Official Rules and Submission Requirements

1. The competition is open to all full and part-time degree seeking undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at any of Arkansas's twenty one four year universities or colleges. Enrollment includes classes taken during the summer session(s) of the year preceding the entry deadline, the fall semester preceding the contest deadline, and the spring semester during which the contest takes place. We rely on the student and his or her faculty advisor to verify enrollment criteria.
2. The business plan may be prepared under faculty supervision for credit in a regularly scheduled course or as an independent study. The plan may also be prepared under faculty supervision with no official credit.
3. Each participating university or college may select one or more teams to enter into the competition.
4. Each team may submit only one business plan to the competition.
5. Either an individual or a group may develop the business plan. Group size cannot exceed 5 persons. The management team outlined in the plan will contain the names of individuals (if any) who are not associated with the university. Presenting group members must be students and have a key role in the company. Non-student members of the venture's management team may not participate in any presentations, including the finals.
6. Teams with any one member enrolled in graduate school during the academic year should enter in the graduate competition.
7. The business plan must represent the original work of each contestant. A signed statement shall accompany each submission indicating that the business plan is the original work of the author(s) (see the Official Business Plan Submittal Form).
   
   
   The author(s) 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, sponsors, staff or the audience to agree to or sign non-disclosure statements for any participant.
   
   By participating in the competition, entrants agree that neither the Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation (AEAF), The Arkansas Capital Corporation Group (ACCG), nor members of the judging panel, sponsors nor their designate organizations, assume any liability whatsoever for any disclosures of business plan information which may be made (whether inadvertently or otherwise) by any judge, reviewer, staff member, audience member or other individual connected with, participating in, viewing, hearing, or receiving information from the competition.
8. The business plan must be for a seed or start-up venture and must address the entire business concept (including implementation). Proposals for the buy-out or expansion of an existing company, tax-shelter opportunities, real estate syndications, and other consulting projects or analyses are not eligible.
9. The business should not have generated sales revenues prior to the Competition. Revenue generated during a test-marketing project may be excluded from this provision.
10. The business or university may license technology from another company for manufacturing and/or distribution purposes. Revenue streams from the business or university should not be based solely on deriving revenues from the licensing of its own technologies.
11. The plans may not contain fabricated information about (but not limited to) the following: backgrounds, experience and educational level of members of the management team, stage of product development, product performance claims, or market survey results.
12. Plans are limited to 30 pages of typed text, which includes the Executive Summary and excludes appendices (see item 14 below). Cover sheets are not counted in total number of pages.
13. Summary financial data should include a five year pro-forma cash flow statement, income statement and balance sheet. Include an explanation to investors of how much capital will be required in the first and future rounds of investment, how funds from the first round will be used, and what milestones will be met using first round of funding. Delineate possible exit strategies and identify companies or categories of companies for which this company might be an attractive acquisition candidate in future years. Business plans may include the expected ROI for investors and the proposed structure of the deal, i.e., loan, preferred A stock, convertible note, etc.
14. Appendices should be included only when they support the findings, statements and observations in the plan. Because of the number of teams/plans entering the competition, reviewers and judges may not be able to read all of the material in the appendices. Therefore, the text portion of the plan (30 pages) must contain all pertinent information in a clear and concise manner.
15. For ease in handling, plans are required to be professionally bound (i.e. velo, spiral, tape, etc.). No 3-ring binders will be accepted.
16. The Official Business Plan Submittal Form (Adobe PDF) must accompany all submissions.
17. OFFICIAL MAILING AND/OR DELIVERY ADDRESS:
    Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation
    200 South Commerce Street, Suite 400
    Little Rock, Arkansas 72201-1728
    Attn: Sam Walls III
    
18. Five (5) copies of the business plan along with an original Official Business Plan Submittal Form are to be received by AEAF by 5:00 p.m. the day of the deadline. Plans will undergo an independent review after which the twelve semi-finalist teams will be chosen and notified. Semifinalists and finalists will be required to submit an additional ten (10) copies of the business plan.
19. For semi-finalist and finalist presentations in Little Rock, each team will be given twenty (20) minutes to present their business plan followed by a fifteen (15) minute question-and-answer session between the presenting team and the panel of judges. After competing, each team will receive a ten (10) minute feedback round from the semifinal and final judges. Judges will use that time to give advice, direction, and share experiences that relate to the business plan. Each presenting team will have ten (10) minutes prior to its presentation for set-up/preparation and five (5) minutes after the presentation for equipment dismantling.
20. A team may not observe other presentations or question and answer sessions until after they have presented their own plan.
21. All oral presentations and question and answer sessions are open to the public at large. Further, it is likely that any or all of these public sessions will be broadcasted to interested persons through media, which 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. Neither the Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation, The Arkansas Capital Corporation Group, judges, sponsors, nor their designate organizations, assume any duty to screen or otherwise control the identity of those attending, viewing or hearing all or part of these public sessions, and entrants agree that by entering the competition they have been made aware that such attendees, viewers and recipients may include members of the media and potential competitors in addition to members of the financial community, students and faculty.
22. Student entrants agree to allow the Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation and The Arkansas Capital Corporation Group to videotape the oral presentations and the question-and-answer sessions. By participating in the competition, student entrants agree to grant the Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation and The Arkansas Capital Corporation Group and/or organizations designated by them the unlimited right to videotape, photograph, audiotape, transcribe or otherwise record all public sessions of the competition, including but not limited to oral presentations and question-and-answer sessions. All entrants agree that the Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation and The Arkansas Capital Corporation Group and/or their designate organizations may use any such transcriptions and/or recording(s) (in whole or part) for such publicity and marketing purposes as their organizations may see fit, including those which may result in profit.
23. Oral presentations will be made at the Peabody Hotel, 200 West Markham in Little Rock, AR. The facilities include sound, projector, projection screen, and a computer running Windows XP operating system and Microsoft Office 2003 products. Please contact Tonya Brown or Jonathan Jacobs (501.374.9247) for official presentation guidelines.
24. Team members are not allowed to bring food or beverages into the rooms for presentation. Students may bring product samples for their presentations, but may not bring any promotional items or give-aways to the judges. Paper materials for the judges are allowed, but not required.
25. The First, Second, and Third Place, in addition, to the Innovation Award winning teams will be announced at the Awards Banquet.