How to Win a B-School Competition

As business-plan contests proliferate, the competition is getting stiffer. Here are some tips to grab, and hold, the judges' attention

By Alison Damast

On his way to a second-place finish at the DJF East Coast Venture Challenge at Columbia Business School earlier this month, Michael Dwork, a recent Columbia B-school grad, stopped by the judges' table to pass around samples of a biodegradable plate made of stream-pressed leaves. "We're changing what disposable means," Dwork pitched as he dangled his product, dubbed GreenWare, in the air. "We're trying to revolutionize this market by creating an earth-friendly product that meets people's needs."

The judges, all venture capitalists, examined the plates as Dwork took to the auditorium stage and powered through his 10-minute presentation, explaining how his line of eco-friendly plates, cups, and bowls will appeal to "trendsters" and "earth-friendly" consumers. His presentation impressed the judges enough for them to select his team as one of five in the afternoon finals round, a heated four-hour session in which judges grilled finalists on the merits and marketability of their plan. At the end of the day he walked away with second prize and $100,000 in seed funding for his company, 90% Worldwide (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/31/07, "Competitions: Winning Is the Easy Part").

In recent years, business-plan competitions have become a rite of passage for any masters in business administration student with an entrepreneurial bent, and organizers say they've seen a big jump in entries. Most major ones—there are about 85 annually—attract anywhere from 100 to 130 teams. There also are hundreds of offshoots at smaller colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad. "It has exploded and it continues to grow," said Ann Whitt, the marketing and communications manager for the Moot Corp Competition held by the University of Texas McCombs School of Business, which began in 1984.

However having a great idea usually doesn't guarantee that you will excel at these business-plan competitions. Organizers and participants say that careful planning and some key strategies can make the difference between picking up a winner's check and being an also-ran. "We're looking for entrepreneurs that have the potential to turn the industry upside down," said venture capitalist Timothy Draper, one of 10 judges who participated in the Columbia competition.

So how can you get a leg up on the competition? Recent conversations with contest entrants, judges, and organizers elicited these tips:

LISTEN TO FEEDBACK. All business-plan teams enter competitions on equal footing, but the field gets winnowed by judges as the contest moves along. How can a team stay in the running? One way to start is by listening carefully to judges' feedback on your project, said Jules Walter, an electrical engineering student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, whose sustainable energy company, Bagazo, recently won the top prize in the sustainable development track of the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. At MIT, teams begin competing in the fall and go through several rounds of the competition before finals in the spring. Along the way, they get numerous chances to interact and converse with judges.

"I think it's very obvious, but not many people realize it. Just listen to the judges," said Walter, whose product will create cooking fuel from agricultural waste. "They tell you exactly what they want. Read their feedback and try to understand their reasoning."