Center for Entrepreneurship
Over the past decade, the Dr. Sushil Bhatia Competition for Innovative Ideas has awarded more than $300,000 in cash prizes and in-kind services to more than 25 competition winners. The funding and services has helped budding entrepreneurs explore the possibility that their innovative ideas are business opportunities. Winners are fast-tracked into the semi-final round of MassChallenge, one of the largest entrepreneurship competitions in the country. Are you ready to see if your idea has what it takes to become a startup?
Each applicant is required to complete an entry form and complete an idea pitch video that is no longer than five-minutes (longer videos will not be reviewed). The entry form must include evidence that you attended a CII Workshop to help you prepare for the competition. The idea pitch video needs to be done in a format that includes a link, such as YouTube, where the link is included in the entry form. The entry form, proof of workshop attendance, and idea pitch video are to be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, February 27, 2017.
Your idea pitch video will be reviewed and scored (based on pre-determined criteria) by the competition’s Evaluation Committee, consisting of faculty, alumni, and friends of Suffolk University. The top three ideas will be announced as finalists and advance to the Semifinals. Finalists will be announced by 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday, March 20, 2017.
Finalists in each award category will be invited to complete a summary application and participate in an in-person presentation before the competition’s Evaluation Committee. The Evaluation Committee will score each presentation, based on pre-determined criteria, to determine the competition winner in each category. All finalists are invited to the Annual E-Vent, where the competition winners will be announced. The semifinal presentations will be held in Mid March, 2017.
At the Annual E-Vent to be held in April 2017, the competition winners of each award category will be announced. Each winner will receive a letter that includes the value of cash and in-kind services to be granted, based on completing Step 5 below. The competition reserves the right to determine, at its sole discretion, the allocation of cash and in-kind services to be granted.
Competition winners will be required to complete a detailed application outlining the anticipated use of funds based on milestones. Competition winners will have one-year to complete and submit the detailed application. Undergraduate students will have until one-year AFTER completion of their undergraduate program, but no later than five-years from the announcement date of the competition winner. Alumni have one-year from the announcement date of the competition winner. Cash prizes are awarded as each approved milestone is met, in accordance with the approved application for grant funds and in-kind services.
All Suffolk University alumni and current students are eligible.
Download the entry form by clicking the button at the bottom of this page.
You must complete the entry form, workshop training, and your five-minute idea pitch video by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, February 27, 2017.
The CII Workshops are required as part of the competition and are designed to help you improve your pitch for your idea pitch video before submission. In addition, the workshops help you refine your idea to improve your scores. The CII Workshops will be held during the activities period (12:15pm-1:30pm) on the following days in One Beacon, Room B103. Professor Sushil Bhatia, founder of the Competition for Innovative Ideas, will holding workshops on the following dates (to register, click on the corresponding link below):
Sushil Bhatia, MBA, PhD
Executive in Residence, Management and Entrepreneurship
