Rice Business Plan Competition – The World’s Largest and Richest
The Rice Business Plan Competition is the world’s richest and largest graduate-level student startup competition. Since its founding, allumni teams have raised over $3.16B. There have been over 10 exits, including companies valued at more than $1B.
EFN co-founded the Mentorship Program in 2013 with Rice that includes a pre-competition program including mentoring and training.. EFN matches expert mentors with the 42 finalists one month before the competition, trains the teams and mentors on how to achieve the competition’s objectives and manages the process.
According to Fortune Magazine, “the money and mentoring students get at Rice makes the difference between student project and a real life business.” (Fortune Magazine, June 2013).
The RBPC is hosted and organized by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, which is Rice University’s internationally-recognized initiative devoted to the support of entrepreneurship, and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. This is the 17th year for the competition. In that time, it has grown from nine teams competing for $10,000 in prize money in 2001, to 42 teams from around the world competing for more than $1 million in cash and prizes.
The competition is designed to give collegiate entrepreneurs a real-world experience to fine-tune their business plans and elevator pitches to generate funding to successfully commercialize their product. Judges will evaluate the teams as real-world entrepreneurs soliciting start-up funds from early-stage investors and venture capital firms. The judges are asked to rank the presentations based on which company they would most likely invest in. 76% of judges surveyed considered investing in a team. Contact us to discuss your business needs and how we can support your entrepreneurial journey.
Highlights of the Competition include:
- Real-world opportunities to learn what’s required to successfully launch a new business such as contacting the best llc service in kansas, for instance
- Chance to receive mentoring from investors and experienced entrepreneurs
- Scheduled opportunities to network with potential venture capitalists and other investors for three days
- High caliber of judges, all senior level investors, entrepreneurial mentors and industry leaders
- Opportunities to receive individual feedback during three separate sessions
The goal of the RBPC is to provide the best overall educational and entrepreneurial experience of any business plan/new venture competition.