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Are We Actually Creating Startups Through Business Plan Competitions?

As a recent judge for Temple University’s ‘Be Your Own Boss’ business plan competition and having advised the winning team for Penn State’s IdeaPitch competition, I was afforded the perspective of seeing both ends of the typical higher education business plan contest.

As a result, I’ve been thinking a lot about business plan competitions recently. In short, it’s very clear that judging a team’s ability to put together a business plan versus creating a sustainable business are two very distinct things.

Full Story: http://blog.shedd.us/are-we-actually-creating-startups-through-business-plan-competitions/

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21st Annual John Ruffatto

Business Plan Competition

May 13, 2010 http://matr.net/article-38964.html

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Winner’s Curse: Why Losing A B-School Biz Plan Competition Is Better Than Winning

One of the best things about being an academic is being able to mold young minds and guide them to success. When one of my students, Andrew Leblanc told me he was entering the Duke Startup Challenge Elevator Pitch Competition, I told him to come and see me and do a practice run. After all, I had judged several of these contests at Duke and other universities. I thought I knew what worked.

After the eleventh iteration, Andrew got it right. He wasn’t trying to pack his presentation with unnecessary details. He had slowed down his pitch, added a personal touch and was now exuding confidence. Andrew even researched the background of the judges and tailored his message to their interests. So after two hours of intense preparation, I had little doubt that Andrew would win.

by Vivek Wadhwa

Full Story: http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/28/winners-curse-why-losing-a-b-school-biz-plan-competition-may-be-good-for-your-startup/

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Are Business Plan Competitions Good for Start-Ups?

By LORA KOLODNY

Once held by just a few M.B.A. programs, business plan competitions are now a routine offering of universities, nonprofit groups and government offices throughout North America, Europe and lately India. They award millions of dollars in prizes and generate lots of free publicity. But some entrepreneurs have a serious question about competitions: Are they good for start-ups?

A long list of companies has emerged from business plan competitions and gone on to thrive, including: Harmonix Music Systems, which struck out in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology $50K competition competition but went on to make Guitar Hero, Rock Band and other video games; Mint.com, which won at the TechCrunch50 and went on to create the personal finance Web site that Intuit recently acquired; and Revolution Foods, which won the Global Social Venture Competition organized by University of California, Berkeley and now sells healthful and sustainably produced food to school cafeterias.

Full Story: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/are-b-plan-competitions-good-for-start-ups/?pagemode=print

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Business Plan Competition Guide

A constantly updated list of business-plan and related competitions, this guide tracks their hosts, prizes, deadlines, and themes. You can also follow the winners, companies, inventions and ideas here. If you have competition information we should know about, please contact us at [email protected].

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/11/business/smallbusiness/Competitions-table.html

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