HBS's Alumni Relations and Rock Center for Entrepreneurship jointly announce the
2010 Alumni New Venture Contest (NVC)

This is a great opportunity for a start-up venture to receive publicity in Southern California, and potentially at a national level. When you're seeking funding, more buzz is better.

Overview
For 2010, this contest is the first of what we hope will be an annual event for HBS alumni. The NVC is being conducted on a pilot basis in 8 regions with 11 HBS alumni clubs: Boston, NY, Chicago, Northern CA (SF and Tech Alumni), Southern CA (Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego), London, Brazil, and India. With guidelines established by the Rock Center, each of these regions will conduct first-round eliminations to select one team to send to HBS in April 2010.

HBS Finals
The regional finalists will each receive mentoring from an HBS professor and have the opportunity to participate in a campus educational session. On April 26, 2010, the final 8 teams will present their plans to the HBS judging panel, which will select the 2010 Alumni NVC winner. That evening, HBS will host a dinner for all finalists, announcing the winner and celebrating alumni entrepreneurship. The winning team will be invited to present a summary of its plan at an awards ceremony the following day, in conjunction with the School's student business and social venture contests.

Southern California Elimination
Orange County entrants will compete in a Southern California run-off in March 2010 to determine the one team that will represent Southern California in Boston. That date and venue are still being determined.

Registration
The deadline for registering and submitting your venture's contest materials to the Orange County club is February 15, 2010. There is a $100 entrance fee for each venture ($150 for those who are not yet members of the Orange County club) Fees will be used to fund the winning Southern California team's travel to Boston in April 2010.

The registration form is here: Registration Form

Please submit the complete registration form and all your contest materials electronically to nvc@hbsaoc.org

The entrance fee must preceed all applications. Click here to submit payment Non Members of HBSAOC willb e required to purchase a membership before being allowed to submit an application. 


Rules and Resources
The Rock Center has established overall rules for the contest, as well as guidelines for each venture's contest materials. They are listed at: www.hbs.edu/entrpreneurship/bplan/alumni-nvc.html

Additional resources can be found at: www.hbs.edu/entrepreneurship/resources Contest materials submitted upon registration should be oriented toward the Southern California elimination contest, which will have two parts: (a) a review by the judges of the written submissions and (b) an in-person 20-minute PPT pitch to the judging panel, followed by a Q&A period for more in depth information.

Questions about the contest can be asked via nvc@hbsaoc.org and will be answered by email or phone.