NewSpace Student Business Plan Competition
Rules and Guidelines:
Welcome to the 2013 NewSpace Student Business Plan Competition. We appreciate your interest in
participating in this year’s event hosted by the Space Frontier Foundation and SEDS-USA at
SpaceVision 2013 held at the Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 4 (ISTB4) in
Tempe, AZ Friday November 8th.
A maximum of 5 teams will be invited to compete in the 2013 NewSpace Student Business
Competition for awards of cash prizes and virtual incubation packages:
Grand Prize:
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One year of virtual incubation through the California Space Enterprise Center and Green
2 Gold facilities in Santa Barbara, CA with opportunities to present to investors, legal
assistance, patent searches, and free business counseling and licensing (Estimated Value
$5000)
One year of membership in Space Entrepreneur, Inventor and Innovator Program of the
Space Enterprise Center with access to incubation workshops, entrepreneurs, and
investors and free counseling (Estimated Value $350)
$1000 cash, sponsored by Zveznet Industries.
First place trophy includes a meteorite sample from Aerolite Meteorites, LLC, selected by
Geoffrey Notkin from Meteorite Men and sponsored by Standard Propellant.
Second Prize:
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One year of membership in Space Entrepreneur, Inventor and Innovator Program of the
Space Enterprise Center with access to incubation workshops, entrepreneurs, and
investors and free counseling (Estimated Value $350)
$250 cash, sponsored by Zveznet Industries.
Third Prize:
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One year of membership to Green 2 Gold with access to free counseling, incubation
workshops, entrepreneurs, and investors (Estimated Value $150)
$100 cash, sponsored by Zveznet Industries.
General Requirements:
Each team must meet the following requirements in order to compete in the 2013 NewSpace
Student Business Plan Competition:
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Team Composition: All members must be current undergraduate or graduate students from
a US university or college. Proof of current enrollment will be needed in order to participate.
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Team Size: The presenting team should not exceed 5 people.
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Nature of Ventures: The competition is for new, independent ventures that should have
technologies or products which advance the NewSpace movement. Generally excluded are
the following: buyouts, expansion of existing companies, real estate syndications, tax
shelters, franchises, and licensing agreements for distribution in a different geographical area.
Licensing technologies from university research labs is not excluded and is
encouraged, assuming they have not been commercialized previously.
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Attendance: Team members should arrive at the ISTB4 on the day of the competition which
will be November 8th and must check in with the event coordinator by 8:00am. One member
from the team will be required to attend the banquet on Saturday November 9th, 2013 in
order to be given the award.
General Information:
Qualification to participate in the NewSpace Student Business Plan Competition is determined by
the criteria outlined in the Executive Summary section and by meeting the deadlines below:
How to enter:
To enter, one individual from the team should complete the online Intent to Compete Form,
available to turn in now by sending the form to [email protected]. This must be completed
no later than 23:59 UTC October 1st, 2013. A 3-5 page executive summary, in PDF format, must
then be emailed to [email protected] by October 10th, 2013 at 23:59 UTC. Teams that are
invited to participate must have a 10 minute business plan elevator pitch that may include any of
the following media: powerpoint, video, non-working or working model or any other multimedia
presentation medium. These presentations will be given at the competition.
Important Dates:
Please add the following important dates to your calendar:
October 1st, 2013 by 23:59 UTC - Deadline to submit the Intent to Compete Form
October 10th, 2013 by 23:59 UTC - Deadline to Complete Executive Summary
October 12th, 2012 by 23:59 UTC - 5 Finalists will be invited to compete
October 20th, 2012 by 23:59 UTC - Invited teams will confirm participation
November 7-10th, 2012 - Teams will arrive at the ISTB4 for the competition November 8th and
banquet November 9th.
November 9th, 2012 - Awards will be given and winners announced at the Banquet
Executive Summary Submission Information and Recommendations:
The final Executive Summary from each team is due to SEDS-USA on or before 23:59 UTC on Oct
10th, 2013. Please submit an electronic version via email in PDF format. No other format will be
accepted. Teams will be evaluated to compete based on the quality of the Executive Summary.
Teams will be notified of whether they are invited to compete on October 12th, 2013.
Guidelines:
Executive summaries must be limited to 5 pages of text (typed, double spaced, minimum 12
point font, and 1” margins on all sides.) An example Executive Summary is available on the
website. The Executive Summary should include information on:
• Company summary
• Customer/market analysis (market size and potential market share)
• Product or service description
• Intellectual property status (e.g., patents, licenses, etc.)
• Competitive differentiation
• Management team and/or advisors, including relevant experience
• Financial highlights
• Status and offering of the company (how much investment you are seeking)
In your executive summary, we expect teams to convey:
• The problem or need your company solves
• The size of the accessible market and evidence that customers will buy your product/service
• Your differentiation vs. competition and how you will sustain that
• The experience of your management team and/or advisory boards
• The current state of development (e.g., beta, customer trials, etc.)
• Timeframes to achieve significant revenue and/or cash flow positive
• The amount of funding you are seeking
Oral and Multimedia Presentations:
Oral Presentations will take place on November 8th from 9:00-12:15 at the ISTB4. Each team
will be given a ten minute time slot, followed by a question and answer session with the judges.
Copyrights Permissions:
If a team uses copyrighted materials and/or images from a third party in their presentation or
business plan, they must obtain permission and authorization from the owners to use this
material in advance.
Judging Criteria:
The judging panel will consider
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Executive Summary: Clear, exciting and effective as a stand-alone overview of the plan
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Products or Services: Description, features and benefits, pricing, current stage of
development and proprietary position
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Market and Marketing Strategy: Description of market, competitive analysis, needs
identification, unique capabilities and sales/promotion
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Management: Backgrounds of key individuals, ability to execute strategy, personnel needs,
organizational structure
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Summary Financials: Presented in summary form, easy to read and understand consistent
with plan and effective
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Offering and Viability: Overall proposal and terms to investors –is the investment
opportunity clear and compelling? Is the opportunity practical for a student team to
accomplish and near-term space enabling?
General Information:
The competition is intended to simulate the real world process of entrepreneurs soliciting start up
funds from early stage investors and venture capital firms. The judges function as venture capital
investors deciding on which business venture they would most likely fund. The quality of the idea,
the strength of the management team, and the clarity and persuasiveness of the written plan and oral
presentation, all influence the judge’s decisions. Ultimately, the winning team should be the team in
which the judges would most likely invest their money. Most of the judges come from the
investment community or have created their own startup venture. Their ranking of the top teams is
guided by the scorecard but should be consistent with the approach that would be used by investors.
We recognize that consistent with real life investment situations real life investment situations, early
stage companies can be in very different stages of development. To compensate for this, we would
expect that an early stage investor would require this potential for higher investment returns for an
earlier stage company, which has a higher level of risk involved. We assume, in general, that this
would be true for the judges in the NewSpace Business Plan Competition. Teams are not required to
reveal the exact desired terms of the deal (i.e., their proposed company valuation and percentage of
company being offered to investors). However, some investors prefer to have this information
upfront (while some investors feel it is not as important until later).We recommend that teams be
prepared to address questions about their terms, but it is up to the team to decide how they want to
answer these questions. During the competition, judges are asked to evaluate each team individually
and should not discuss their evaluation with other judges until all judges’ evaluation forms have been
submitted.