IIT Powai to host Eureka 2007 international business plan competition
11 September 2007
Eureka! 2007, the 10th annual business plan competition hosted by The Entrepreneurship Cell of IIT Bombay, has been initiated as a multi-round event open to participants globally. Previous competitions have already witnessed the launch of over 15 successful start-ups, including multimillion-dollar ventures like MyZus and eInfinitus.
The event seeks to facilitate entrepreneurship by assisting individuals who want to build their own enterprise from scratch, showcasing business plans through this competition to those looking to either invest, or partner with those planning to start their own ventures.
IIT Bombay says the Eureka! Business Plan competition is counted amongst the top five competitions in the Asia-Oceanic region in terms of participation, prizes and resources and is intended to provide a platform for intending entrepreneurs to test the business potential of their ideas. The competition provides participants necessary resources in terms of a unique mentoring process and transparent judging of the participant''s business plans.
Eureka! 2007 is a three-stage event:
Stage
1: Executive summary
The executive summary round involves the submission
of a three-four page summary in fewer than 1600 words of the proposed business
plan. The write-up should briefly describe the company, the product or service
and the unique opportunity that the participating team would offer. It should
also provide a short description of the key management team members and an outline
of the investment being made.
Stage
2: Mentoring process
The mentoring process gives the qualified Eureka!
teams an opportunity to interact with seasoned entrepreneurs, venture capitalists
and faculty. These mentors use their expertise and experience to help the teams
refine and further develop their business plans.
-
Intensive mentorship programme from 30 October to 9 December 2007. Each Eureka!
second stage qualifier will be assigned a mentor from a panel for a specified
duration to advise the team on various aspects of their business plan. The communication
between the mentor and the team will be mainly through mails. Meetings between
the team and the mentor may be arranged as per the mentor''s convenience.
- Submission
of a draft of business plan.
The teams selected in the second round, after going through the intensive mentorship programme will have to submit a draft of their business plan. The format of the draft must follow the guidelines that will be given to the short listed teams. Teams will be allowed to participate in the mentors'' meet only if they submit a rough draft. - The
mentors'' meet on 9 December 2007 at the ''e-summit'' during the second stage will
enable the short-listed participants to discuss their business plans with three
mentors from different domains of expertise and seek their guidance towards refining
and further developing their plans. Each mentor would interact with three teams
and each session would last approximately 45 minutes.
Submission of the Business Plans
This stage calls for an exhaustive business plan that covers all details from ''vision to mission'', ''organisation to ownership'', and marketing and exit plan strategies. The selected teams, after mentoring and guidance from corporate members, have to submit their detailed business plans and a renewed executive summary.
