Fowler Business Concept Challenge 2023
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This annual event is organized by the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship and is open to all current University of St. Thomas undergraduate and graduate students. Students must be registered in the semester of competition with a valid St.Thomas student ID.

Students can compete in two different tracks:

Business Concept Track for students focused on more traditional commercial ventures. These can be business-to-consumer, business-to-business, technology-based ventures, and are typically for-profit models.

  • Special Prize in the Business Track: Most Innovative Business Concept Award ($2,500 Scholarship)- This award celebrates the innovation process. Innovation is the process of introducing new, creative, and unique ideas, products, services, processes, or business models that create value, address unmet needs, or solves existing problems in novel ways. It's about thinking outside of the box and bringing positive change by challenging the status quo. Business concept track applicants who meet these criteria will have the option to self-select for the award when completing their submission. Students must submit an additional impact statement of up to 1-page describing how their venture addresses the innovation criteria. 

Social Venture Track for students whose ventures are primarily focused on solving significant social problems – such as poverty alleviation, social injustice, and environmental sustainability – using entrepreneurial methods in order to craft innovative solutions that are effective and scalable. These can be non-profit, for-profit, or a mixture of both (hybrid models).

  • Special Prize in the Social Venture Track: The Kate Herzog Memorial Award ($2,500 Scholarship) - This award honors Kate Herzog '09 MBA. An entrepreneur, mentor, and teacher, Kate started her venture, House of Talents, to help artisans build the lives they envision for themselves. This award will support aspiring social entrepreneurs with a passion for poverty alleviation, serving under-resourced communities, and closing opportunity gaps. Social Venture track applicants who meet these criteria will have the option to self-select for the award when competing in the Fowler BCC for the chance to win this special scholarship prize.

Scholarships are awarded to the top four finishers and the best presenter in each track. Participants who compete in the semifinals, but do not move on to one of the top four spots receive scholarships of $1,000 per team.

Requirements 

Submissions must be new concepts, not already existing companies. No concepts that have won or placed in the finals of a previous Fowler competition may be submitted again. Students are allowed to re-submit a concept that was previously accepted to the semifinalist competition, so long as the student did not advance to the finals round with that concept. Students may submit as many concepts as they like, but only one entry will beeligible to compete in the semifinals competition. 

DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR NAME OR NAMES OF YOUR TEAM MEMBERS ON THE SUBMISSION DOCUMENT. 

Submission Requirements
Provide a brief description of your business concept following the prompts outlined below. Your submission, excluding an optional cover page, can be a maximum of five pages, double-spaced, 11-point type.

Business Concept Track:

  • A concise description of the proposed business and why it is unique/compelling. 
  • Target Market – Who is your customer? What customer problem will you solve? How does your customer solve that problem today? What other solutions will compete for that customer? 
  • Proposed Solution – What is your product or service? How will it solve the problem? How will your solution create exceptional value for the customer? How is it different from and superior to other solutions in the market?  
  • Market Opportunity – Provide a preliminary estimate of the size of the potential market (number of customers that can be reasonably addressed). 
  • Business model – How will you deliver this solution to your customer affordably and effectively, and how will the venture make money (revenue model)? 
  • How does your concept contribute to the common good? — how does it support human flourishing among its key stakeholders? Are there potential harms to stakeholders or society, and how will you mitigate those? 
  • Why Should Someone Invest in Your Venture? Explain why you will be successful. 

Social Venture Track:

  • Social impact focus area – What is the social problem you want to help solve (e.g. reduce food insecurity in the Twin Cities; reduce chemical run-off into the Mississippi; reduce the opportunity gap in low-income schools, etc.)?
  • Proposed solution – What product or service will you offer to address the problem? How will your solution help alleviate the problem?
  • Population served
    • Who is impacted by the problem? How do they experience the problem today? How do they try to solve it today? How will they be impacted by your solution?
    • Are there other “customers” or stakeholders you must serve in order to deliver or fund your solution or impact? (For instance, Love Your Melon sells hats to consumers in order to raise money to donate hats and funds for children experiencing cancer and to the nonprofits that serve them). Who are these customers? Why will they want your offering?
  • Compelling advantage – How is your solution different from and superior to other solutions in the market? How does your solution create exceptional value for all it serves?
  • Business model – How will you deliver this solution to your customer affordably and effectively, and how will the venture make money (revenue model)? How is your revenue model connected to your goal to deliver social impact? 
  • Potential social impact – How many people can you impact, or how many customers can you reasonably address? How will you measure the success of your venture? What measures or metrics will you use (e.g. number of clients fed; decrease in chemical run-off, etc.

Most Innovative Business Award

Students must first submit their concept to the Business Track and self-select into this award during that process. Students must then submit an additional impact statement of up to 1-page describing how their venture addresses the following criteria:

  • Originality and Uniqueness: The concept should demonstrate a fresh and original approach to solving a problem or meeting a need in a novel way that hasn't been widely explored before. The concept should showcase creative thinking and out-of-the-box ideas. It should go beyond conventional solutions and demonstrate innovative approaches that challenge existing norms.
  • Market Disruption: The concept should demonstrate the potential to disrupt existing markets, technologies, or business models. It should have the potential to completely replace existing solutions in the market, create a brand-new market, or significantly shift consumer behavior.
  • Alignment with Current and Future Trends: The concept's ability to adapt to changing circumstances, trends, and technologies into the future.

Kate Herzog Memorial Award

Students must first submit their concept to the Social Venture Track and self-select into this award during that process. Students must then submit an additional impact statement of up to 1-page describing how their venture addresses:

  • Social challenges around poverty alleviation
  • Serving of under resourced communities
  • Closing opportunity gaps

Eligibility

The competition is open exclusively to all University of St. Thomas undergraduates, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows registered in the semester of the competition. All members of a team must be current students with a valid St. Thomas student ID. Teams typically consist of one to three members.