Mtech Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 02, 2002

Maryland Asks its Students: "Got an Idea for a Company?"

COLLEGE PARK, Md.—Maryland is hosting the first University-sponsored business plan competition for students in the Greater Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area.

The University of Maryland's Business Plan Competition, which offers prize money up to $50,000, is challenging students to come up with the best plan for starting a new company. The competition is open to all of the university's current students and recent alumni. Winners will be chosen by a team of venture capitalists.

"People have great ideas for businesses and products all the time," said Dr. David Barbe, Executive Director of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute. "I've heard people say ëI have this great idea, if only I knew what to do with it.' This competition gets students plugged in to all the right resources for doing just thatófinding out what to do with their ideas. We help them start networking and talking to all the right people."

Students entering the competition will submit detailed executive summaries, emphasizing key issues such as competitive advantage and target market prediction, as well as sensible revenue and profit models. Intellectual property matters and pay-off to investors should be addressed.

Final executive summaries are due April 2, while final awards will be made on May 1.

"The Business Plan Competition isn't just about prize money," said Dr. Robert Baum, Director of Academic Programs for the University's Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, "it's about taking an idea that's exciting to students and teaching them how to bring it to fruition. It's about teaching them the practical issues involved with launching a successful company."

The competition ties together several of the strongest entrepreneurship programs in the country. The Hinman CEOs Program, the nation's first living-learning entrepreneurship initiative, is sponsoring the competition. The CEOs Program, supported by a $2.5 million gift from Maryland alumnus Brian Hinman, brings together undergraduate students from different disciplines to study entrepreneurship as they live and work together in a specially equipped "e-Dorm." Students in the program work toward building their own companies.

The CEOs Program is a joint initiative of the Clark School of Engineering's Engineering Research Center, a leader in empowering technology-driven startup companies through its special incubator program, as well as the Robert H. Smith School of Business's nationally acclaimed Entrepreneurship Department and Dingman Center, which assists emerging growth companies in the Mid-Atlantic region with mentoring, seminars, business plan reviews, and structured networking between entrepreneurs and capital providers.

The Smith School of Business was ranked 23rd among the world's business schools by the Financial Times of London. In separate categories, Smith was also: No. 4 in information technology; No. 6 in faculty research; and No. 7 in entrepreneurship. The Clark School of Engineering's graduate programs were ranked 17th in the country by U.S. News and World Report in its most recent ratings.

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