St. Thomas Business Plan Competition

Undergraduate Division

The competition is open to all currently enrolled University of St. Thomas undergraduate students registered in the semester of the competition with a valid St. Thomas student ID.

Graduate and Recent Alumni Division

The competition is open to currently enrolled graduate students and post-doctoral fellows registered in the semester of the competition with a valid St. Thomas student ID. Recent alumni, students who have graduated within the past ten academic years, are also eligible to compete in this division.

In Either Division

• The business should not have received more than $200,000 in equity-related capital (such as seed capital or institutional funding) or generated more than $100,000 in gross revenue prior to the current academic year. Revenue generated during a test-marketing project may be excluded from this provision.
• Teams typically consist of one to four members.
• Each team must designate one student or alumni member as the team leader and point-of-contact for the competition.
• Teams may include non-student or non-alumni members, however, these individuals cannot make up the majority of the team, cannot take part in pitch presentations or win prize money.
• In the case of submissions from an existing organization, at least one student or alumni team member must be a C-level officer or a director of the organization (e.g., Executive Director, CEO, COO, etc.) or the majority owner of the business.

All sessions of the competition, including but not limited to oral presentations, video and slide deck submissions and question/answer sessions, are open to the public at large. Any and all of these sessions may be shared with interested people, through media that may include radio, television, printed materials and the Internet. Any data or information discussed or divulged in public sessions by entrants should be considered information that could possibly enter the public realm, and entrants should not assume any right of confidentiality in any data or information discussed, divulged, or presented in these sessions. Due to the nature of the competition, we will not ask judges, reviewers, sponsors, staff or the audience to agree to or sign non-disclosure statements for any participant. By participating in the competition, entrants agree that no member of the Business Plan Competition team — The University of St. Thomas, members of the judging panel, sponsors and their designate organizations — will assume any liability whatsoever for any disclosures of business plan information that may be made (whether inadvertently or otherwise) by any judge, reviewer, staff member, audience member or other individual connected with, participating in, viewing, hearing, or receiving information from the competition.

Read the Newsroom Story about the 2025 Competition. 

• The Opportunity – How well is it identified? How significant of an opportunity is it? What are the forces creating the opportunity?
• The Business Concept and Product(s) – What’s the core concept for the business? What is your value proposition? What does your product/service mix look like?
• The Market – Define your market. How large is it and what is its potential? Who is your target audience? Who are the purchasing decision makers and what are their processes?
• Economics of the Business – How will you make your money? What are your sources of revenue? What are your most significant costs?
• Marketing – What does pricing look like? How will you promote your product/service? How will you sell your product/service? How will goods be distributed?
• Operations – How will the product/service be produced, delivered and supported? What are the key activities that will need to be carried out to deliver your product and operate successfully? What are the key resources (physical/human/intellectual capital) that will be needed?
• Management Team – Who are the players and what are their roles? How much experience/credibility do they bring? What does compensation look like? Who are your key advisors and do you have a board of directors?
• Venture Financing – How much money is needed and from where? How will financiers receive their return and at what rate?
• Financials – Projected income statements and KPIs

• Pragmatism/realism
• Completeness/comprehensiveness
• Internal consistency
• Writing style
• Professionalism of the document

In addition to the content and written document mechanics scores, judges are asked to score your business plan based on their likelihood of investing, where 5 is an outstanding plan in which a judge would absolutely want to invest.

• Is there a real opportunity? What are the forces creating the opportunity? Did they prove a market need?
• Is there an interesting business concept? Is it an innovative idea that could be implemented?
• Is there a clearly defined market? How large is it and what is its potential? Who is your target audience? Who are the purchasing decision makers and what are their processes?
• Do operations make sense? What are the staffing requirements? How will the product/service be produced, delivered and supported?
• Do they know how to make a sale? How good is the marketing, advertising, branding, promotion, selling and distribution?
• Is it clear how money will be made? What are the margins? What are the revenue drivers? What is the cost structure?
• Are the financial statements believable? Have they made realistic assumptions they can justify?
• Do they know how much money they really need to start? How much money is needed and from where? How will they get it? How will financiers receive their return?

• Ability to capture audience attention
• PowerPoint or other audiovisuals
• Mastery of facts and material related to venture
• Professionalism of the presentation
• Handling of questions

Judges will additionally score the plan on a scale of 1-5, where 5 is an outstanding plan in which a judge would absolutely want to invest. This score is separate from the scores above and is an overall assessment.