Judging Criteria & Evaluation Process

For complete rules & regulations please download the
2010 RBPC Official Rules & Regulations

General

The competition is intended to simulate the real-world process of entrepreneurs soliciting start-up funds from early-stage investors and venture capital firms.  The judges function as venture capital investors deciding on which business venture they would most likely fund.  The quality of the idea, the strength of the management team, and the clarity and persuasiveness of the written plan and oral presentation, all influence the judges’ decisions.  Ultimately, the winning team should be the team in which the judges would most likely invest their money.

Most of the judges of the RBPC come from the investment community and are involved in making early-stage investment decisions on an ongoing basis.  Their ranking of the top teams is guided by the scorecard (described below), but should be consistent with the approach that would be used by a venture capital or early-stage investor. 

We recognize that consistent with real life investment situations, early-stage companies can be in very different stages of development.  To compensate for this, we would expect that an early stage investor would require the potential for higher investment returns for an earlier stage company which has a higher level of risk involved.  We assume, in general, that this would be true for the judges in the RBPC.

Teams are not required to reveal the exact desired terms of the deal (i.e., their proposed company valuation and percentage of company being offered to investors).  However, some investors prefer to have this information upfront, (while some investors feel that it is not as important until later).  We recommend that teams be prepared to answer questions about their terms, given the diversity of the judges.

Unlike some venture capital funds, judges in this competition should not restrict themselves to investing in only certain types of new business ventures (such as biotechnology or information technology).  Judges in this competition should assume that they would be open to investing in any type of new business venture, assuming that other criteria such as those mentioned above, are met.

There are two rounds of competition: the Semi-Final round on Friday, April 16 and the Final round on Saturday, April 17.  All teams must be in Houston from April 15-17, 2010 to present their plan to the judges. During the competition, judges evaluate each team individually and should not discuss their evaluation with other judges until all judges’ evaluation forms have been submitted.

Scoring Criteria

The winners of the competition will be determined by the judges’ ranking of the teams.  This ranking will be based on the judges’ willingness to invest in the company as noted above.  The ranking will be completed by the judges at the end of each day’s competition.  Judges will rank the teams from 1 (team most likely to receive funding) to 6 (team least likely to receive funding).

To assist the judges in this decision process and to provide additional feedback to the teams, the judges will fill-out 2 scorecards for each team in the Semi-Final round.  The 2 scorecards will cover:

            Part I          Written Business Plan 
            Part II         Verbal Presentation 
         

Please note:  The scorecards are designed to assist the judges in evaluating the individual components of each team in order to develop their overall rankings.

Scoring Process 

In the Semi-Final Round, teams in the competition will be divided into six flights.  Each flight will consist of six teams, “clustered” by industry sector, to the extent possible.  Judges will be assigned to flights based on their background and areas of expertise. Each judge will assess the written business plans, oral presentations, and business viability of the six teams in their flight in the Semi-Final Round of competition. 

Please note: The scorecards will not be used in the calculation of the winning teams.  The winning teams will be determined by the judges’ rankings.  However, they WILL be used to provide feedback to the teams.  Therefore judges should fill out the scorecards for each round.  These scorecards will be provided to the teams to help them improve their business plan presentation.

Scoring for Written Business Plan Evaluation

Judges will review the written business plans of each of the six teams in their flight and complete Part I of the RBPC Scorecard online for each plan.  Part I is designed to help assess the written business plan, focusing on key elements and the effectiveness of the summary financial data.  This feedback will be provided to you before you arrive at the competition.

Scoring for Oral Presentations 

Each judge will listen to and evaluate the oral presentations of the six teams in their flight on Friday.  Judges will use Part II of the RBPC Scorecard as a guide to determine their rankings:

• Assess the poise and professionalism of the presentation
• Evaluate the perceived viability of the venture

The quantitative assessment provided by the Scorecards is only meant to serve as a guide to the judges for ranking the teams in the Semi-Final Round.  The rankings will determine the overall winners based on where judges would invest their money.

Scoring Overall 

The winning team from each of the six flights will be determined by the judges ranking of the teams within each flight.  This ranking will be determined Friday afternoon after all teams have presented to the judges.  The judges will rank the teams within their flight from 1 (highest) to 6 (lowest).  The scores from all judges within a flight will be aggregated and the team with the lowest total score in that flight will advance to the Final round on Saturday.  In the unlikely event that there should there be a tie after the initial tabulation of rankings, the team with the most number of first place scores will be declared the winner.

The six teams who placed second in each of their flights in the Semi-Final Round on Friday will advance to the Wildcard Round on Saturday morning.  The team who wins the Wildcard Round on Saturday morning will advance to the Final Round on Saturday afternoon.

The winner of the Wildcard Round will be chosen in the same manner as in the Semi-Final Round.  Judges will rank teams from 1 (highest) to 6 (lowest).  In total seven teams will advance to the Final Round. Announcement of the Finalists and Wildcard Round participants will be made on Friday afternoon at the Finalists’ Reception.