£5K Challenge Submission0

2011 £5K Challenge Phase a (Business Plan) Submission

Deadline: Friday 25th February, 2011 - 13:00 pm

Finalist announcement: 23rd of March, 2011

In order to enter your business idea into phase A of the £5k Challenge, please make sure that all the following steps are completed:

1. Write an extended executive summary of no more than 3500 words (Technology & Clean Tech and Social Enterprise stream) or no more than 2000 words + up to 12 Slides (Software & Web stream). Please indicate which stream you would like to compete in.

See the Competitions Handbook for scoring criteria and eligibility. See our resources section for information to help you put together the best entry possible.

These are the basics of what you should aim to include in your extended executive summary:

•    The Concept and Opportunity

•    The Product or Service Description (including Intellectual Property if applicable)

•    The Market and customers

•    The Management team

•    The Finance requirements & Investment opportunity for potential partners

•    The Business Operations

2. Write a 100-word public summary for your idea. Social Enterprise Entrants in particular need to outline the social and/or environmental impact of their idea in the public summary.

3. Register your team electronically and submit your public summary at:

www . cue . org . uk/ (Link will be updated shortly)

4. Print the Competitions Disclaimer (can be found on page 18 in the competitions handbook, downloadable here), and the NDA for entrants (can be found on page 19 in the competitions handbook, downloadable here). Mail signed copies of these documents, together with a signed cheque for £25*, to the following address:

Coventry University Entrepreneurs,

The Entrepreneurship Centre,

3 Charles Babbage Road,

Coventry, CB3 0GT

5. Send electronic copies of your Extended Executive Summary (in PDF format no larger than 4MB, the file name should be “TeamName_5Ka”) and Slides for software entries (Up to 12 slides in PDF-format, no larger than 3MB, the filename should be “TeamName_Slides_5Ka”) to:

shen.wei@cue.org.uk

Include a cover page that clearly states:

•    the team name and competition stream (Tech & CleanTech; Software & IT; Social Enterprise)

•    team members and their affiliations

•    100-Word Public Summary, and

•    word count of the remaining document (the cover page does not form part of the word limit)

*Entry fee is waived for £1k challenge winners and commended teams. To claim free entry please include a note stating “TeamName – claiming free entry into 5K challenge”

Phase b (Business Creation) submission deadline: 17th of April, 2011

Phase 3b
-Only the finalists announced at the Finalists’ Dinner (23rd of March, 2011) will be invited to submit entries and posters into Phase 3b.
-For entrants into the Technology and Social Enterprise stream, teams must submit full business plans, which should not exceed 40 pages, including all text, graphics and appendices. Any pages above the limit will be disregarded by the judges.
-For entrants into the Software Enterprise stream, teams must submit an extended executive summary not exceeding 3500 words including all text, graphics and appendices. Teams must also submit a revised version of their presentation slides and will be required to demonstrate their product (demo) in a closed presentation to the judges.
-Entries should be submitted electronically to shen.wei@cue.org.uk with the subject line containing: 2011 5K-Team name and Entry name + competition stream.

Submission of full business plans may be made up to 23:59pm on 17 April 2011.
-Posters will be required from each finalist team for public exhibition at The Grand Finale in 2011 and future CUE events. Posters should be supplied in electronic form and be suitable for printing on size A2 paper.
-Further details on Phase 3b will be given to the finalists following the Finalists’ Ceremony on the 23rd of March, 2011.

- Winners will be announced on the 8th of June, Grand Finale.