The top business plans of aspiring student entrepreneurs at the University of Colorado at Boulder will be judged by a panel of local executives April 30 in the spring Business Plan Competition.
The spring semester event is the climax of a class taught by Juan Rodriguez, professor of electrical and computer engineering and chairman of Ecrix Corp., and instructor Mike Befeler, a principal and founder of Storage Systems Marketing Inc. Rodriguez is a co-founder of both Storage Technology Corp. and Exabyte Corp.
The competition will begin at 6:30 p.m. in room ECCR-265 of the Engineering Center. The event is free and open to the public.
The class consists of 40 business and engineering students, both graduates and undergraduates, who divided into eight teams of three to six students. Each team worked all semester to prepare a complete business plan designed around a new product, software or service.
Nine chief financial officers or controllers from local businesses served as financial advisers to the student groups during the semester.
The four top teams from the class will compete on April 30. The winning team will receive $2,500 in donated prize money, second place finishers will receive $1,000 and third place $500.
The Entrepreneurship Business Plan class is offered by the Center for Entrepreneurship, a joint program of the College of Business and Administration and the College of Engineering and Applied Science.
Succeess magazine has named CU-Boulder one of the nation's 25 best schools for entrepreneurs since the publication began doing rankings in 1994. The magazine said schools making the Success list "offer comprehensive course selections, direct experience with creating and growing companies, sessions with real entrepreneurs to teach real-world skills, training in technical disciplines and faculties dedicated to entrepreneurship."
For directions call 492-6431.