Eligibility:

• Teams are subject to the Duke Start-UP Challenge Eligibility requirements outlined in the Rules section of the DSC website.
• Teams can compete in no more than one Functional track:
• Energy & Environment
• IT & Media
• Healthcare & Life Sciences
• Social Enterprises
• Products & Services
• Teams may also compete in one or both of the Special Interest tracks if they are eligible:
• Women Entrepreneurs
• The team must be led by a female Duke student.
• All presentations made in the later stages of the competition must be led by the female student.
• Undergraduate Entrepreneurs
• The team must be led by an undergraduate Duke student.
• All presentations made in the later stages of the competition must be led by the undergraduate student.
• Examples of eligibility:
• A team led by an undergraduate woman is eligible to compete in up to three tracks: one functional track, Women Entrepreneurs track, and Undergraduate Entrepreneurs track
• A team led by an undergraduate man is eligible to compete in up to two tracks: one functional track and the Undergraduate Entrepreneurs track
• A team led by a graduate woman is eligible to compete in up to two tracks:  one functional track and the Women Entrepreneurs track

Deadlines:

• Executive Summaries should be submitted by 5pm EST on February, 10 2010

Prizes:

• 5 semi-finalists will be chosen in each of the seven tracks, for a total of 35 semi-finalists. Each semi-finalist will receive $100, in addition to other in-kind prizes.
• Semi-finalists will move on to compete in the Business Plan Competition where they will submit business plans and make investor pitches.

Executive Summary Guidelines:

• Each executive summary must not exceed 2 pages (including figures,tables and appendices).
• Each entry should be in pdf format, single-spaced, in at least 11-point font and have 1 inch margins on every side.
• Submissions after the  February 10, 5pm deadline will not be accepted.
• To produce winning executive summaries we suggest you refer to Guy Kawasaki's thoughts on Executive Summaries.
• For submission guidelines click here.

 Judging:

• Each track will have its own set of judges from the entrepreneurship community.
• Judges will pick five semi-finalists from each track of the competition.