ISU coordinating statewide Pappajohn new venture business plan competition

AMES, Iowa -- Iowa students who want to compete in the 2007 Pappajohn New Venture Business Plan Competition have until Thursday, Nov.30 to file an "intent to compete" form with one of the five Pappajohn centers for entrepreneurship -- Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa, North Iowa Area Community College and Drake University.

Officials from Iowa State's Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship are coordinating the statewide program. Applications and competition guidelines are available at http://www.isupjcenter.org/programs/newventure/.

The competition is open to any Iowa university or college student/team with an interest in starting a business, said Judi Eyles, assistant director of programs at ISU's Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship. Plans are judged on content and viability.

In the competition, students pitch innovative business plans to a team of professional investors. The deadline for submitting the complete application and business plan is Friday, Feb. 9, 2007. The regional competition to choose the three finalists is Friday, Feb. 16. The winners will be named at the Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Iowa Conference in Des Moines on Friday, March 2, 2007.

The finalists compete for three, $5,000 cash awards. Free business counseling is offered to those students/teams who complete and return the "intent to compete" form.

John Pappajohn, president of Equity Dynamics, Inc., Des Moines, and founder of the five John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Centers in Iowa, created the competition seven years ago.

More information is available through ISU's Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship at 515-296-6532, or info@isupcenter.org.