Rules

TEAMS

  • Size of a team is restricted to 6 people.
  • At least half of the team’s members must be currently enrolled at Northwestern University.
  • All team members must have registered through the InNUvation website on or before April 11, 2008. Team members wishing to join formed teams after the April 11th deadline must contact NUVC leadership.
  • Team members can change over the period of time, as long as the previous criteria are met at any given moment.
  • A team can submit more than one idea.
  • Individuals can participate with more than one team.
  • Students from Kellogg who have taken ENTR 462 may not use any plans created in 462 in the NU Venture Challenge.

REGISTRATION

  • Teams must register and submit their abstract at nuvc.innuvation.org/signup.html before April 11, 2008 at 11:59pm.
  • To begin the competition, all teams must submit a business abstract at the time of registration. Abstracts will be used to choose the teams which will compete in the semi-final round. Entries will be submitted online only and must be received on time and in the appropriate format according to the website. The decision of the Organizing Team regarding late or incorrect submission of entries is final.

JUDGING

  • The Judging Panel will be comprised of experienced entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, academics, non-profit founders, legal professionals, and patent experts.

  • Ventures that have received outside investment from venture capital firms, private investors, or industry sources before April 11, 2008 are considered ineligible to compete.

  • By submitting a business idea, you represent and warrant to the NU Venture Challenge that the ideas, concepts, written documents, oral pitch and all aspects of the submissions are original work of the team members, that you have all right, title and/or interest in the business idea submitted and the information it contains is accurate and complete, and that by submitting the idea to the NU Venture Challenge you are not and will not be violating any contract or any third party rights including any patent, copyright, trade secret, proprietary or confidential information, trademark, publicity or privacy right.

  • The Judging Panel of the NU Venture Challenge reserves the right to disqualify any entry that in its judgment violates the letter or the spirit of the competition, and its decisions are final and binding.

  • Abstracts will be judged based on:
  1. Novelty and ‘wow’ factor of your proposal
  2. Clarity of objectives and implementation strategy
  3. Market need for product/service (if the submission includes some evidence of this)
  4. Creativity in how you plan to market the product
  5. Thought put into financials of the project
  6. Overall feasibility of the project
  • Ideas will be judged based on the following criteria:
  1. Creativity and innovation involved in the business concept
  2. Likelihood of business success
  3. Stage of idea development
  4. Knowledge of the product/service and its market
  5. Growth potential and capability to become market leader
  6. Sustainability of the business and competitive advantage
  7. Up-front capital investment and rationality of the financing strategy
  • All entrants to the competition may receive feedback from the judges, regardless of whether they win or not.

  • The decisions of the Judging Panel of the NU Venture Challenge on the semi-finalists, finalists, runners-up, winners are final and binding on each participant.

CONFIDENTIALITY AND COPYRIGHT

  • Access to submitted abstracts is only granted by NU Venture Challenge to the members of its judging panel. The Lead Organizers, the IT team and the Judging team members are the only other individuals who may be provided with the submitted business plans.
  • Before submitting your abstract or presenting your plan in the semi-final or final rounds of the NU Venture Challenge we urge you to confirm with appropriate advisors or legal counsel that any intellectual property described in your plan is protected.
  • The semi-final and final presentations will be public events.
  • We suggest that all teams entering competition discuss equity breakdown amongst team members prior to competing.

AWARDS