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The snow — and the economic sky — may still be falling, but the 2009 business plan competition season is heating up at local colleges.
Competitions at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Boston University, Salem State College, Babson College and MIT are reporting steady or increasing participation, though the recession is making itself felt to varying degrees at the institutions.
Boston University’s ninth annual $50K Business Plan Competition runs earlier than most of the 2009 season’s contests. The finalists have already been named: BikeNow, a bicycle-sharing business; Novophage, which has developed an antimicrobial treatment for bacterial infections; Click Chemicals, a services company for chemical research; and AirGo, which has developed an asthma treatment. The winner will be chosen April 7.
After the Internet bubble burst earlier this decade, BU’s $50K saw a drop in entrants, but this year shows an increase from last year, according to Beth Goldstein, who runs the $50K. Goldstein called this year’s crop the “most qualified” she’s seen in her five years of running the $50K and said the recession has made students realize business plan competitions like BU’s can be a rare chance to get exposure for their startups.
“There’s so little money out there, whatever stamp of credibility you can get, you should take it,” she said.
On the Massachusetts North Shore, the North of Boston Business Plan Competition, a joint venture of Salem State College’s Enterprise Center and the Merrimack Valley Economic Development Council, has a $20,000 prize value and 30 entrants — the same number as last year, according to Christine Sullivan, executive director of the Enterprise Center.
The North of Boston competition requires its startups to commit to hiring five people over two years, something Sullivan said may be reconsidered if the economy continues to sink. “We’re getting pushback,” she said.
This year Sullivan said she’s seeing more basic, practical startups, such as service-based and medical companies. About 40 percent are tech companies, she said, which held steady from previous years, surprising Sullivan: She had thought the recession might have decreased the percentage of tech companies in the contest, she said.
Dan Marques started as Babson’s manager of entrepreneur development in October after a stint doing search-engine optimization at online business card maker VistaPrint Ltd. He graduated from Babson in 2007 and submitted an online real estate company, or an online advertising company, or possibly both, to the Wellesley-based college’s John H. Muller Undergraduate Business Plan Competition. “Either way, I was never a finalist,” he said.
Marques worried students might forgo entrepreneurship altogether, not just the undergrad competition and Douglass Foundation Graduate Business Plan Competition, which run in parallel. This year’s plans were due about two weeks ago, and Marques wouldn’t release the number of entrants but said submissions are up 26 percent, at a five-year high.
The contests at WPI wrapped up last November. OsteoInvent, a Harvard School of Dental Medicine entrant, won the WPI Venture Forum Business Plan Contest’s grand prize of $18,500 in cash and in-kind services. Lingro Inc. took home the student-only Collaborative for Entrepreneurship & Innovation’s CEI@WPI contest, $10,000 grand prize. The winners were named before the recession was officially declared, but Gina Betti, associate director of the CEI, said the contests held steady at about 25 entrants each.
In Cambridge, the 20th MIT $100K Business Plan Competition has attracted 260 submissions — a $100K record, according to co-managing directors Sombit Mishra and Brian Cantwell. The two first-year Sloan School of Management students said they’ve seen a surge in the energy and web/IT services categories. Provisions in President Barack Obama’s stimulus package may have inspired startups making coatings and other efficiency products, Mishra said. That track also offers a separate $200,000 prize.
Mishra’s not worried about the recession catching up to the contest in 2010. “I think people may have predicted that for this year.”
Competing contests: A sampling of New England biz plan competitions
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| Ten finalists for the MIT $100K Business Plan Competition |
Boston University
$50K Business Plan Competition
Prize: $50,000
Date: April 7
Salem State College/Merrimack Valley EDC
North of Boston Business Plan Competition
Prize: $20,000
Date: May 13
Babson College
Douglass Foundation Graduate Business Plan Competition
Prize: $20,000
Date: April 16
Babson College
John H. Muller Jr. Undergraduate Business Plan Competition
Prize: $5,000
Date: April 16
MIT
$100K Business Plan Competition
Prize: $100,000
Date: May 12
MIT
Clean Energy Prize
Prize: $200,000
Date: May 12
WPI
CEI@WPI
Prize: $10,000
Date: Nov. 11, 2008
WPI
Venture Forum Business Plan Contest
Prize: $15,000 - $20,000
Date: Nov. 11, 2008
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