[BDC-2010] Judging business competition Semi-Finals

[Dan Heller]

Hey all --

Presentations for semi-finals are due Tuesday at noon.
I should already have your final logo design and 144-character exec summary.

These are the judges for the business competition semi-finals.

*Ray Robidoux*, Co-Chair of the Deal Management and Screening Process for
Sand Hill Angels
*Fred Schwedner*, VP C3E Corp., VP Engineering/General Manager, Adobe
Systems
*Ron Rasmussen*, UCSC Alum, 1983, CS & Economics, VP Engineering of 4 VC
funded starts ups
*Kai Pommerenke*: Professor of Economics, UCSC

 *Guidelines for Semi-Final Judges:
*

The goal of the Business Design Competition is to help students learn and
adopt research methodologies that support the premise for a new business
idea.

*Teams should be judged on whether their proposed ideas are substantiated by
research, not conjecture, hype, simplistic assumptions or
over-confidence.*Presentations are not supposed to be "marketing
pitches" to investors. Do
not judge presentations on whether the idea is good, but whether teams have
clearly and articulately identified potential opportunities and obstacles.
Financial projections have been strongly discouraged, since any such data
would be arbitrary, with on no viable basis using the research methods
discussed here.*

**Please evaluate presentations on the following criteria:
*

   1. Did teams define their objectives clearly? Do they understand their
   challenges? Are they too confident? Are they trying to "sell you on their
   idea?"
   2. Do they make claims that cannot be substantiated by credible research?
   Have they oversimplified anything? Are they employing proper
   methodologies in their self-assessment?
   3. Are they well acquainted with the industry and market in which they
   plan to operate? Are they clear about what they know and don’t know as well
   as how they intend to answer remaining questions?
   4. Do they understand barriers to entry? Have they given proper weighting
   in their priorities in what problems to solve first?
   5. Does it appear that they've thought thoroughly about the problem from
   all sides?


*Presentation and Judging Format
*

   - Teams will have 5 minutes to present.
   - After presentations, Judges will *not ask questions*. Rather, they will
   provide feedback only. Example:
      - Do not ask: "How do you intend to achieve your stated goal of ....
      ?"
      - State: "You failed to justify your claims that you could achieve the
      goal of..."
   - After presentations, judges will go to a private room to compile scores
   for all the teams based on:
      - Verbal Presentation Style/Format/Impact
      - Written (computer presentation) quality
      - Viability of Business Idea
      - Claims substantiated by research
      - Quality and credibility of assumptions, assessments and projections
   - Judges will score each team, followed up with recommendations for each
   team for how to prepare for the Finals. No team will be "eliminated" from
   the competition.
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