We did not make it to the finals again.  We were told that our track was the most competitive and it was a difficult decision.  We felt some comfort in the fact that two of the judges came up to us right after the announcement to give us encouraging words of support.  They felt that we have a good chance of success in making this business a reality.  They also gave numerous examples of teams that did not place who eventually made their business successful.  Our presentation keeps getting better, so with this feedback we should be closer to our goal of winning a competition this year.  The team is disappointed, but determined to win the next competition. 

We are getting ready for the lightning round today which should be very competitive.The Q&A has been our strong suit and this should help us in this one.   

Do you remember the Tom Petty song with the line, "The waiting is the hardest part"?  We are dying with curiosity on how well we did in the judges eyes.  The judges were very insightful with their questions.We got questioned on our bonus structure, timing, competitive responsive strategies, working capital and much more.  We feel good that we answered all the questions but, it really tasked our knowledge of the plan. 

There was a great speaker at lunch that gave the trials that he went through to start up a software company.His stories were very refreshing and even brought out a few laughs.  He came across as sincere and honest to show students what it's like to be in a start up. 

Hopefully, our next entry tells you that we are in the finals. 

We just finished our opening round presentation.  It went well and we got some great questions and feedback from both the judges and observers in the audience.  The competition experience continues to be amazing as we have had the opportunity to continue meet more teams and discuss their plans.  The ideas that everyone have are exciting and we hope to get to get to watch some presentations in the next two days.  This will help us to get ideas on how to improve our own presentation, as well as learn about other opportunities teams plan to exploit.

This competition has the most components to it of anyone we have been to.  First, it was the trade show then the elevator pitch.  We had our two presentations and hopefully one more presentation for the finals.

As we prepare for our presentation, the real challenge arises as trying to incorporate all the judge’s comments into our 15 min. presentation.  The key is to be concise to provide some of the information while building credibility that you have thought through all the details.  We know that there is some real competition here that can do that.  We are up to the challenge and know that we can win if we communicate what we know.  Practicing helps but, you run the risk of sounding too rehearsed. Gotta get back to presentation practice.