Rules & Guidelines

1. Entry is open to student teams comprised of one to six students. Individuals may be a member of only one team. Teams must be comprised of at least one SHU student, but all team members must be enrolled in a college or university. Only SHU team members can present in the semifinalist and finals rounds.

2. Ideas submitted must represent the original work of the team members.

3. If the new venture has already received funding from outside sources, the amounts, investors, and dates of funding must be disclosed and should amount to less than $150,000 by the start of the semester that the competition takes place in. Businesses that have received investment from venture capital firms do not qualify.

4. Submitted materials are protected in the spirit of non-disclosure, where all entry materials will be treated as company confidential. The only persons with access to the entry materials will be judges and select members of the Competition organizers. Materials will not be distributed to any other party, unless requested by entrant team. No other special provisions are made to protect intellectual property.

5. All deadlines for submissions are final. Late submissions will not be accepted.

6. Judging of entries will be performed by an outside panel of independent judges, consisting of professionals involved in entrepreneurship. Judges may be entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship faculty members, venture capitalists, angel investors, or professional service providers working with the entrepreneurship community. Any entry is subject to minimum criteria in terms of market potential, viability, and other factors, as determined by the judging panel’s experience. If no entries meet the minimum criteria, one or both prizes might not be awarded. All decisions of the judges are final.

7. Prize money is granted to the winning teams. Teams and their resultant business entities are responsible for any tax consequences of the prize.

8. Seton Hall University reserves the right to disqualify, in its sole and absolute discretion, any team from the competition at any time, either before or after the judging, for any reason. Reasons for disqualification may include, but are not limited to: plagiarism and any other form of academic dishonesty, misappropriation or infringement of the intellectual property of others, and any failure to comply with these rules and regulations. Disqualified teams shall forfeit prizes awarded to them.