2012 Donald W. Reynolds
Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition

Rules for the 2012 Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup Competition were updated 12/15/11. Please read carefully and note these rules are subject to change.

Eligibility

The competition is open to all faculty-sponsored, full-time and part-time degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at any of Nevada’s universities or colleges. The business plan must be for a seed, start-up or early stage venture and must address the entire business concept (including implementation). Each team member must have a key role in the company’s management team, such as CEO, COO, VP, etc.

Proposals for the buy-out or expansion of an existing company, tax-shelter opportunities, franchise, real estate syndication’s, and other consulting projects and analysis are not eligible. Teams comprised of at least one student enrolled in the graduate school must compete in the graduate competition (even if undergraduates are members of the team).

Official Rules and Submission Requirements

1. The competition is open to all faculty-sponsored, full-time and part-time degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at any of Nevada’s universities, colleges, or community colleges. Enrollment includes classes taken during the summer session(s) of the year preceding the entry deadline, the fall semester preceding the contest deadline, and/or the spring semester during which the contest takes place. We rely on the student and his or her faculty sponsor to verify enrollment criteria.  NCET reserves the exclusive right to determine the validity of enrollment.

2. The business plan may be prepared under faculty supervision for credit in a regularly scheduled course or as an independent study. The plan may also be prepared under faculty supervision with no official credit.

3. All students wishing to compete in the 2012 Governor’s Cup competition must submit an “Intent to Compete” by registering by 5pm (PST) on February 23, 2012 here. Each team must designate a Team Captain.  Each student team is responsible for verifying that his or her Intent to Compete was received by NCET prior to the deadline.

4. To enter the Lt. Governor’s Award Competition, the team captain – on the Business Plan Upload page – must 1) check the box marked “Please enter my business plan in the Lt. Governor’s Award Competition”  and 2) submit a brief explanation (50 words maximum) of why your business plan best employs clean, renewable or efficient energy technologies and services.

5. Each team may submit only one business plan to the competition.  Individual students can be members of multiple teams, but team captain of only one team.

6. Either an individual or a group may develop the business plan. Team members may not exceed six eligible students. The management team outlined in the plan will contain the names of individuals (if any) who are not associated with the university. Presenting group members must be students and have a key role on the management team (i.e. CEO, COO, VP, etc.). Non-student members of the ventures management team may not participate in any presentations, including the finals.

7. Teams are encouraged to have graduate and undergraduate students work together on teams for the purpose of cross-pollination of experience and mentoring opportunities. Teams with any one member enrolled in graduate school during the academic year should enter in the graduate competition. NCET reserves the exclusive right to determine the category in which a student or team competes.

8. The business plan must represent the original work of each contestant. Each submission indicates that the business plan is the original work of the author(s). The author(s) will retain all rights to the plan regarding its use at all times prior to and following the competition (except as stated below in items 20 &21).  Any team submitting a plagiarized business plan will be disqualified.

9. Due to the nature of the competition, we will not ask judges, reviewers, sponsors, staff or the audience to agree to or sign non-disclosure statements for any participant. By participating in the competition, entrants agree that neither Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, nor members of the judging panel, sponsors nor their designate organizations, assume any liability whatsoever for any disclosures of business plan information which may be made (whether inadvertently or otherwise) by any judge, reviewer, staff member, audience member or other individual connected with, participating in, viewing, hearing, or receiving information from the competition.

10. The business plan must be for a seed or start-up venture and must address the entire business concept (including implementation). Proposals for the buy-out or expansion of an existing company, tax-shelter opportunities, real estate syndication’s, and other consulting projects or analysis are not eligible.

11. The business should not have generated sales revenues prior to the Competition. Small amounts of revenue generated during a test-marketing project may be excluded from this provision.

12. The business may license technology from another company for manufacturing and/or distribution purposes. Revenue streams from the business should not be based solely on deriving revenues from the licensing of its own technologies.

13. The plans may not contain fabricated information about (but not limited to) the following: backgrounds, experience and educational level of members of the management team, stage of product development, product performance claims, or market survey results.

14. Plans are limited to a single 10MB PDF file. Plans are limited to 30 pages of typed text, which includes the Executive Summary and excludes appendices (see item 15 & 16 below). Cover sheets are not counted in total number of pages.  (Free PDF converters are available online.)

15. Summary financial data should include a cash flow statement, income statement, balance sheet, and funds required/used. Include an explanation of the offering to investors indicating how much money is needed, the expected ROI, and the proposed structure of the deal, i.e. stock, debentures, etc. Also, delineate the possible exit strategies.

16. Appendices should be included only when they support the findings, statements and observations in the plan. Because of the number of teams/plans entering the competition, reviewers and judges may not be able to read all of the material in the appendices. Therefore, the text portion of the plan (30 pages) must contain all pertinent information in a clear and concise manner.

17. An electronic copy of the business plan must be uploaded online to Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology by 5:00pm (PST) on March 21, 2012. Plans will undergo an independent review from March 22 through April 3, after which the six Undergraduate Finalist teams, six Graduate Finalist teams and six Lt. Governor’s Award finalists will be chosen.  (Upload instructions will be provided at a later date.)

An announcement of the finalists will be made on April 4, 2012. Finalist Team Captains and Faculty Advisors will be notified by email with judge’s scores and comments. All Finalists will be required to upload a final draft of their written business plan by 5:00pm (PST) on April 10, 2012.  Each student is responsible for verifying that his or her business plan was received by NCET prior to the deadline.  (Upload instructions will be provided at a later date.)

OFFICIAL CONTACT INFORMATION:

Attn: Dave Archer
Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology
(775) 853-4226
GovCup@NCET.org
5441 Kietzke Lane, 2nd Floor
Reno, NV 89511

18. For Finalist presentations in Reno, each team will be given twenty (20) minutes to present their business plan followed by a twenty (20) minute question-and-answer session between the presenting team and the panel of judges. Each presenting team will have ten (10) minutes prior to its presentation for set-up/preparation and ten (10) minutes after the presentation for equipment dismantling.

19. A team may not observe other presentations or question and answer sessions until after they have presented their own plan. No one is allowed to enter or leave the room until the presentation session is complete.  Students, faculty advisors or guests engaging in communication with a team during their presentation and/or question and answer session, such as but not limited to, head movements, hand gestures, or signaling, will be asked to leave the room and the team will be disqualified from the competition.

20. All oral presentations and question and answer sessions are open to the public at large. Further, it is likely that any or all of these public sessions will be broadcasted to interested persons through media, which may include radio, television and the internet. Any data or information discussed or divulged in public sessions by entrants should be considered information that will likely enter the public realm, and entrants should not assume any right of confidentiality in any data or information discussed, divulged or presented in these sessions. Neither Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship Technology, judges, sponsors, nor their designate organizations, assume any duty to screen or otherwise control the identity of those attending, viewing or hearing all or part of these public sessions, and entrants agree that by entering the competition they have been made aware that such attendees, viewers and recipients may include members of the media and potential competitors in addition to members of the financial community, students and faculty.

21. Student entrants agree to allow Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology to videotape the oral presentations and the question-and-answer sessions. By participating in the competition, student entrants agree to grant Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology and/or organizations designated by them the unlimited right to videotape and/or photograph, audiotape, transcribe or otherwise record all public sessions of the competition, including but not limited to oral presentations and question-and-answer sessions. All entrants agree that Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology and/or their designate organizations may use any such transcriptions and/or recording(s) (in whole or part) for such publicity and marketing purposes as their organizations may see fit, including those which may result in remuneration.

22. Each presenting team will receive further guidelines regarding presentations including the equipment that will be provided (screens, microphones etc.), presentation protocol, etc. Students are not allowed to bring food or beverages into the rooms for presentation. Students may bring product samples for their presentations, but may not bring any giveaways to the judges. Handout materials are allowed, but not required.

23. The six undergraduate finalist teams, six graduate finalist teams and six Lt. Governor’s Award finalists, and their faculty sponsors will be presented an Achievement Certificate and Cash Prize at the Awards Ceremony on April 18, 2012.

24.   The first, second and third place award winning graduate and undergraduate teams, and the Lt. Governor’s Award winning team will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on April 18, 2012.  Each first place team will be presented with a Governor’s Cup Trophy, and second and third place will receive plaques.

25.  Each cash prize will be presented in a SINGLE check made out in the name of the team captain AFTER the team captain has provided NCET with a properly completed W-9. NCET will not provide individual checks to individual team members, make out a check to a company or organization, or make out a check to a team member other than the team captain. Checks will be issued by May 1, 2012.  Team captains and members are encouraged to consult their tax advisor regarding taxation issues.

Each faculty cash prize will be presented in a SINGLE check made out in the name of the faculty advisor.

There are NO exceptions to these rules