NASA / NewSpace Business Plan Competition 2012 (BPC2012)

1st: $100,000; 2nd: $10,000

• Description

  Does outer space fascinate you? Now, how about a business plan competition that is based on that?

  The 2012 NASA/NewSpace Business Plan Competition (“BPC2012”) is inviting you to submit your business ideas and plans that tackles the outer space in this international competition!

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  The NASA/NewSpace Business Plan Competition 2012 is hosted by the Space Frontier Foundation at its annual NewSpace Conference being held this year at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley July 26-28, 2012.

  A maximum of 10 teams will be invited to compete in BPC2012 and will compete for a $100,000 grand prize, and a $10,000 second prize. (There may also be additional prizes, from 3rd-party sponsors, but that is still TBA at publishing time).  Teams will have the opportunity to meet and network with space industry executives, investors, and successful entrepreneurs who will be in attendance at the conference and serving as judges.

  General Requirements:

  • Team Size: The presenting team should not exceed five people.
  • Nature of Ventures: The competition is for new, independent ventures in the seed, start-up, or early growth stages.  The company should have technologies or products that advance the NewSpace movement.  These would include the following general areas:
  • Entrepreneurial space: Those firms directly involved in launch systems hardware technology and supporting infrastructure, including data acquisition, communications, exotic fuels, space suits, flight safety, etc.
  • Space-related: Process engineering, power systems, bioregenerative systems, tourism, media, software, and other supportive solutions.
  • Space-scalable (New!): Technologies primarily developed to solve problems here on Earth for commercial benefit and profit, but are also scalable to solve key long range space problems when the demand ultimately exists, to help make the settlement of the space frontier a reality. This could include biotechnology, nanotechnology, medicine, radiation mitigation, smart materials, alternative energy, or next-gen IT hardware, among many other possibilities.
  • Generally excluded are the following: buy-outs, expansions of well-established companies, real estate syndicates, tax shelters, franchises, licensing agreements for distribution in a different geographical area.  Licensing technologies from universities or research labs is not excluded and is encouraged, assuming they have not been commercialized previously.But regardless of niche, applicants must be able to explain why their product or service helps with the economic development of space.
  • Nationality: Entries must have at least 51% US-citizen ownership to qualify.
  • Attendance: Team members should arrive at The Conference site (either Conference hotel or NASA Ames Research Center, TBA) on Wednesday, July 25, 2012, no later than 11:00 AM, to check in with an event coordinator.  Teams must attend the NewSpace Gala Awards Banquet on Saturday night to receive their awards. Teams should plan their return travel NO EARLIER than Sunday morning.

  Executive Summary Submission Guidelines:

  The final Executive Summary from each team is due to the Space Frontier Foundation via on or before 5:00 pm PDT on May 25, 2012.  The prefered method of submission is via the forms provided by DecisionDesk. Or, if need be, applicants may submit an electronic version via email in PDF format.  No other forms of submission will be accepted.  Teams will be evaluated to compete based on the quality of the Executive Summary.  Teams will be notified of whether they are invited to compete on June 11, 2012, and a press release will go out in parallel.  Competing teams are required to submit their full written business plan no later than July 6th at 5:00 pm PDT, again, in PDF format. Any team that does not submit their full written business plan by this date will be disqualified and their slot will be given to a team next in line on the alternate’s list.

  Guidelines:

  Executive summaries must be limited to 5 pages of text (typed, double-spaced, minimum 12 point font, and 1” margins on all sides.) The Executive Summary should include information on:

  • Company summary
  • Customer/market analysis (market size and potential market share)
  • Product or service description
  • Intellectual property status (e.g., patents, licenses, etc.)
  • Competitive differentiation
  • Management team and/or advisors, including relevant experience
  • Financial highlights
  • Status and offering of the company (how much investment you are seeking)

  In your executive summary, we expect you to convey:

  • The problem or need your company solves
  • The size of the accessible market & evidence that customers will buy your product/service
  • Your differentiation vs. competition and how you will sustain that
  • The experience of your management team and/or advisory boards
  • The current state of development (e.g., beta, customer trials, etc.)
  • Timeframes to achieve significant revenue and/or cash flow positive
  • The amount of funding you are seeking

  Written Business Plan Submission Guidelines:

  A complete written business plan from the invited and confirmed teams will be due to the Space Frontier Foundation on or before 5:00 pm EST on July 6, 2012.  Please submit an electronic version via email in Adobe Acrobat PDF.  No other format will be accepted.

  General Guidelines:

  Written business plans are limited to 20 pages of text (typed, double-spaced, minimum 12 point font, and 1” margins on all sides), and includes the executive summary and summary financial data.  Detailed spreadsheets and appropriate appendices should follow the text portion of the plan but will be limited to 10 pages.  Plans with fewer than 10 pages of appendices may not use the remaining pages to increase the size of their business plan beyond 20 pages. In total, the maximum number of pages is 30.

  Contents of the Written Business Plan:

  • Executive Summary
  • Product or service description (incl. current status of development – beta, prototype, etc.)
  • Customer/Market analysis (market size and potential market share)
  • Sales and Marketing Plan (how you will go-to-market)
  • Intellectual property status (e.g., patents, licenses, etc.)
  • Competitor Analysis (competitors and your competitive differentiation)
  • Management team and/or advisors, including relevant experience
  • Financial highlights (cash flow, income statement, & balance sheet)
  • Offering of the company (how much investment you are seeking, uses of funding, possible exits)

  Business Plan Financial Data:

  Financial data should include a cash flow statement, income statement, and balance sheet.  This data should be included in a summarized fashion in the main section of the business plan.  Include an explanation of the offering to investors indicating how much money is required, how it will be used, and the proposed structure of the deal, (i.e., stock, debentures, etc.) and possible exit strategies.  Detailed financial data and tables should be included in the appendix.

  [Please note: The team is not required to reveal the exact desired terms of the deal (i.e., proposed company valuation and percentage of company being offered).  However, teams should expect to be asked about these terms and should be prepared to answer these questions in some fashion. ]

  Appendices:

  Appendices should be included only when they support the findings, statements, and observations in the plan.  Because of the number of teams in the competition, judges may not be able to read all the material in the appendices.  Therefore, the text portion of the plan (20 pages) must contain all pertinent information in a clear and concise manner.  All appendices must fall within the 10 page limit; any pages over this limit will not be posted or otherwise provided to the judges.

  Changes to Your Business Plan:

  Once your written business plan is submitted it will be provided for review by the judges, and you will receive written feedback on your plan from the judges after the closing of the NewSpace 2012 Conference.  You will not have a chance to modify your written business plan after it is submitted.  However, if you feel the need to modify your plan, when you make your oral presentations, you can incorporate these changes into your presentation.

  Oral Presentation Guidelines

  Oral presentations will take place at NASA Ames Research Center on Friday, July 27^th, 2012, beginning at 9:30AM. Each Team will give a 6-minute presentation, followed by a 6-minute question and answer session with the Judges.

  Equipment: Teams should plan to bring a laptop and a copy of their presentation on a thumb drive or CD. That copy will be transferred to the dedicated Conference laptop for all presentations, operated by Conference staff. On stage, presenters will have a laser pointer and a remote control for their slides.

  Please note that if your presentation contains video, graphics, and/or sound, you should let us know in advance, and we will try to help ensure that your presentation works properly at the Competition.  However, based on past experience, we cannot guarantee that video, graphics, and sound will work 100% of the time.

  Non-confidentiality: All sessions of the competition, including but not limited to oral presentations and question/answer sessions, are open to the public at large.  Any and all of these sessions may be broadcast to interested persons through radio, television or 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 are not able to ask judges, reviewers, staff, or the audience to agree to or sign non-disclosure statements.  However, the Space Frontier Foundation, the organizer of the BPC2012, and its contractor, Exodus Consulting Group, Inc., will make every effort to limit distribution of business plans only to judges of the competition.

  Neither the Foundation nor Exodus Group, however, can guarantee that other individuals will not obtain access to electronic or hard copies of the business plan.  All presentations are open to the general public, and some presentations may be videotaped.  Attendance by media personnel is expected.

  Copyrights & Permissions: If a team uses copyrighted materials and/or images from a third-party in their presentation or business plan, they must obtain permission and authorization from the owners to use this material in advance. Neither the Foundation nor Exodus Group will be held liable to 3^rd-party rights-holders if any Team disregards this rule.

  Judging Criteria

  The judging panel will consider:

  • Executive Summary: Clear, exciting and effective as a stand-alone overview of the plan
  • Products or Services: Description, features and benefits, pricing, current stage of development, proprietary position. Does the product/service meet the criterion of “Space”, “Space-related”, or “Space Scalable”? Does the product/service advance NewSpace?
  • Market and Marketing Strategy: Description of market, competitive analysis, needs identification, unique capabilities, sales/promotion
  • Management: Backgrounds of key individuals, ability to execute strategy, personnel needs, organizational structure
  • Summary Financials: Presented in summary form, easy to read and understand consistent with plan and effective
  • Offering and Viability: Proposal/terms to investors – is the investment opportunity clear and compelling?

  Important Dates:

  May 25, 2012 by 5:00 PM PDT

  Deadline to submit Executive Summary (e-mail)

  June 11, 2011
  BPC2012 announces Teams that are invited to compete (press release)

  July 6, 2012 by 5:00 PM PDT
  Invited Teams will confirm participation by submitting their full written business plan. (e-mail)

  July 25, 2012 by 11:00 AM, PDT
  Teams arrive at the official Conference Hotel, for registration and Boot Camp
  Boot Camp begins 1PM, July 25th, and runs all day July 26th.

  July 27, 2012
  9:30 AM – Noon: NASA/NewSpace Business Plan Competition

  July 28, 2012
  6:00-9:00 PM: Awards Gala, Business Plan Competition winners announced.

  Application Details:

  Applicants will fill out a series of custom web forms provided our contributing Sponsor, DecisionDesk. The first form is similar to the original Intent to Compete form, but then leads to other forms where further information, including an Executive Summary and the full Business Plan itself, may also be submitted. All applicants have an account at DecisionDesk, which they can update themselves as necessary.

  A 3-5 page Executive Summary must be submitted by May 25, 2012.  Teams that are invited to participate will be required to submit their full written business plan by July 6, 2012.

• Organizer

  Space Frontier Foundation

• Categories

  Business
  Entrepreneurship
  Other events
  Idea
  

  Regions

  Global

  Eligibilities

  Undergraduate level
  Graduate level
  Postgraduate level
  Non-students
  MBA Student
  High School Students
  

  Deadline

  2012-05-25