Global Entrepreneurship Week: Syracuse graduate students are invited to apply to the world’s largest and richest business plan competition

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The Rice Business Plan Competition is the world’s richest and largest graduate-level student startup competition. It is hosted and organized by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship.  Last year, 42 teams from around the world competed for more than $1.5 million in cash and prizes.  The competition is open to Syracuse University graduate students who are working on venture ideas.  Learn more here.

The competition offers real-world opportunities to experience:

  • Mentoring from investors and experienced entrepreneurs
  • Networking with potential venture capitalists and other investors over three days
  • High-caliber, experienced judges, the majority of whom are senior level investors, entrepreneurs and industry leaders
  • Personalized, individual feedback during three separate sessions as well as on your written business plan before the competition
  • Competition against top-ranked and emerging global student-led startups

Any graduate-student startup from any university in any degree program in any country around the world can apply to the RBPC. There are only a few eligibility requirements.  To apply:

  • There must be at least two current students in your startup
  • There must be at least one graduate-level student founder or management team member in your startup
  • Your startup cannot have passed certain milestones
  • You will fall into one of these sectors:
  • Energy, Clean Technology and Sustainability 
  • Life Science and Healthcare Solutions
  • Hard Tech
  • Digital Entreprise
  • Consumer Products and Services

Interested in applying?  Get all the details and competition guidelines here.  Create a team account in order to apply by Sunday, January 17, 2021 at 11:59 PM CST.  The competition will be April 5 – 9, 2021.

You can email the competition director at rbpc@rice.edu with specific questions not answered on the competition website.