£1k Challenge Submission Process
Dear entrepreneurs,
We would like to remind you to submit your £1k Challenge entries before midnight on Wednesday 12 December for the chance to win one or more prizes of £1000 each. This leaves you a week to write and submit an executive summary.
Also remember that there is a special Cleantech Prize sponsored by Carbon Connections for the best Cleantech idea.
A few of you have asked for templates of executive summaries - we try to avoid providing these since all entries then start to look the same. However I will point you in the direction of last year's guidelines - should you choose to use them they can be found under resources.
Generally, these are the basics of what you should aim to include in your executive summary:
- Abstract
- Product/technology
- Market/customers
- Intellectual property
- Management team
- Operational requirements
- Financial highlights
- Exit strategy
Imagine that you are writing the summary for potential investors. It is vitally important to know your market - you should identify and quantify it as clearly as you can. Don't just estimate the market size, but also what proportion you aim to capture.
You will find it useful to look at material from our Phase 1 training day - the slides can be found here.
Chris Lamaison explains how to carry out market research in 4 hours; Peter Logsdon explains how to write the financial sections of the executive summary and Tim Barnes talks about what makes a great idea.
You are likely to score well is you can fulfil the judging criteria, which can be found in the competitions handbook. <https://www.cue.org.uk/files/handbook2007.pdf>. The competition rules and procedures can also be found in the handbook.
Remember that the word limit for your executive summary is 1500 words. Any content beyond this will be discarded. You will also need to write a public summary of no more than 150 words. Make sure than no confidential information is disclosed in this public summary.
Submit your executive summary in PDF form online at https://www.cue.org.uk/node/1268.
Finally, make sure you print off and sign copies of the NDA and disclaimers the for entrants found at the end of the handbook and UMS them, along with your entry fee (a cheque payable to "Coventry University Entrepreneurs" for £10) to:
Coventry University Entrepreneurs, Institute for Manufacturing, Mill Lane, Coventry CB2 1RX.
If your idea won or was a runner up (you will have been notified) in Phase 0, it gains free entry to Phase 1.
Best of luck and have a wonderful Christmas,
From CUE
