Onit’s CEO Eric Elfman to Judge the 2018 Rice University Business Plan Competition for 17th Consecutive Year

Onit’s CEO and co-founder Eric M. Elfman will serve as a judge for the 2018 Rice University Business Plan Competition. Scheduled for April 5-7, the program is known as the world’s richest and largest graduate-level business plan competition.

This will be the 17th year that Elfman has judged the competition, which is hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. The competition has grown from nine teams competing for $10,000 in prize money in 2001 to 42 teams from around the world competing for more than $1.5 million in cash and prizes. More than 130 past competitors have gone on to successfully launch their businesses, raising in excess of $600 million in funding.

The competition is designed to give collegiate entrepreneurs a real-world experience to fine tune their business plans and elevator pitches to generate funding to successfully commercialize their product. Judges will evaluate the teams as real-world entrepreneurs soliciting start-up funds from early stage investors and venture capital firms. The judges are asked to rank the presentations based on which company they would most likely invest. The participants will experience a diverse program over the course of three-days; with significant time designated for feedback and interaction with the judging panel.

During the competition, the entrepreneurial teams “pitch” both their business plans and visions to the judges. Each presentation is graded by the judges as if they were venture capital investors themselves. The winner of the competition is the business that the judges would most likely invest in based on the quality of the idea, the strength of the management team and the clarity and persuasiveness of the written plan and oral presentation.

To learn more about the competition, click here.