| |
|
|
Business Plan Contest
Kick-Off Draws Legion of Future HBS Entrepreneurs |
| by John Fees and Guy Miasnik
|
|
|
Over 350 students attended the 1999 Business Plan
Kick-Off event featuring Professor Bill Sahlman and two successful HBS
entrepreneurs. Sahlman, professor of the popular second-year Entrepreneurial
Finance course, shared his perspectives on career choices for Entrepreneurs.
His philosophy may best be summarized by his encouragement to choose a
career path where “you love going to work in the morning and love going
home at night.” Sahlman’s perennial advice to MBAs is to “avoid behaving
like sheep.” He said, “that the easier it is to enter the business, the
lower the probability that the opportunity will be exciting.” Assess your
own desires and skills and recognize that you are still in the investment
mode when you leave HBS, not in the harvest mode. |
|
|
Anthony Tjan, HBS ‘98, Founder of Zefer, last
year’s first place winner of Business Plan Contest and winner of the Dubilier
Prize, spoke regarding the importance of the contest to students choosing
an entrepreneurial career path. Tjan encouraged students to “make the contest
real.” Though Zefer actually received $2 million in first round venture
capital funding prior to winning the contest, Tjan indicated that the contest
was an excellent and risk free way to increase the likelihood of Zefer’s
long-term success. |
|
|
Warren Adams, HBS ’ 95 , President and co-founder
of PlanetAll, remarks were also inspirational. After just two years in
business, his company was able to acquire over 1.7 million members and
was later sold to Amazon.com in 1998 for just under $100 million. Warren
said “a good business plan is one that can be communicated in less than
18 Power-Point slides.” A good plan needs to integrate everything learned
in class in a way that demonstrates your knowledge of the nature of the
opportunity, “but most of all depends upon your ability to execute and
adapt.” |
|
|
Facts on the 1999 Business Plan Contest: |
|
The Harvard Business School Business Plan Contest
is the capstone of the MBA Entrepreneurship curriculum. The contest is
co-sponsored by the Entrepreneurship, High Tech and New Media Club and
the Venture Capital and Principal Investment Clubs contest provides an
integrative learning experience for all participants, drawing on all aspects
of the MBA curriculum. The prime objectives of the contest are to educate
students in the process of creating and evaluating new business ventures;
to prepare students for opportunities in Entrepreneurship during their
careers; and to harness the unique resources that HBS and its communities
offer. |
|
|
The competition awards a total of $50,000 in cash
and in-kind services to the student teams who submit business plans with
the greatest promise. The Dubilier Prize will be awarded to the first place
team. Prize money and services are intended to catalyze further development
and commercialization of students’ ideas. Teams that participate will also
benefit from the Entrepreneurship Club’s Learning Program organized by
Guy Miasnik co-chair of the Contest and Chair of the Learning Program.
Miasnik said, “The sessions will focus on building knowledge and skills
that are needed to execute business plans. Topics will include, Developing
the Business Plan, Financing the Venture, Recruiting the Right People,
Launching the Venture—Legal Considerations, The First Year of Operations.” |
|
|
Building on the success and feed-back from prior
year’s participants, the 1999 Contest will also offer teams more support.
According to John Borcher co-chair of the Contest, all BPC teams that participate
through the judging phase will be eligible for $1,000 stipend for expenses
and will be able to present their plans to venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. |
|
|
Last
modified: 01/10/09 |
|
