Rice Business Plan Competition Qualifier

Compete to Determine Who Will Represent Rice at the Rice Business Plan Competition!

Rice University hosts the world’s largest and richest student startup competition, with 42 teams competing for over $1.5 million in in prizes. Will your startup be the one to represent Rice University?

At the Rice Business Plan Competition, collegiate entrepreneurs get real-world experience in how to pitch their startups to investors, integrate with the entrepreneurial ecosystem, enhance their startup strategy, connect with mentors, and learn what it takes to launch a successful business.

Rice University is guaranteed one team in this competition. We determine that startup through an internal competition, The Qualifier. This pre-RBPC event has the top Rice startups present their businesses to a panel of judges to determine who advances to the RBPC to represent Rice University!

Important deadlines

  • Applications open November 12 on the RBPC website.
  • All applications are due February 10, 2019 by 5:00 PM CST.
  • The Qualifier for the RBPC is Thursday, February 21, 2019, from 5:30 – 8:30 PM in the Jones School.
  • The Rice Business Plan Competition takes place April 4-6, 2019 at Rice University.

To be eligible, your startup must have

  • At least two current student founders
  • At least one graduate-level student founder (MBA, MA, PhD, JD, etc.)
  • At least one student founder from Rice
  • At the Qualifier and at the RBPC, two team members, both current students, must present the startup.

Teams compete in a wide range of sectors: Energy/Clean Tech, Life Science/Biotech, Internet Technology/IoT/Digital, and Other Innovations.

Complete details, with rules, eligibility, guidelines, prizes, competition format and schedule are on the Rice Qualifer website.

You can also join or follow the RBPC on Facebook for info, updates, news and video: fb.me/2019rbpc and @2019rbpc

Applications now open! All Rice startups will apply on the main application site and click Yes to question #16 about Rice affiliation.

Contact Catherine Santamaria, RBPC Director, at rbpc@rice.edu for more info and to get on the list for important announcements.