Business Idea Competition

Submissions Dates:
Open Sunday January 20th, 2008
Close Friday March 7th, 2008 (11:59pm EST)

The BR Ventures Business Idea Competition
Submit your idea at: http://forum.johnson.cornell.edu/brv/

***Important: After you finish submitting, make sure you received the message "Record Successfully Added". If you are unsure, please log back in and check that your application is there under "My Application," or email me at gmg25@cornell.edu. ***

The BR Ventures Business Idea Competition provides a way for Cornell-affiliated individuals and current students and faculty at other universities to take their first step toward turning an idea into a viable business. Entry Teams will take their ideas, develop them and submit them to a panel of judges. The Entry Teams that submit the best Business Ideas will present their Business Idea before BR Ventures and judges from the venture capital community. The top three teams will win a cash prize and be considered for investment by BRV and business incubation by BRV's sister organization, BR Incubator.

2008 marks the eighth annual BRV Business Idea Competition. The competition is designed to foster entrepreneurship by combining the talents of entrepreneurs with the capital and resources of BR Ventures and the Big Red Incubator.

Eligibility
Any individual or Entry Team that has at least one member currently enrolled as a student at, or is an alumnus/ae of, a recognized division of Cornell University, and all Cornell University faculty, staff, and other employees (a "Cornell Affiliate") are eligible to enter at no cost. The primary contact person for each Entry Team must be a Cornell Affiliate.

Teams consisting of current students and/or faculty at other universities with no Cornell Affiliation have an entry fee of $50. Payments can be made by mailing a check to BR Ventures, Johnson School Student Activities & Special Events Office, 107 Sage Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-6201. Current BR Ventures Managers, Big Red Incubator Directors, or Advisors to the Fund may not participate in the competition.

Entry Teams that already secured financing or other capital arrangements from any source for their Business Idea must disclose the amounts and sources of such funding in their Business Idea Submission Form. Financing arrangements include, but are not limited to, sales revenue or contracts, research grants, personal or family funds, angel investment, or professional venture capital investment. Entry Teams that have had extensive contact with the Fund or have secured financing or other capital arrangements for their Business Idea in excess of $100,000.00 may be ineligible to compete, and should contact BR Ventures prior to submitting their Business Idea for an eligibility determination by sending an e-mail to brventures@cornell.edu.

Awards
First prize will be awarded $10,000.00 and 20 hours of free legal help through Cornell's Entrepreneurship Legal Services program. Second prize will be awarded $2,500.00. Third Prize will be awarded $1,000.00. Additionally, CCTEC (Cornell's Center for Technology Enterprise and Commercialization) will provide a 'Cornell Technology Transfer Prize' to match the BIC prize award for any winner whose business idea is based on Cornell intellectual property officially disclosed to and are officially on record at CCTEC at the time the idea was submitted to the BIC. Checks will be presented to the winning teams by BR Ventures at the Awards Dinner on April 10th, 2008. All prizewinners will also be reviewed by the BR Ventures for possible incubation and/or investment; subject to mutual interest and mutually agreeable terms.

Judging
A panel of judges from the venture capital and entrepreneurship community, which may include Managers of BR Ventures, successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, professors, and legal professionals, will review the Business Idea Submissions. All decisions of the judging panel are final. The judges are not required to provide feedback or assistance to the entrants either before or following the competition. The judging will be primarily based on the viability of the Business Idea, as presented in the Business Idea Submission Form and the information conveyed during the Finalists' presentations.

Confidentiality
The BR Ventures does not sign confidentiality agreements. This is standard policy for venture capital firms.

BR Ventures will undertake reasonable efforts to ensure that all Entry Teams and Entry Team members retain all rights to ideas and intellectual property, as applicable. BRV does not share submissions with any parties outside of the judging panel either before or following the competition.

Competition Timeline

Date	What's Happening?
JANUARY 20, 2008	APPLICATION SUBMISSION STARTS
MARCH 7, 2008 (11:59PM EST)	CLOSING DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS
APRIL 10, 2008 (DAY)	FINALIST PRESENTATIONS & JUDGING
APRIL 10, 2008 (EVENING)	FINALIST DINNER, WINNERS ANNOUNCED, AWARD PRESENTATION

2007 Winners

1st Place
e2e Materials produces strong, biodegradable composites from annually renewable fibers and soy protein, an agricultural commodity. Based Cornell technology, its products replace toxic, petroleum-based materials filling landfills. The company is commercializing a formaldehyde-free, cost competitive alternative to particleboard. Formaldehyde, a carcinogen, is being legislated out of the $6.3B particleboard market

2nd Place
DNANO Systems LLC has a long term vision of offering protein-based medicines to patients at much lower costs. DNANO will achieve that goal by commercializing a proprietary technology to rapidly produce proteins at super high yields without involving living cells, hence eliminating costs associated with cell-based manufacturing processes.

3rd Place
Veratag, Inc.'s mission is to change the cost-benefit equation for security in radio frequency identification (RFID) systems by building on work done at Cornell University's Craighead Research Group. The innovation is micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) resonators which produce unique analog signals that can be used for identification, authentication and counterfeit prevention.