Rice Biz Plans

I have been a judge at the Rice Alliance Business Plan competition for three years now. I enjoy it more than any of the other organized events I attend.

36 schools from all over the world come to Houston and compete for over $300,000 in prizes. They present real business plans for real businesses. In some cases the businesses are already generating some revenue. In others, they are just getting started.

I participate in several of the events. The first is the feedback round. This is an informal round where teams present their plans to a group of judges and they get (unscored) feedback. This is the best. It is very interactive, and the teams generally take the feedback and make their presentations better.

The next is the Elevator Pitch competition. This is where each team has 60 seconds to pitch their idea and company. Intense! Some of these are quite amusing.

Then I judge the competition itself, followed by the while card round. (The wild card round is the #2 teams from each of the 6 flights). I don’t judge the final round. Too hard to make a decision!

The awards dinner is tonight. I know who my favorite is.