EnterPRize 2008 Business Plan Competition

The Business Plan Competition will be composed of three (3) rounds: Executive Summary Submission, Semi-finals and Finals. There will be Kick Off Sessions, Workshops and Education Programs as well as Special Topic Networking Events. The one major addition from the Business Idea Competition will be the Mentoring Program where semi-finalist teams will be assigned mentors to assist them in their business plan development and preparation.

Kick Off Events:

In addition to the type of information provided in the Business Idea Competition Kick Off Events, the following elements will be added:

The difference between a business idea and a fully developed business plan
The critical importance of building the team
The Executive Summary, Semi-final, Final process
The importance of the use of all Competition resources and activities to successfully develop a fundable Business Plan
The Mentoring Program

Educational Programs & Workshops :

The Business Plan Competition will include 2 general access workshops for all participants and 2 specialized workshops for semifinalist and finalists. A world-class instructor will teach the specialized workshops. Advanced topics may include:

What do angel investors and venture capitalist look for in a Business Plan?
From business plan to start up, the critical issues of resource marshalling.
Advanced Venture Finance

Special Topic Networking Events:

These events will be organized similarly to the Business Idea Competition sessions and cover similar topics.

Mentoring Program:

The Mentoring Program is designed to provide semi-finalist teams the expertise of seasoned entrepreneurs and business leaders. The assignment of a mentor will result in an opportunity to learn from successful entrepreneurs who have "been there and done that". Mentors will be encouraged to steer the team in developing a real fundable business plan and provide the contacts, skills and insight that can prove critical in the development of a new venture.

Submission Process:

Executive Summaries of the business plan will be due on September 29th, 2008.

A panel of judges will evaluate the executive summaries and 15 semifinalists will be selected and announced on October 10, 2008. Semi finalists will be assigned mentors, when possible with mentors having direct experience/exposure in the teams industry. Semi finalists will be required to submit a complete Business Plan by November 14th, 2008. Five (5) finalists will be announced on November 25th, 2008. Finalists will present their business plans to a panel of judges and winners will be announced during the PRVF Conference set for December 9, 2008.

PRVF Annual Conference and Business Plan Competition Awards:

The culminating celebratory event for the Entrepreneurial and Private Equity community and the EnterPRize 2008 Business Plan Competition will be the annual PRFV Conference scheduled for December 9, 2008. At the conference, the finalists will make a 7-minute presentation of their business plans to the general business community with winners announced during the afternoon session. In addition to the Business Plan presentations, the Conference will include guest speaker and panel sessions. The conference represents the pre-eminent entrepreneurship and venture community development event in Puerto Rico.

EnterPRize 2009 Business Idea Competition

The EnterPRize 2009 Business Idea Competition is an easy-to-enter warm-up round for the EnterPRize 2009 Business Plan Competition. The Business Idea Competition consists of a short, written description of the product/service idea, the market opportunity, your competitive advantage, and a brief description of the skills, experience and achievements that qualifies the team to execute on this idea.

The Business Idea Competition will be structured around the following activities:

Kick Off Events:

Events hosted by Competition Partners designed to:

Introduce the EnterPRize Competition and describe the Business Idea Competition
An introduction to entrepreneurship and idea generation
Question and answer period
Networking Time

Educational Programs & Workshops:

These workshops will be short, two-hour sessions providing specific information and tools useful at this stage of the Competition. Format includes a lead instructor and a guest entrepreneur and the events are free of charge.

Special Topic Networking Events:

These events will be organized around a 15-30 minute presentation by a leading authority in a given field followed by a question and answer period, and then a networking activity. The purpose is to deliver relevant information and/or tools to participants in the Business Idea Competition, get more of the community engaged, and facilitate, early on, the entrepreneurial team building process.

Submission Process:

Submissions of Business Ideas will be due by (To Be Determine on January 2009)

To participate, the person must register and submit through this webpage (www.enterprizepr.com.)

Entry into the Business Plan Competition will be open to all and not in any way related to participation and/or having won an award in the Business Idea Competition. However, participation in the Business Idea Competition is strongly recommended as it can serve as an important developmental milestone for the Business Plan Competition.

Ideas that were selected in EnterPRize 2007 or 2008 cannot re-submit for 2009. Selected ideas include winners of the Business Idea Competition and semi-finalists and finalists of the Business Plan Competition. All other participants and/or ideas of 2007 or 2008 are welcomed to re-submit their business concepts, hopefully after a thorough review and improvement.