Sowing the Seeds

Where the ivory tower and the entrepreneur meet
By Mark V. Cannice, Ph.D.

University business plan competitions are becoming more and more prominent in the United States and around the world. These valuable and popular events integrate student learning with an exciting environment and provide real entrepreneurial opportunities through exposure to and feedback from professional investors, executives and entrepreneurs.

Many U.S. universities, usually within their business schools, organize business plan competitions for their own graduate or undergraduate students. These events range from creative class projects for undergraduate students to very serious contests for the university's graduate students and alumni that provide feedback from successful entrepreneurs and potential investors. These events create valuable opportunities and memorable experiences for each university's students. Participation in these events is typically restricted to each university's current students and, on occasion, alumni. Some universities loosen this restriction and allow non-students to compete as long as at least one or two of the entrepreneur team members are current students.

There are several regional business plan competitions--for example, The Georgia Bowl at the University of Georgia is primarily for Southeastern U.S. schools, while the Spirit of Enterprise MBA Competition at Indiana University caters mostly to Midwest universities. Additionally, several U.S. universities host business plan competitions that are open to students from other universities across the nation and the world. These regional and national competitions resemble intercollegiate sports in some ways, as they bring together student entrepreneur teams and their faculty advisors from many universities for a weekend of head-to-head competition. These events are typically more competitive than events that are restricted to one university's own students, as the applicant pool is much larger and more diverse. Here are the leading national and international university-sponsored competitions:

Hosting these competitions can become quite expensive between cash prizes and logistics, frequently running more than $100,000. Thankfully, funding for entrepreneurial events is available from federal and foundation grants as well as from corporate and individual donors.

In addition to university-sponsored business plan competitions, several business organizations host business plan competitions just for university students. These include:

These are just some of the many entrepreneur competitions held at our nation's universities each year, and more are sprouting up all the time. They provide opportunities for entrepreneurially minded students ready to get a head start in achieving their business dreams.

Mark V. Cannice, Ph.D., is associate professor of entrepreneurship and director of the USF Entrepreneurship Program at the University of San Francisco School of Business and Management

This article was originally published in the May 2004 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Sowing the Seeds.