Competition Overview

The Johns Hopkins University Business Plan Competition provides an exciting opportunity for students to reap rewards for developing their business ideas. First launched in the 1998-1999 academic year by the W.P. Carey Program in Entrepreneurship and Management (now part of the Center for Leadership Education), the competition was open to undergraduate students on the Homewood campus.

It has grown significantly since its inception and continues to expand as more students take an interest in business. Now in its’ eleventh year, the competition is larger than ever before. The competition is open to full-time and part-time students including post-docs from any of the nine academic division of the University. In 2011 we received entries from Bloomberg School of Public Health, Carey Business School, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, School of Medicine, School of Advanced International Studies and Whiting School of Engineering.

The competition showcases the talent of our students as they present business plans developed over the course of the year. Each team gives a refined seven minute presentation followed by eight minutes of questions from a panel of judges compromised of venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and alumni. All the business plans in each category are then reviewed and scored by a panel of three to five judges.

For the 2011 Competition, we had a total of sixty- nine business plan submissions, including forty-one in the General Business Category, nineteen in the Life Sciences Category, and nine in the Social Enterprise Category. Below list what JHU division the entries came from and the degree level of the JHU student team members.

Bloomberg School of Public Health: 7
Carey Business School: 14
Krieger School of Arts and Sciences: 30
School of Advanced International Studies: 4
School of Medicine: 3
Whiting School of Engineering: 141

Undergraduates: 109
Graduate: 87
Post-Doctorate: 1
Medical Degree: 2