Why for business PLAN entries must the students (1) have key management roles in the proposed venture and (2) own significant equity in the proposed venture?
The management and equity requirements are derived from UT Austin’s Moot Corp competition rules. The Idea State U policy is to model its rules for business PLANS on those of Moot Corp (with permission). There are two primary reasons for doing so: (1) Moot Corp is the most respected business plan competition and its rules have been time tested since 1984 and adopted by over 40 top business plan competitions around the world, and (2) this helps ensure that Kentucky’s business plan teams could potentially go on to compete in the Moot Corp or other top competitions by being in compliance with their rules. Regarding management and equity requirements, it’s true that anyone can title themselves anything for purposes of the competition, and certainly most ventures do not yet have any equity prior to the state competition, but the management and equity allocation rules do require the students to (A) plan how the venture would be managed once established, (B) consider equity allocation prior to
