Date/Time:Tuesday, January 19, 6 – 9 pm
Location: HBS Aldrich 211

The evening will be broken down into sessions where you and your team will present to groups of experienced judges typical of those that you might face later in the competition. You should have a powerpoint ready as well as any handouts to give the practice judges. After your initial presentation, you will be given feedback and a chance to ask the practice judges questions. Then, you will have approximately a half hour to go back and modify your presentation and come back to the judges with the modified presentation.

The evening's agenda:

You may participate in this session and not register your business plan for the contest; you do not have to participate in this session to be part of the contest. Please only bring materials that you are comfortable having shared with our judges.

General Public Encouraged to Register. Click Below.

Other important future NVC dates:

2/15/10, 10pm - Full plans due (via email and hard copy postmarked)
2/28/10 - Top 10 teams selected and notified
3/16/10, 6pm-9pm - Top 10 teams present, top 3 teams selected
3/30/10 - Top 3 teams present to decide winner of the Boston competition
4/26/10 - Global NVC Finals at HBS

Prize: There will be one $25,000 first prize awarded at the April Finals. In addition, every finalist team will receive some mentoring from an HBS faculty member prior to the judging, as well as participate in an educational session on campus during the Finals.

Criteria: Teams/plans will be judged on the likelihood of creating a successful, significant new venture. This "Evaluation Sheet", which will be used during both the local and finals rounds, will give teams a better sense of the specific criteria. Note that investment funds and acquisitions will generally not be considered as "new ventures."Eligibility: Teams must meet the following requirements:Each team must have at least one (1) HBS alumnus/a. The HBS alumnus/a needs to be a substantive member of the founding team, with a senior management and operating position and participation in the company's equity pool in a manner consistent with that role and position. At least one (1) of the HBS alumni must be among the group (of a maximum of two (2) team members) who appears in Boston and presents at the NVC Finals in April.

• Participating teams may not have raised/utilized more than $250,000 in total debt and equity capital, and must have less than $250,000 in revenues. It is not necessary that the teams actually be seeking funding. I.e., they may already have raised the small amount (less than $250,000) of capital they need to reach an initial milestone, or they may have a very cash flow positive business model that essentially requires no outside capital.

• the product or service;
• the market need/pain it is designed to address;
• the team, their background, skills and experience, and their current level of effort/commitment to the venture;
  the target customer and market, competitive landscape, how that customer will be reached, and the potential of the opportunity, including the size and growth of that market;
• the technology—if any—on which the underlying product or service is based; and, if it based on a technology, the status of its development and a clear picture of the IP landscape and the protection/defensibility the team believes it will have;
• the competitive advantage and defensibility of the business; and
• the financial potential of the business, including: projected income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements for at least 3 years—preferably on a quarterly basis—in order to present a clear picture of the capital needs of the business, the anticipated timing of these capital requirements, a notion of when the business will achieve cash break-even. In addition, the financial plan in conjunction with the narrative should provide a picture of what will be achieved with each tranche of capital, in terms of risks reduced and business objectives achieved.

If you would like to participate, keep checking back to our site for more details or click here to follow us on twitter.

• Member price : $35
• Non-Member price : $55