Judges & Judging Criteria
2007 Business Plan
Judges
Andrew
Lee,
Senior Relationship Manager, Silicon Valley Bank
Vish
Mishra, Venture Partner, Clearstone Ventures
Arati
Prabhakar, General Partner, US Ventures
Ven
Reddy, Partner, Annex Ventures (BPC '07 Sponsor)
Prashant
Shah, Principal, Hummer Winblad (BPC '07 Sponsor)
Rob
Trice, Partner, Nokia
Growth Partners
Lisa
Voss, Lifetime Member, Net Impact and Sr. Product Manager,
Intuit Inc.
2007 Business Plan Reviewers
Several SJSU College of Business faculty members will help screen the completed business plans.
Anu Basu,
Organization & Management, and Director, Silicon Valley Center for
Entrepreneurship
Steve Bennet,
Accounting & Finance
Gita
Mathur, Organization & Management
Rolanda Pollard,
Marketing and Organization & Management
David Rummler,
Organization & Management
Joel West,
Organization & Management
Robert Wood,
Organization & Management
Judging Criteria for the Final Round
Business Plans
The judges look for two main criteria in the completed business
plans a) the quality of the business plan itself, and b) the
commercial viability of the proposed new venture. Please note that
the SVBPC judges will use a variety of criteria to evaluate the
entries, including any criteria that the judges develop, or deem
necessary, as a group, apart from the ones listed below.
The following is the judging criteria for the 2007 Business Plan
Competition adapted from the University of Maryland, Business Plan
Competition Guidelines:
Written Communication: Quality and thoroughness of the
business plan document
Presentation: Quality of presentation
Customer Need/Market Opportunity: Does the proposed product
or service address a significant problem or market void? Who is the
customer? (is this explained clearly?) How many of them? How much of
a pain is this for the customer?
Business Idea: The ingenuity (technical and business) of the
business; the strength of the value proposition of the product or
service
Business Model & Plan: Does this business have the potential
to develop into a viable enterprise? Does the company have a well
developed plan to grow revenues and reach breakeven?
Competitive Advantage: Does this business have a strategy to
achieve competitive differentiation?
Development and Operations: Does this business have a
well-developed strategy for producing/completing its product /
service offering, and operating effectively to serve customers?
Marketing/Distribution Plan: Does this business have a
strategy to reach its customers?
Qualification of founders and the Management Team: Are the
founders cognizant of management voids? Are they committed to build
and expand the team and organization?
Risks and Assumptions: Have the key risks been identified and
addressed? Are the milestones identified and realistic?
Funding: Are the financial projections consistent with the
specifics of the operation? What are the uses of funds? Do you
believe that some method of funding (grants, state funds, and/or
equity investments) will be feasible within the next 12-18 months?
The following sample format provides useful guidelines for business
plan writers, and the major sections correspond to the Table of
Contents laid out by Jeffrey Timmons and Stephen Spinelli (New
Venture Creation, 6th edition, McGraw Hill Irwin, 2004, p. 403). The
questions in each major section correspond to those recommended in
the University of Maryland Business Plan Competition:
www.venturecatalyst.umd.edu/BPC/executive_summary.html.
