RIT Business Plan Contest

2009 BUSINESS PLAN CONTEST WINNERS

RIT is pleased to announce the 2009 Business Plan Winner. This year over 50 students were involved with submissions to the competition.  Students from 8 colleges were involved in the contest. 

The potential business opportunities described ranged from technology products, to internet services to innovative retail establishments. 

This year’s undergraduate winners are:
1st Prize:  Endicott Brewing Company (Submitters: Elliott Eskra and Justin Blais)

2nd Prize: The College Driver (Submitters: Corey Mack and Zeid Nasser)

3rd Prize:  BumbleBee Vending Machines (Submitters: Su Lu, Brian Kugler, Joel Denninger, and Tara Holiday )

The award winners for the Graduate Track are:
1st Prize:  NYLakeliving.com (Submitters: Rachel Aquilina and Todd Cavanaugh) 

2nd Prize:  DSL Finger Challenge

 

 

 

2008 BUSINESS PLAN CONTEST WINNERS

Eligibility:

All full- or part-time RIT undergraduate and graduate students working toward a degree are eligible to participate in the competition. (Eligibility includes students graduating at any time during the 2007-08 academic year).

Prizes

Undergraduate
1st Prize:  $ 4,000
2nd Prize: $ 2,000
3rd Prize:  $ 1,000

Graduate
1st Prize: $2,500 and sponsorship to RBPC*
2nd Prize: sponsorship to RBPC*
3rd Prize: sponsorship to RBPC*

*RIT is also a sponsor of a community-wide business plan contest, along with UR, HTR, and GRE. This contest is open (for a fee) to all members of the greater Rochester community.  It involves a series of business plan workshops, events, and coaching to refine the entrepreneur’s concepts.  The entry fee is covered for those graduate student business plan winners who wish to enter.

Guidelines

Business plans should describe a potential new business in no more than five (5) single spaced pages, not including the income and start-up cost statement. Download information on how to format your business plan here.
Requirements for your business plan.

 

Evaluation

A panel of RIT faculty and outside entrepreneurs (and entrepreneurs' service providers) judge the contest. Proposals are evaluated based primarily on their realistic potential for success. Other pertinent criteria include:

• Professionalism of the abbreviated business plan
• Compelling nature of the market opportunity, market need (actual or perceived), and the value provided to customers
• Clear definition of target market (customers) and their accessibility
• Realistic manufacturing or service operations plan
• Accurate understanding of potential start-up costs and revenues

Previous Winners

This year approximately 35 students submitted plans to the competition - all of them of very high quality.

2006-07 Undergraduate winners were:

1st Prize: TribeMind Studios (Sean Azlin, Derrick Miller, Eric Miller, Nick Germain)

2nd Prize: Atomic Security (Christopher Zielinski)

3rd Prize: Goal Judge (Rick Walton)

The award winner for the 2006-07 Graduate Track was:

American Energy Conversion (William Stromeyer and Justin Pelletier)

2005-06 Undergraduate winners were:

1st Prize: Projectories (Sean Colombo)

2nd Prize: Draco Industries (Andrew Colaruotolo, John Frame, Gregory Combs)

3rd Prize: Parking Pals (Syprasuth Vandy)

The award winner for the 2005-06 Graduate Track was:

Staach (Seth Eshelman and Ross Nadau)