Business plan competitions are great ways for founders to create quality business plans and raise capital without having to give up equity. While in the process of figuring out the logistics of band.it, the team saw an opportunity to write a business plan that could give them a shot at not only winning the $25,000 cash prize at the University of Florida’s annual Big Idea Business Plan Competition, but also having the chance to win in other competitions as well. In total, the team won 4 competitions and raised over $50,000 in seed capital for band.it in a year and a half. Here’s the story on how they did that, and more...

UF Big Idea Competition

After the successful launch of the Kickstarter campaign for band.it, the RDM team entered into the business plan competition arena with a team full of freshmen engineers. It began with UF’s Big Idea Competition, a competition with over 175 teams that would be competing. It was apparent from the beginning that it was going to take extreme effort to create a business plan that would effectively showcase the simple band.it product. Over the next four months, a 65-page business plan was written, rewritten, sent off to trusted mentors, rewritten, resent… you get the picture. In total, there were over 15 versions of the band.it business plan written. The team estimates that nearly 500 hours were spent on content creation and editing. However, what won the competition, based on feedback from judges and mentors, was the fact that band.it had traction - not only did it have revenue, but it also had a headquarters, a Kickstarter, and a committed team with a plan forward.

SEC Student Pitch

The following semester, UF hosted another competition on campus: The SEC Student Pitch. Essentially, every school from the SEC selected a team of students to compete at a host school (which rotates every year) for a 2-day competition where scores are earned by teams solely on two 10-minute pitches, no business plans. After making the final round, band.it placed second, only beaten by a new type of insulated glass for windows that had the potential to reduce heating and cooling bills up to 50%. 

USF Fintech Business Plan

Finally, it was time to take band.it to Tampa. The University of South Florida has an incredible ecosystem to support entrepreneurship in its students, including the USF Fintech Business Plan Competition. Scott Riley, CEO of FinTech, was there to judge the one-day competition - one that included both a business plan and a pitch. This competition gave us a chance to get exposed to a brand-new network of students, faculty, and potential investors. After a lot of hard work, we ended up winning 1st place overall and the grand prize of $15,000.

USF Frank and Ellen Daveler Entrepreneurship Competition

The final competition that band.it entered into was also at USF, called The Frank and Ellen Daveler Entrepreneurship Competition. This event celebrated the Florida collegiate entrepreneur, with no requirements of a business plan. At the Daveler competition, band.it became a fellow by finishing in the top-8.

Conclusion

Throughout the competition circuit, we learned many lessons. We learned that a business plan is not a paper that can simply be turned in like other writing assignments; it is something that takes months of planning and an entire team to do correctly. But most importantly, by having so many people read the plan, listen to the pitch, and provide feedback, we were able to create quality content that could be entered into multiple competitions. These competitions gave band.it the momentum it needed to make the progress that we knew it would make. Keep an eye out for more band.it posts and updates covering the RDM journey!