Laurence A. Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship

Baiada Business Incubator Competition Guidelines

Deliver a winning presentation at the 2010 Entrepreneur Conference on June 2, 2010 and compete for space to start your business in the Baiada Center's state-of-the-art business incubator! Upon entry into the incubator, cash, training, and in-kind service prizes will be awarded to get the company started!

First Place: $10,000* plus in-kind service prizes
Second Place: $8000* plus in-kind service prizes
Third Place: $6000* plus in-kind service prizes

*$6000 will be used to defer incubation and training fees; remaining will be a cash prize to be used to start the business.
In-kind service prizes are donated to each winning team by friends of the Baiada Center – values total over $50,000.

Participant Eligibility Requirements

• Qualified competitors will be selected from the top ranking teams in the 2010 Business Plan Competition who meet the following criteria. Student teams who meet the criteria and are interested in competing in the incubator competition must identify this when registering for the business plan competition.

  • The team must be prepared to start the business in the Baiada Center Business Incubator. Winners of the Incubator Competition must start their companies in the incubator.
  • The team must own the rights to the intellectual property necessary to start the business (details below).

• The team's leader (if a team of two or more) must be a current student (graduate, undergraduate, evening college, executive ed, etc.) of Drexel University, whether on co-op or in classes during the deadline periods.
• There is no limit to the number of teams in which an individual may participate. As long as the team leader is a current Drexel student, other team members are not required to be affiliated with Drexel. Students are encouraged to build teams across schools at Drexel.

Business Eligibility Requirements - All Phases

• The business concept and business plan must be the original work of the submitting team. The submission of a business idea to the Baiada Business Incubator Competition constitutes a representation on the part of all members of the team that the business concept and submission are the original work of the team. If you have doubts about the status of your concept or business, please contact the Baiada Center Team for clarification before entering.
• Owning the rights to any intellectual property related to your company's business is NOT a requirement for participating in the written business plan competition for purely academic purposes. Student teams can enter the written business plan competition as an academic exercise, with no intention to move forward with creating the company based on their business plan. However, it is important that you address the intellectual property that pertains to your plan by including in your business plan a section entitled "Intellectual Property, Inventions and Technologies," which deals with the question of rights to commercialize the technologies in question. It is also important to take into account the projected costs associated with intellectual property protection and licensing (if the company is based on third party's technology).
• If you plan to start a company to commercialize a technology and compete in the Incubator Competition, it is a requirement that you obtain the rights to the underlying technology before entering the competition. Many technologies developed at Drexel are owned by the University, and its permission is required to commercialize them. Please contact Dr. Robert McGrath in the Office of Research – Technology Commercialization (robert.mcgrath@drexel.edu or 215-895-0303), to determine what permissions may be necessary to commercialize the technology.

What can I do with my prize money?
Winning teams must use the prize money to start the business in the Baiada Center Business Incubator. A portion of the prize money (detailed above) will be used to defer incubation and training fees. In-kind service prizes must be applied to the development of the business described in the winning plan.

Will my entry remain confidential?
Many of the judges we ask to participate in the Drexel/Baiada Center Competitions are venture capitalists, investment bankers and other financial investment professionals. As a general practice, these financial investment professionals seldom sign confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements. However, participants in the Competition should understand, and can be confident that the judges selected will respect the confidential nature of all submissions and honor the spirit of the Competition.