Have an idea?

Eligibility requirements

1. The idea plan must represent the original work of the members of the team. The author(s) shall retain all rights to the plans regarding their use prior to and following the competition. The plans may not contain any fabricated information about (but not limited to) the background, experience, or education of the management team, the stage of product development, product performance claims, or market survey results.
2. Only undergraduate or graduate students from Indiana University may participate in the competition. At least one student must be a member of the management team. Non-students may be members of the management team and participate in planning the venture but only IU students may participate in the final presentation. A student may submit only one plan to the competition. Teams are limited to five people total.
3. The competition is for students enrolled in the current academic year. Students who graduated in the preceding academic year are not eligible to participate.
4. The competition is for students who created, managed, and owned ventures. In other words, students are to have played a major role in conceiving the venture, to have key management roles, and to own significant equity. The goal of the competition is to develop a new idea that can lead to the creation of a business. The idea may not have received prior external funding/financing besides investments from the founders, friends, or family. Ideas which have been funded by venture capital or other professional equity investors are not eligible.
5. Ventures with revenues in excess of $30,000 between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025, are excluded. A team member having previously worked on other ventures prior to this competition does not exclude a new venture or team members, regardless of the success of funding or prior ventures.
6. The competition is an educational experience. Teams should respect the rights of their opponents. The Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (JCEI) reserves the right to disqualify teams who act in a less than a professional manner.
7. All teams must register by February 20, 2026.

Important: Registration is only accessible through an IU account (@iu.edu).
Please ensure you're logged into your IU email before filling out the form.

Please note: After winners are determined, prize money will be awarded to the students as an academic scholarship on their IU Bursar account. If the recipients are a team, the scholarship money will be divided evenly among the team members.

The value of this prize will be reported to the Office of Student Financial Assistance. This prize will reduce the financial aid for any students who are 21st Century Covenant recipients, Groups recipients, or Pell Promise recipients by its total value. The prize will also reduce the student’s loans or Federal Work Study if they have reached their cost of attendance.

Business proposal guidelines

1. Proposals are limited to seven pages maximum (12 point font) of text, excluding cover page, title page, and exhibits. Proposals must follow the Clapp 2025 Business Proposal Format.
   1. Exhibits: You may provide exhibits (no more than five pages). You will NOT be graded on the content of the exhibits (or lack thereof); however, they may allow us to better understand your proposal. Financial statements are not required.
2. Official Application Form is due February 20 by 11:59 p.m. via registration link.
   1. After registration has ended, instructions to submit business proposals will be sent to the participants on February 24 from icfellow@iu.edu. All business proposals are due on or before February 27 by 11:59 p.m.
   2. Digital copies of the finalist’s presentation are due on or before April 8 by 11:59 p.m. Finalist announcements will be notified and instructions to submit finalist’s presentation will be sent to participants on March 6 by 11:59 p.m. from icfellow@iu.edu.
3. All eligibility criteria can be reviewed by the JCEI on a case-by-case basis for exceptions.

Business proposal format

Purpose: After reading the business proposal document, someone should be able to understand the business proposition. Three key factors to include are: 1) uniqueness, 2) clarity, and 3) viability.

Instructions: Please answer the questions below. You have flexibility in how you answer them, but please adhere to the page maximum guidelines. Please provide enough information that anyone can understand your business, but please do not add filler material just to fill the page. Once completed, please save it with the file name as VentureName_ClappBusinessProposal.

Exhibits: You may provide exhibits (no more than five pages) within the exhibit document. You will NOT be graded on the content of the exhibits (or lack thereof); however, they may allow the judges and coaches to better understand your proposal. Financial statements are not required.

One final note: If this is your first time doing something like this, don’t stress it! We’ve tried to construct it in such a way that it is as painless as possible. If you get stuck, feel free to take advantage of your assigned competition coach or the business coaches at the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Godfrey Center [CG2050], second floor).