2024 North Country Regional Business Plan Competition Hosted by Clarkson University

Have you ever won a giant check before?

Pitch at the North Country Regional Business Plan Competition for the chance to win up to $5,000 for your business. For each pitching track, a first place prize of $2,000, second place prize of $1,000, and third place prize of $500 will be awarded. An additional $3,000 will be granted to a grand prize winner. This regional level competition is also the qualifier to compete at the state level competition, where additional funding may be granted. For more information about the state-level competition, please visit The NYBPC Website.

What is the North Country Regional Business Plan Competition?

The North Country Regional Business Plan Competition (NCRBPC) brings students from schools across the region to compete for monetary awards to help develop their ideas and concepts. Students will pitch their ideas and ventures to a group of esteemed judges who will evaluate companies according to a select criteria and will focus their deliberations around the sustainable viability of each venture.

This year, the regional competition will be held on March 28, 2024 at Clarkson University. Applications to compete are due by 11:59 PM on March 1, 2024. Pitches on March 28 will be no longer than 8 minutes, followed by 5 minutes for questions and answers from the judging panel.

The NCRBPC is a regional qualifier for the New York State competition and the final competition event will be held on Thursday, April 25, 2024 in the Capital Region. The top two teams in each track from the 10 regional competitions across the state are eligible to advance to the statewide competition as determined by the panel of judges.

Important Dates

Helpful Resources

Eligibility

In order to be eligible to apply for and participate in the competition, all teams must meet the following criteria:

• “Students” are any graduate, undergraduate, and/or community college students enrolled part- or full-time in accredited New York colleges and universities during the current academic year. Students who graduate during the fall semester are still eligible to compete in the competition during the spring semester.
• Student(s) must be the presenter(s) in all stages of the competition.
• Teams may compete in only one region per year.
• Students may not participate on more than one team per year.
• Grand prize winners from previous years’ competitions are no longer eligible to participate in the competition. They are encouraged to participate as speakers, mentors, volunteers, and judges. Individual members of the winning team may return with new teams in subsequent years.

The following rules apply to teams with incorporated ventures:

• Cumulative public and private capital raised may not exceed $100,000. This does not include research funding that may have supported the development of the technology in an academic laboratory.
• The business venture must be over 50 percent owned.

The New York Business Plan Competition reserves the right to withhold prize money from winning teams who do not comply with the eligibility requirements.

Questions/Contact

For general questions, feel free to fill out our Q&A Form. We regularly check this form and post answers for everyone to see on our Q&A Running Document.

For more specific questions, feel free to contact Clarkson Ignite’s Program Coordinator, Demetrius Boone, via email at dboone@clarkson.edu or via phone at 315-268-3978.

Thank You to Our Judges and Sponsors

The regional competition is made possible due to the dedicated sponsorship of businesses across the North Country and the assistance of subject matter experts and professionals who lend their time as judges. Thank you to the following list of sponsors and judges for your support of the competition: