The 2016 Rollins Venture Plan Competition is coming up in the next few weeks, which provides students, alumni, and faculty with the opportunity to develop an idea or prototype into a brand new business or product to be introduced in the marketplace.
Applications are submitted online, and the participants then compete for a pool of prize money. The pool last year was $50,000, of which the winner took home $25,000.
Each participant will pitch their idea in front of a panel of successful entrepreneurs and investors. These judges are experienced and very involved in the business community.
Ideas are encouraged to be grounded in creativity and illustrate the potential for success.
Judges will evaluate each venture based on the description of the product or service, the market opportunity, market strategy, management team, financials, and use of capital.
The most successful ventures will demonstrate knowledge of each of these criteria and be able to demonstrate legitimate potential as an enterprise.
In order to be eligible, each team must have at least one member that is either a Rollins College student, alumnus, staff member, or faculty member and must be in a senior position of management.
Each proposed venture must also not have generated more than $100,000 as of December 31, 2015. In the sake of fairness, proposed ventures cannot have raised above $100,000 in debt/equity financing from sources aside from the founding members.
This competition is made possible through Rollins partnership with venVelo, which is a Winter Park based venture capital firm. VenVelo offers the winner of the Rollins Venture Plan Competition an additional $25,000 equity investment.
Applications closed on February 15th, and eight semi-finalists will be picked for a Dry Run on the 9th and 10th of March. Semi-finals for the remaining four teams will be held on the 22nd of March and the finals will follow on the 24th.
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