Laurence A. Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship

Baiada Business Incubator Competition Guidelines

Open to Current Drexel Students and Drexel Alumni

Business Incubator Competition Guidelines
Submit your company application by March 19, 2012. Following an initial screening process, selected teams may be called in for an interview. The top six companies will be selected to deliver presentations at the 2012 Entrepreneur Conference on June 6, 2012 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
All contestants must register for the Incubator Competition. The registration form and all applicable materials should be submitted to the Baiada Center by 5 p.m. on March 19, 2012. Materials must be submitted following the online submission instructions that follow. This deadline will be taken very seriously and no applications will be accepted beyond this date and time.

• Qualified competitors must meet the following criteria.

  • 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).

• Entries may be submitted by an individual or by a team, as long as the individual (if a single-person team) or the team's leader (if a team of two or more) is a current student (graduate, undergraduate, evening college, executive ed, etc.) of Drexel University or a Drexel alumni. There is no limit to the number of entries that may be submitted per individual. However, submissions from the same team or individual must be materially different in content and may not represent minor modifications or different versions of the same plan.
• 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 or alumni, other team members are not required to be affiliated with Drexel. Students are encouraged to build teams across schools at Drexel.
• The entry 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.

Business Eligibility Requirements - All Phases

• It is important that you address the intellectual property that pertains to your plan by including in your entry 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 Incubator 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.

Submission Format

• Please choose a unique four-digit alpha-numeric PIN number and enter this number on the Team Registration Form. If you submit more than one business plan, each plan must have a unique PIN number.
• Submit your entry, including all attachments in PDF format online by clicking here.

Executive Summary (Maximum 3 pages)

• The role of the Executive Summary is to pique the interest of the reader by concisely demonstrating a compelling business opportunity. Include all major issues, including feasibility of the product, strategies to achieve an ongoing competitive advantage and financing needs. Be sure to include details about the assumptions you are making that will be necessary to ensure success and how you plan to reduce the risks and the revenue model.

30-60-90 Day Plan (Maximum 3 pages)

• Explain how you plan to move your company forward in the next 30 days, the next 60 days, and the next 90 days. Show us your project plan. Additional Materials (Maximum 6 pages)

Additional Materials (Maximum 6 pages)

• Management Team Who are the key players on your team? Include bios. Identify weak areas and how you plan to address these weaknesses.
• Financial Statements and Financial Narrative - Include the following
• Pro forma cash flow and revenue/cost (profit and loss) projections for at least three years, with quarterly detail in the first year and yearly after that. Projected balance sheets may be included but are not required.
• Narrative explanation of key assumptions used in the financials.
• Identify the break-even point and funding assumptions if the company will require ongoing funding. Identify any other points that are important milestones in the development of your venture. This may be the quarter in which you first turn a profit, the first quarter in which your business is cash flow positive, the point at which you achieve a given sales level, or other important financial milestones.
• Identify the point at which investors, to the extent that funds will be raised, can expect a return.
• Use of funds if the company is seeking funding. (Be sure to include this funding in your cash flow analysis.)

Questions to Be Answered (if not addressed above)

• What problem are you solving or what need are you meeting?
• How long have you been working on this idea?
• What stage is your company (concept, seed, early)?
• How do you make money?
• Have you been funded before?
• If applicable, what technology are you using, and do you own or have legal rights of its use?
• Has anyone on your team launched a company before?
• Will you have the ability to work on your company full-time in the Baiada Center?
• Why do you want to have your company incubated in the Baiada Center?
• Why will you be successful?

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.