Eligibility

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

Competitor qualifications: The competition is open to all full- and part-time graduate students, not just MBA candidates, enrolled in a university during the academic year 2009-2010.  The management team must consist of at least one graduate student.  Non-students may be members of the management team and participate in planning the venture; however, only students may present the plan in the competition on campus and answer questions from the judges.

Note: Schools may submit an unlimited number of entries, but only two teams per school will be invited to compete.  In the case of multiple entries from the same university, RBPC will choose the team(s) to represent that university at the Rice Business Plan Competition.

Student Enrollment: The competition is for students enrolled in the current academic year, i.e., from August/September 2009 through July/August 2010.  Students who graduated in the preceding academic year are not eligible to participate.  However, an exception will be made for students who both wrote their business plans for academic credit and graduated during the preceding summer, i.e., the summer of 2009.  An exception will also be made for students from non-US universities that have a different academic calendar.

Team Size: The presenting team should include at least two students and not exceed five students.  (At least two students must travel to Houston to compete in the oral presentations). Non-student team members are welcome to travel to Rice with the student team, but cannot participate in the presentations.  More than five students can travel to Rice with the team, but only five students can serve as presenters.

Team Composition: This is a competition for graduate students, and at least one graduate student must be a member of the venture’s startup management team.  A team with some undergraduates will be allowed to compete, and the undergraduates may participate fully.   All graduate students, not just MBA candidates, are eligible to participate in the competition.  This includes executive MBAs, MD candidates, other Masters candidates, and PhD Candidates. 

Non-students may be members of the venture’s management team and may participate in planning the venture.  However, only students may present the plan and answer questions from the competition judges.  The maximum number of student competitors on a team participating at Rice is five (5), although there is no restriction on the total size of the venture’s founding team

Outside Funding: All ventures must be “for profit” entities seeking outside equity capital.

Student Involvement: The competition is for student created, managed, and owned ventures.  In other words, students must:
(1) have played a major role in conceiving the venture,
(2) have key management roles in the venture, and
(3) own significant equity in the venture. 

In general, a member of the student team should be CEO, COO, or President of the venture, or members of the student team should occupy 50% or more of the functional area management positions that report directly to the CEO, COO, or President.  Members of the student team should also own 50% or more of the equity allocated to the management team and key advisors.  An equity position of less than 50% of the equity allocated to the management team and key advisers, and/or less than 20% of the total equity of the venture will be suspect and require the students to show evidence that they were the major cause in the venture creation.  (One objective of this rule is to exclude ventures formed and managed by non-students who have given token equity to MBAs for writing their business plan.)

University Sponsored: The business plan must be prepared under faculty supervision.  Ideally, the business plan will be prepared for credit in a regularly scheduled course or as an independent study.  The business plan must represent the original work of members of the team.  All teams are strongly encouraged to send their faculty or other university advisors to accompany their team to Rice, but this is not required.

Each team MUST have the endorsement of a faculty advisor at their school and must provide contact information for their faculty advisor, regardless of whether or not the advisor will travel with the team to Rice University.  All faculty advisors will be contacted for verification.

Nature of Ventures: The competition is for new, independent ventures in the seed, start-up, or early growth stages.  Generally excluded are the following: buy-outs, expansions of existing companies, real estate syndications, tax shelters, franchises, licensing agreements for distribution in a different geographical area, and spin-outs from existing corporations.  Licensing technologies from universities or research labs is not excluded and is encouraged, assuming they have not been commercialized previously. 

MOOT CORP^®: The winning team at RBPC receives cash prizes and in-kind awards, plus the opportunity to compete in the MOOT CORP^® competition in Austin, Texas. 

Prior Activity: Ventures may compete in the RBPC only once.  Teams that have competed at MOOT CORP in a previous year are ineligible to compete at Rice.

Ventures with revenues in prior academic years, i.e., before August 1, 2009, are excluded.  Ventures that have raised equity capital from sources other than the members of the student team or their friends and families before the current academic year, i.e., before August 1, 2009, are excluded.  However, both student and other team members may have worked on an idea or new technology in previous academic years or in the case of the student team members even prior to entering graduate school, provided that their venture had no revenues and raised no outside equity capital.

Attendance: Team members should arrive at the Rice University Campus in Houston on Thursday, April 15, 2010, between Noon and 1:00 pm to participate in the Feedback Round with the judges.  To compete, the team must be present on campus on Friday, April 16, 2010 at 8:30 am for the Semi-Final Round and on Saturday, April 17, 2010.  Teams must attend the Awards Banquet on Saturday night to receive their awards.  Teams should plan their return travel NO EARLIER than Sunday morning. 

Other Forms:  Each team member will be required to submit an individual Form W-9 or W-8 ECI at registration.  If the venture has been incorporated and has received an EIN, one form may be filled out.  No prizes will be awarded without a completed W-8 ECI or W-9 on file with the RBPC.

International team members must present a copy of either a B-1 Visa or visa waiver in order to receive prize money.  This must be done while at the University.