Johnson School's BR Ventures Sixth Annual Business Idea Competition Received more than Fifty Entries
Winner To Earn $10,000 and Free Legal Advice
(Ithaca, NY, February 20, 2006)?..The Johnson School's BR Ventures (BRV), a student run venture capital organization that invests in early stage businesses, is pleased to announce that it has received more than fifty entries for the 6th Annual Business Idea Competition (BIC). The competition is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to earn cash winnings and growth assistance from Cornell University's "Entrepreneurship Triad," which is composed of BRV, BR Incubator (BRI) and BR Legal (BRL).
The BIC winner will receive $10,000 in cash from BRV and 20 hours of free legal services from BRL. Second prize wins $2,500, third prize wins $1,000, and all prizewinners will be reviewed by BRV for possible incubation and/or investment. Checks will be presented to the winning teams by BR Ventures as part of the "Entrepreneurship @ Cornell Celebration" weekend being held March 30-31, 2006 at Cornell University.
The BIC is unique among business plan competitions in that participants are only required to submit a two-page description of their idea, not a full business plan. Last year entries were received from many other universities including the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, the University of Maryland, MIT, Indiana University, and Virginia Tech University. Judging is based on the viability of the business idea and the attractiveness of such ideas to venture capital investors.
The sixth annual BIC is designed to foster entrepreneurship by combining the talents of entrepreneurs with the capital and resources of BRV and BRI. The BIC 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. The 2005 BIC winners were Sustainable Pharmaceutics, Illuminaria, OTS Diagnostics, and Sensus Analytics.
BRV was established, in part, to help nascent business ventures. Part of its mission is to seek out business ideas and help them realize their potential by providing seed capital and, after investment, strategic services. BRV believes that there are such business ideas waiting to be drawn out of the extended Cornell community that have not been developed far enough to be the basis for a full-fledged business plan. Therefore the BIC scope goes beyond that of a traditional business plan competition by explicitly targeting business ideas that could benefit most from its value added services as an early stage fund.
BRV is composed of second year MBA students who are well-versed in or studying venture capital and entrepreneurship. BRV fosters entrepreneurship throughout the Cornell community by identifying, supporting, and adding value to entrepreneurs and funding high-growth companies.
Cornell University is the only school to offer all three services of the "Entrepreneurship Triad"-BRV, BRL, and BRI. With the right idea, a new company could use BRI to develop their business plan; BRL could assist the new company in formation and development of start-up legal matters, and BRV could provide seed funding for the new company. For more information on BRV visit: www.johnson.cornell.edu/brv; BRL: www.johnson.cornell.edu/brl; and BRI: www.johnson.cornell.edu/bri.
The Johnson School at Cornell University, founded in 1946, is Cornell's graduate school of management. The Johnson School combines leading edge intellectual capital with "real time, real world" business practice and is among the top business schools in the world. Opportunities for experiential learning, such as immersion programs and student-run venture capital and mutual funds, distinguish the Johnson School's curricula. Programs include MBA and doctoral degrees, a twelve-month MBA option for students with advanced degrees in science or engineering and two executive MBA programs. The Johnson School is located at the center of Cornell University-the largest of the Ivy League schools and one of the world's top research institutions. For more about the Johnson School please visit: www.johnson.cornell.edu.
Randall Sawyer
Public Affairs Officer
The Johnson School at Cornell University
607 255-8006
rs348@cornell.edu
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