The Competition: Competition Rules

1. Teams must be Bradley University students (graduate or undergraduate, full-time or part-time).  Team members are responsible for organizing their own company and structure.  A person cannot be a member of more than one team.  (Exception may be given to teams from the Entrepreneurship class).

2. Teams must submit an electronic Letter of Intent to compete.  The letter should be sent as a Microsoft Word or PDF attachment in an e-mail to the Project Springboard Director (Springboard@Bradley.edu) no later than 5:00 p.m. September 20, 2007.  The Letter of Intent must include the company name, a lead contact, team member names, their majors, their phone numbers and e-mail addresses, the ownership percentages, payout percentages, and a one page summary of the business being planned.  Teams will be notified of their selection to compete the next day no later than 5 p.m.  Two Business Plan Workshops will be held on Tuesday, September 25, beginning at 4 p.m. in Baker B51 and again at 5:30 in Baker B54.

3. The competition director will assist teams in technical aspects of the business plan, but the director will not advise teams on substantive aspects of the plan.  The Springboard Business Plan Competition Board (director) will not arbitrate any disputes between or among team members.

4. The final business plan must be delivered electronically to the competition director no later than 5:00 p.m. November 30, 2007.  Send email with a request for a delivery receipt. The business plan must be no more than 35 pages inclusive of the Executive Summary, the body of the plan, and all appendices and financial projections.  (Cover page, Table of Contents, and a one-page resume of each team member, are not considered part of the page count.)  Plans must be typed using Times New Roman 12 pt. font, 1.5 line spacing, with 1-inch margins, and paginated.  Team members may not contact any of the Judging Panel after the plans have been submitted.  Team members may not provide gifts, of any kind, to the judges.

5. Teams may use any appropriate format for the plan and may use business plan software if they wish.  However, teams are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and appearance of the plan and should not rely exclusively on a particular template or software for the final written plan.

6. Team members are responsible for protecting intellectual property associated with their business plan.  The competition director will give reasonable care for any information provided, but neither the director nor the judges will be asked to sign confidentiality agreements.  It is expected that members of the media, venture capitalists, and the public may attend final oral presentations.  Technology developed as a result of classes or lab use at Bradley may be subject to Bradley’s intellectual property policies.

7. Semi-finalists will be notified by email no later than 5 p.m. January 24, 2008. Semi-Finalist business plans are due no later than 5 p.m. February 28. Deliver an electronic copy with a request for a delivery receipt. 

8. Finalists will be notified by email no later than 5:00 p.m. March 14, 2008.  Teams shall then make an appointment to submit a final business plan. Finalists will deliver five (5) bound copies (no 3-ring binders) to the Springboard Business Plan Competition Director by 5 p.m. on Monday, March 24.  A signature from each team member, as well as the director, will be required to acknowledge transfer and receipt of each team’s business plan.  The finalists should then prepare an oral and PowerPoint presentation.  Any other equipment needs must be requested at this time.  Teams will be notified regarding the time and location of their formal presentation.  Presentations will be videotaped.

Presentation format (one hour per team):

5 minutes to set up
15 minutes to present
20 minutes of questions and answers
15 minutes for feedback
5 minutes to clean up

A team may not observe other presentations or question-and-answer sessions until after they have presented their own plan.

9. All prizes are taxable.  If an actual company has been formed, prize checks may be made out either to the company or to the team members (listed on the Letter of Intent).  If team members are also Bradley employees, withholding will be deducted from the checks.

Disclaimer
Sponsors are not responsible for lost, late, mutilated or illegible entries nor for electronic transmission errors resulting in omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operations or transmission, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or alterations of entry materials, or for technical, network, telephone equipment, electronic, computer, hardware or software malfunctions or limitations of any kind, or inaccurate transmissions of or failure to receive entry information by sponsors or presenters on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website or any combination thereof. If for any reason the Internet portion of the program is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond the control of the sponsor which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this contest, the sponsors reserve the right at its sole discretion to disqualify any individual who tampers with the entry process and to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the contest.