Silicon Valley, CA – The Space Frontier Foundation (SFF) announced today that additional prize money to be awarded to the top three businesses competing in the 2011 NewSpace Business Plan Competition. These generous prizes, totaling $32,500, will help launch paradigm-shifting NewSpace companies while the competition itself will provide all the finalists with practical guidance from investors and business professionals. The SFF will host the NewSpace Business Plan Competition during its NewSpace 2011 Conference and competition details can be found at www.newspacebpc.com. The conference will be held at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley on July 28-31. Register at newspace.spacefrontier.org.
“In the rapidly growing industry of commercial space, it is certain that some of the most successful and transformative NewSpace companies are yet to be born. I hope to meet such a company at NewSpace 2011 when we award the $25,000 first prize,” said Bob Werb, SFF Chairman and Cofounder. “We are excited by the opportunity to stimulate the creation of new companies that may become major players in space.”
The purpose of the NewSpace Business Plan Competition is to foster the development of commercial space companies centered around critical space technologies. Finalists will present their plans to a distinguished panel of judges featuring venture capitalists, angel investors, and business development leaders. They will receive professional feedback on their plan, as well as exposure to the public, press, and investor community. Judges include tech expert Esther Dyson and Hoyt Davidson of Near Earth LLC. The first place winner will receive $25,000 as part of a grant from NASA, second place will be awarded $5,000 gifted by the Heinlein Prize Trust, and the third place will get $2,500. The NASA grant also includes funding to assist the finalists with travel expenses.
“Silicon Valley is full of companies that were little more than an idea a few years ago,” said Tom Olson, SFF Board Member and Competition Project Manager. “In the future, Low Earth Orbit will be full of companies that are as yet little more than an idea. NASA is offering this prize money in the hope of turning a few of those ideas into real world businesses. Winning this $25,000 business plan prize may well be the first dollar for a multibillion dollar company.”
Entrepreneurial space, space-related, or “space-scalable” companies wishing to participate should complete the Letter of Intent online form by June 17th and submit a 3-5 page Executive Summary by July 1st to businessplan@spacefrontier.org. Five teams will be selected to take part in a business plan ‘boot-camp’ on July 28th at the NewSpace 2011 Conference and will present their plans to the judges on July 29th. The finalists will be announced on July 5th. Submission details and forms are available at www.NewSpaceBPC.com.
