Overview

The contest has three primary objectives:

  • To educate students in the process of creating and evaluating new biotechnology business ventures.
  • To prepare students for opportunities in entrepreneurship.
  • To initiate interactions between enterprising students and financial investors leading to the successful launch of a biotechnology company in Tennessee.


Timeline

A Year Round Event

Pre-Competition Events

Pre-competition events will be held in Fall 2007, including mixers and entrepreneurial exchange events, designed to bring business, engineering and life sciences students and alumni together to form teams and exchange ideas. In addition, a pre-competition workshops will be held on "Top ten things to think about before writing a business plan" to help selected teams working on their business plan submissions. The formal launch event of the competition takes place in the last week of October, and features the winners of last year's competition as well as prominent venture capitalists (not applicable for 2007).

Mentor Program

Each final-round team will be provided a mentor. The mentor offers his/her entrepreneurial and venture capitalist experience to the team. Mentors will not be part of the judging panel.

Registration & Submission of Business Plans

The first step of the competition is for teams to register and submit a short (1 page) executive summary in November, which details the business concept, market opportunity, competitive advantage, resources required, and team membership qualifications. The executive summaries are then judged by preliminary-round judges in December. These judges select about 10 teams that qualify to advance to the final round. The selected teams hold regular meetings with their mentors throughout the next two months to discuss the progress of their business plans.  To register, please fill out the following form and submit to bpc@tnbio-sc.org

RegistrationFormBPC-2007-08.doc  (due December 10th, 2007 extended)

Final Round

The finalist teams each give a presentation to our panel of distinguished final-round judges. The plans are evaluated on the basis of the originality of the idea, viability of the business model, and the potential for future financial success. Each year we will close the competition with an Award Ceremony. Along with certificates and recognition, the winning team will be provided the opportunity to attend a premier Investor Forum !!!

General Guidelines for Submission

  • Topic should relate to the creation of a biotechnology or life-sciences company.
  • Teams can consist of a maximum of 4 members.  We strongly encourage creating a diverse team with at least one business major and one science/engineering major student on each team.  This may provide a competitive advantage to the teams when highlighting the strengths of the management team.
  • Submissions should not be associated with an existing early-stage company.

Judging

Judges will consist of:

  • Faculty-Entrepreneurs
  • Venture Capitalists
  • Technology Transfer Specialists
  • Company Executives


Criteria

Business plan (40%)

  • Was the product's market illustrated and well documented?
  • Are potential competitors reported?
  • What is the company's competitive advantage?
  • What are the projected earnings for the product?
  • Is this a product that can be patented?
  • Would this patent infringe on other current patents?

Presentation (40%)

  • Was the product novel?
  • Was the presentation well organized?
  • Was the presentation convincing?(Science content & business content)

Proof-of-Principle (20%)

  • Is the scientific background behind the technology solid?
  • Is there strong and convincing scientific evidence for the success of the product?

Schedule

  • September '07 - Mixer event
  • October '07 – team registration due at the end of the month
  • November '07 – Preliminary proposals (Executive summaries) due; about 10 proposals are chosen and mentors assigned;  BPC talks and workshops
  • December/January/February '08 – team meetings with mentors
  • Late March/Early April '08 – Competition in front of judging panel