp the logic and substance of a plan. Slide decks generally rely on this to be filled in by the presenter, but the presenter may not be there during the initial view of the plans by the judges. That having been said, we do recognize the reality that many businesses develop only a "PowerPoint" style plan, and those plans are acceptable submissions. However, in the instances when a "PowerPoint" style plan is submitted, we also require a 2-5 page executive summary of the business plan.Either a "PowerPoint" or a prose style plan should meet the following guidelines: no more than 35 pages of either a prose plan or slide deck plus executive summary.
The material should clearly articulate:
• The product or service;
•The market need/pain it is designed to address;
•The team, their background, skills, experience, and level of effort/commitment to the venture;
•The target customer and market, competitive landscape, how that customer will be reached, and the potential of the opportunity, including the size and growth of that market;
•The technology—if any—on which the underlying product or service is based; and, if it based on a technology, the status of its development and a clear picture of the IP landscape and the protection/defensibility the team believes it will have;
•The competitive advantage and defensibility of the business; and
•The financial potential of the business, including: projected income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements for at least 3 years—preferably on a quarterly basis—in order to present a clear picture of the capital needs of the business, the anticipated timing of these capital requirements, a notion of when the business will achieve cash break-even.
•The financial plan in conjunction with the narrative should provide a picture of what will be achieved with each tranche of capital, in terms of risks reduced and business objectives achieved.
