FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Mary Lynn Fernau
Rice Alliance for
Technology & Entrepreneurship
713-348-6574
mlfernau@rice.edu
The Rice Alliance Calls for Entries for 2009 Rice Business Plan Competition
The World’s Richest and Largest Business Plan Competition Entrants to receive Palo Alto Software.
HOUSTON – (January 22, 2009) -- The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship of Rice University has announced the opening of the registration period for its 2009 Rice Business Plan Competition. The Rice Alliance also announced that competition registrants that submit an intent to compete by the Friday, February 13, 2009 deadline will receive a copy of Palo Alto Business Software’s Business Plan Pro Academic Edition.
The world’s largest and richest intercollegiate MBA/graduate business plan competition, with more prize money, competing teams, and judges than any other competition, will take place April 16-18, 2009. This year, $700,000 in total cash and prizes will be announced at the Awards Banquet on Saturday night, April 18, 2008, at the Westin Galleria Houston.
The Palo Alto software, valued at $199, is a complete business plan development package. This version of the software features:
• Quarterly and 24-month financial data
• Visual Cash Planning with Cash Pilot™
• Create Business Plan Templates
• Advanced Financial Spreadsheets
• Plan vs. Actual Charts
“We are pleased to once again have the leading business plan software package available to give to all teams that submit an intent to compete. The software can add an additional element that helps ensure teams are preparing at the highest level for the competition,” said Brad Burke, Managing Director, Rice Alliance.
The 2009 competition will welcome 36 of the world’s top MBA/graduate schools to compete at Rice University in Houston, Texas, in front of a judging panel of more than 160 venture capitalists, investors, and business executives. The competition will conclude with an Awards Banquet that 600 business leaders and executives will attend.
The grand prize includes up to $225,000 equity investment, $40,000 cash and $80,000 in-kind prizes. Every team that participates at the competition is guaranteed to take home prize money. In addition, major prizes will be awarded in the following categories: Energy; Life Science; IT, Sustainability, Nanotechnology, and Earth/Space applications.
The 2008 competition included teams from top MBA schools such as Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Brigham Young, UNC, UCLA, University of Texas, and Duke as well as international teams from the India, Hong Kong, Germany, Denmark and China. Through mentoring and networking, 66 plus past competitors at the Rice Business Plan Competition have gone on to successfully launch their companies, raise $90 million in funding, and build their businesses.
About the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship
The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship (Rice Alliance) is Rice University's flagship initiative devoted to the support of entrepreneurship. The mission of the Rice Alliance is to provide entrepreneurship education and to support the commercialization of technology innovations and the creation of new companies in the Texas and Houston region.
Since inception in 1999, the Rice Alliance has assisted in the launch of over 230 new technology companies, which have raised more than one-half-billion dollars in early stage funding. Of these, approximately 30 companies have been launched based on technology developed by Rice faculty and researchers and licensed from the Rice Office of Technology Transfer.
Unique among many entrepreneurship centers, the Rice Alliance was formed as a strategic alliance of three schools at Rice University: the George R. Brown School of Engineering, the Wiess School of Natural Sciences, and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management.
In 2008 and 2007, Rice University was recognized as one of the top 25 best graduate entrepreneurship programs in the U.S. by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. That same year, the Rice Alliance was recognized as the #1 university entrepreneurship center in the U.S. for Enterprise Creation by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers.
For additional information: www.alliance.rice.edu
About PaloAlto Software
Palo Alto Software—The Planning People—develops, publishes, and markets software products for use with personal computers. Its products offer task-oriented, "know how" solutions for small-business and home-office entrepreneurs, professionals, and middle managers. The company is a privately-owned corporation in Eugene, Oregon.
More information about PaloAlto Software can be found at www.paloalto.com.
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