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March 12-14, 2009

Submission Requirements

These requirements are heavily based upon the requirements the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin sets for its MOOT CORP® Competition.

Confidentiality and Intellectual Property Guidelines

  • The authors of the business plan will retain all rights to the plan regarding its use at all times prior to and following the competition except as stated below. Due to the nature of the competition, we will not ask judges, reviewers, staff or the audience to agree to or sign non-disclosure statements for any participant.

  • All public sessions of the competition, including but not limited to oral presentations and question/answer sessions, are open to the public at large. Any and all of these public sessions may be broadcast to interested persons through media that may include radio, television and the Internet. Any data or information discussed or divulged in public sessions by entrants should be considered information that will likely enter the public realm, and entrants should not assume any right of confidentiality in any data or information discussed, divulged or presented in these sessions

  • Carnegie Mellon University may make photocopies, photographs, videotapes and/or audiotapes of the presentations including the business plan and other documents, charts or material prepared for use in presentation at the McGinnis Venture Competition. Students retain all proprietary rights. The University may use the materials in any book or other printed materials and any videotape or other medium that it may produce, provided that any profits earned from the sale of such items is used by The University solely to defray the costs of future competitions. The University has non-exclusive world rights in all languages, and in all media, to use or to publish the materials in any book, other printed materials, videotapes or other medium, and to use the materials in future editions thereof and derivative products.

Business Plan Guidelines

  • One electronic plan (required) and five (5) copies (as a backup) of the final plan are due at the Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship on or before March 3,  2008. Teams not meeting this deadline may be disqualified. For ease in handling, all copies of business plans should be professionally bound. Three-ring binders are not acceptable. Any hard-copy plans that are not used by the judges can be returned to teams if requested.

  • Plans must be limited to 20 pages (typed and double-spaced, #12 font, and 1-1-1-1 margins) of text, including the executive summary and summary financial data. Detailed spreadsheets and appropriate appendices may follow the text portion of the plan but will be limited to 10 pages. In total, the plan should be no longer than 30 pages.

  • Financial data should include a cash flow statement, income statement, and balance sheet. Include an explanation of the offering to investors indicating how much money is required, how it will be used, and the proposed structure of the deal, i.e., stock, debentures, etc. The team is not required to reveal its desired deal, although the judges may ask questions about it. Also, delineate the possible exit strategies.

  • Appendices should be included only when they support the findings, statements and observations in the plan. Because of the number of teams in the competition, judges may not be able to read all the material in the appendices. Therefore, the text portion of the plan (20 pages) must contain all pertinent information in a clear and concise manner.

  • Plans should be sent to Dr. Arthur A. Boni, Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship, Room 230C, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213; they also must be e-mailed to djc@andrew.cmu.edu in .PDF or Microsoft Word format. Dr. Boni may be reached at djc@andrew.cmu.edu or 412-268-8685. Whenever possible, plans will be e-mailed to the judges for this competition.

Presentation Guidelines

  • In all rounds, each team will be given 15 minutes to present its business plan followed by a 15-minute question and answer session between the presenting team and the judges. THESE TIME LIMITS WILL BE STRICTLY ENFORCED.

  • Teams may not observe other teams' question and answer sessions in their division until after they have presented their own plan. A team, once it has finished its presentation, may observe both the presentation and Q&A session of the teams that follow it.

  • Equipment needs: Each presentation room will be set up with a LCD projector and screen. Each team will need to bring its own laptop computer(s).
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