The organizers of the Miller New Venture Challenge (NVC) recognize that no set of rules can apply to every circumstance and therefore reserve the right to determine eligibility or to disqualify any team that it determines to be in violation of the purpose of the competition. Similarly, students who feel they fit the spirit of the competition, but may be in minor violation of the eligibility rules, may submit a petition to request participation.

The participation requirements are listed below:

Ownership

A minimum of 20% of the competing company must be owned by current BYU (Provo) students.*

Control

Student owners (BYU and non-BYU) must control a minimum of 51% of the company’s voting rights at the time of the competition. (NVC organizers recommend maintaining this control for at least two years beyond the date of the competition.)

Management

As a student competition, the NVC requires that students fill the primary management roles of competing companies, to include the Presidency or CEO position of the venture.

Revenue

No revenues should be received by competing companies prior to September 1, 2013. If teams feel their revenues were insignificant, please submit a formal petition to the NVC organizers. Note that this requirement is intended to help student teams meet the requirements of other business plan competitions, nationwide.

Investment

Companies who have received up to $100,000 of investment from friends, family, and business accelerators are eligible to compete. However, companies having received professional investment are not eligible to compete.

Note: We do not encourage investment prior to the competition cycle because investment encourages scaling. Premature scaling can very easily lead to startup failure by violating the business modeling and validating process.

Prior Competition

Teams may resubmit business plans that have been submitted in prior NVC competitions, as long as the teams comply with the other eligibility requirements. The 8 winners from the 2012-2013 competition cycle, however, are not eligible to compete with the same business.

Nature of Venture

Ventures cannot be a buyout, an expansion of an existing company, a real estate syndication, a tax shelter, a franchise, a licensing agreement for distribution in a different geographical area, or a spin-out from an existing corporation. Licensing technologies from universities or research labs is encouraged, assuming they have not been commercialized previously.

*Qualifying BYU students must be enrolled in at least 6 credit hours in at least one semester of the competition year. Online courses will only count toward the minimum credit requirement, if they fulfill graduation and degree-specific requirements.