Judging Criteria

The New Venture Concept Proposals will be judged utilizing the criteria below.

Business Concept/Strategy		15%
Marketing strategy		20%
Management Team and Qualifications		25%
Budget/uses of capital		20%
Potential for return on investment (financial or social impact)		10%
Written presentation and style		10%

Key questions for business concept/strategy:

Does the venture fulfill a market need or create a new one?
Is the venture’s strategy likely to solve the need/problem it seeks to address?
Is the venture’s scope reasonable (not too small, not too ambitious)?
Will the proposed activities lead to the advancement of the venture’s stated purpose?

Key questions for marketing strategy:

Does the team demonstrate an understanding of the market size and structure, potential competitors and potential alliance partners?
Does the venture propose a reasonable strategy to provide products/services to the market?

Key questions for the management team and qualifications:

Has the new venture assembled a team of participants—including advisors—that collectively are capable of carrying out the proposed activities?
Have ASU students made an effort to select team members from different disciplines/colleges/majors?
Have ASU students made an effort to approach industry/market experts outside of the University to serve as advisors to the venture?
Have team members made any effort to improve their entrepreneurial skills in advance of concept proposal submission (e.g. attending information sessions/training sponsored by Edson, by ASU Technopolis or others)?

Key questions for budget:

Does the venture’s budget reflect an understanding of the true costs of carrying out the proposed activities?
Does the budget include cost-share (e.g. financial, human and other resources not paid for by Edson funds)?
Does the budget reflect activities that can be carried out in one year? If not, is the longer timeframe justified?

Key questions for return on investment potential:

If the venture is successful, what type of financial or social impact will it have?
Does the venture have plans for obtaining non-Edson funding (e.g. grants from foundations, government [SBIR/STTR program], funding from potential business partners, revenue from customers)?

Key questions for written presentation and style: