University and college students from across Nevada are being encouraged to pursue entrepreneurship as a career option as the Nevada Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NCET) hosts its sixth annual Governor’s Cup competition.

Teams of both graduate and undergraduate students are asked to submit their best business plan, outlining how they would move Nevada business into the future. The payoff? A $20,000 prize for first place, $10,000 for second place and $5,000 for third place.

First and second place winners also move on to compete in a regional competition with students from Oklahoma and Arkansas.

“We see an interesting range of plans,” said Dave Archer, CEO of NCET. “They range from a million-dollar fuel facility to a pizza parlor. All of them have been phenomenal. … The written business plans, they are as good as anything that I have seen in the corporate world.”

With 35 years in the business development industry, Archer spent 17 years at Viacom, initially at Viacom Cable, where he introduced numerous new products and services including Pay-Per-View, home-shopping and commercial telecommunication services. However, he will not be judging the students’ final business plans. On Wednesday, the 12 teams will each give a 20-minute pitch to a panel of Nevada’s business leaders, followed by a 20-minute question-and-answer session.

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