The Richest
Business Plan
Competitions

In Total Cash
Prize Money
(2014)
Top 5

1)Would you go to Buffalo, New York to
get a million dollars for your business?
Total Cash Prize Pool
$5,000,000
Grand Prize
$1,000,000

Buffalo, NY is very close to Niagara Falls, for those that want to start a
business and have a wedding at the beautiful location. However, Buffalo
can get very cold in the winter. Unfortunately, money is not given out in a
lump sum but in stages based on the company hitting milestones.

2)What is the best competition to gain
the attention of venture capitalists?
Total Cash Prize Pool Over
$1,000,000
Grand Prize
$150,000

Rice University hosts one of the oldest and most prestigious
student business plan competitions. However, last year, the
biggest cash winner did not receive the competition's "Owl
Grand Prize".

A venture capital company sponsoring the competition created a special
$1 million dollar prize to award to its favorite company in the competition.
However, the prizes are not “free cash”. Many of the prizes come in the
form of a convertible note, which are loans that eventually convert into an
ownership stake for the prize sponsor.

3)Do you have a cutting edge technology
idea to pitch?
Total Cash Prize Pool Over
$1,000,000
Grand Prize
$250,000

Money is in the form of a convertible note. The competition,
which is run by the venture capital arm of Qualcomm, focuses
on emerging technology ventures.

4)Can you combine saving the world with making money?
Your competition will mainly want to save the world!
Winner Take All!!
$1,000,000

This competition is limited to US college and university students trying to
save the world. Each year the competition has a big global problem for
entrants to create a plan to solve, with $1 million in prize money. While not
very well publicized, the competition is open to for-profit ventures. If a for-
profit venture wins, the Hult Prize gets 10% equity stake in exchange for the
$1 million prize money.

5)Does your idea help produce clean energy and
you’re a student at a US college or university?
Total Cash Prize Pool
$300,00
Grand Prize
$225,000

This US student competition is great because it doesn’t involve relocating or
giving up a big chunk of one’s venture right away. Also, I imagine that even if
you don’t win the top prize, the members of the top competing teams will be
approached by energy firms with 6-figure job offers.

Biggest (Cash Prize) US
Student Business Plan Competitions
Top 10

Rice Business Plan
Competition1)
(discussed before)

Hult Prize
2)(discussed before)

MIT Clean
Energy Prize3)
(discussed before)

MIT 100KEntrepreneurship Challenge4)$350K in cash prizes with $100K Grand Prize.
Entrants must be a current MIT student.

FAU Business
Plan Competition5)$225K in cash prizes with $36K grand prize.
Entrants must be an FAU student, faculty, or
Florida resident.

NYU Stern New Venture
and Social Venture Competitions6)$200K in cash prizes with $75K Grand Prize.
Entrants must be an NYU student or alumni.

Harvard
Business School7)$150K in cash prizes with two $50K Grand Prizes. Team must
have one current Harvard Business School MBA student.
New Venture Competition

Tufts 100K New
Ventures Competition8)$100k Grand Prize. Entrants must have a current Tufts
student, faculty member, or recently graduated alumni.

GW Business Plan
Competition9)$101K in cash prizes with $35k Grand Prize. Entrant must be
a currently enrolled GW student.

Purdue University’s
Burton D. Morgan
Business Plan Competition10)$100k in cash prize.

We looked at the total cash prizes
awarded. Some of the competitions
have considerable non-cash prizes,
such as free rent or legal services.
However, as the value of these goods
can be subjective, we chose to stick to
the cash.
How we ranked
them?

How we ranked
them?Seven of these business plan
competitions have major restrictions on
who can apply. While the rules vary
from school to school, the basic idea is
that one or two members of the team
applying for the competition must be
actively seeking a degree at the specific
school.

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