Empresario - The Business Plan Showcase

Staying true to our objective of bringing together the community of entrepreneurs, academicians, and investors, we present to you the 2nd Edition Business Plan Showcase Event of in association with the Centre of Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE).

Empresario is an opportunity like no other for the budding entrepreneurs committed to making their dreams a reality or those who have already taken the plunge and want to make it big in the world of business. The event will provide the best teams with a platform to present their ideas before potential investors and industry experts.

Each B-Plan will be scrutinized through a rigorous two step process of evaluation culminating in a closed door business plan presentation before investors. Teams would not only get a golden chance to get seed funding from the potential investors, but also the opportunity to be incubated at the CIIE. For further details on the Showcase rules and registration, please read the instructions given below.

Categories
Entries will be accepted for the following categories:

• Clean Tech & Renewable Energy
• Telecommunication
• Web Portals
• Electronics
• IT/ITES Services
• IT-Software
• Power
  

Timelines

• Registration Begins: 10th November, 2009
• Submission of Round 1 Executive Summary:  25th November, 2009
• Result of Round 1: 30th November, 2009
• Submission of Round 2 Business Plans: 7th December, 2009
• Final Shortlist for Presentation on Campus: 14th December
• Business Plan Showcase at IIM Ahmedabad: 8th January 2010
  

Incentives and Awards

Angel Funding

The teams shortlisted by for the Bplan Showcase Presentation will be given a chance to pitch their plans to a panel of VCs and Angel Investors.

Incubation Opportunities

Selected plans may also get the opportunity of being incubated at the Centre of Incubation, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (CIIE).

Rules and Regulations

1. The event will be held in 3 stages. The first two rounds will involve online submissions while the third round will be held on campus at IIM Ahmedabad on the 8th of January, 2010.
2. A minimum of two members must be part of the team. There are no constraints on the maximum team size though it is recommended that only founding members of the business are mentioned in the entry as this will be an evaluation criterion for the judges.
3. Each team can send in only one entry and no person can be a part of two different teams.
4. Existing business must be registered and headquartered in India.
5. Entries of businesses with around/over a year of operations or proof of concept will be preferred by the evaluators.
6. All entries must be composed by and be the original work of the team members and must not violate the rights of any third party. 
7. The intellectual property of the participants will remain protected unless the party enters into any legal obligations with judges/investors as part of receiving funding. Also, IIM-A may, after consultation with the participants, publish a summary of entries making it to the final round in any medium (radio, television, Internet or other).
8. Students and working professional from different institutes/organizations can come together to form team(s).
9. There is no registration fee for sending in entries in the first round. The final teams shortlisted to present at IIM Ahmedabad will be required to make a payment of INR 2,000.
10. Two founding team members must be appointed by the teams to act as the point of contact with the investors. They will represent the team at IIM Ahmedabad.
11. Should a team make any false statement, they shall be automatically disqualified from the contest.
12. By entering this contest, all entrants agree to abide by the contest rules which shall be applied by the IIM-A. All its decisions are final.
13. Stage wise rules will be sent to the shortlisted teams in the consecutive mails.

Deadline

All entries must be mailed to leverage@iimahd.ernet.in strictly before 23:59:59, 25th November, 2009. Teams shortlisted after Stage 1 would be notified by the 30th November, 2009. Please use the following as the subject line - 'Showcase 2010 : [Name of the Company/Team]'

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Executive Summary Details

Registration

Registration will start on the Leverage and CIIE website from the 10th of November, 2009. On registration, you would receive a mail confirming your registration within 24 hours.

Formatting

All entries should be in word (.doc - Word 97-2003) or pdf format. They should be in Arial or Garamond font with a font size of 12 and minimum line spacing of 1.15

The first round entry should contain the following sections.

• A one page cover sheet which contains information such as the business title, names of team members, contact information, email addresses etc.
• A one page team profile which should include educational background, experience, presently working /studying/other and all other such information regarding the team It should address questions like - What makes the team capable of executing the plan successfully? What are the key skill sets each member brings? What is the nature of involvement of the key people? 
• A three page executive summary. Guidelines for this section are given below. It may include any tables/figures as well (within the three page limit). At this stage, we expect an introduction to the plan and the second stage would expect a more detailed business plan.
  

Entries not adhering to this format would be disqualified. Entries should strictly follow the page limit.

Please include the following sections in the three page executive summary. This is the preferred structure of the entry suiting our pattern of evaluation. If you think it's limiting the expression of your ideas, you're free to add more information.

• Overview - Detail the problem or pain point that the idea is solving and how it is different or better than any existing solutions?
• Concept: Product/Service Description - What is the product or service that the team is trying to sell? What is the uniqueness and innovativeness of it? How will the product/service be manufactured/developed and delivered and what are the revenue sources and projected cash flows?
• Major Threats and Critical Factors - What in your opinion are the critical factors? How do you propose to respond to adverse scenario in these critical areas?
• Marketing Plan - Who are the potential customers? How big is the market? What is the marketing plan? Who is your competition? What is your competitive advantage?
• Financing Requirements – How much money is the team looking for? What funding resources are available to the team? What is the money going to be spent on and what are the returns?