iStart FAQs

Who uses iStart? One of our biggest clients is Rice University’s annual intercollegiate business plan competition, which has the largest judging panel and distributes the most prize money of any such competition in the world. Powerful iStart tools automatically managed communications with more than 500 initial applicants and 300 judges, allowed administrators to customize the competition’s look and feel, and it created efficiencies that streamlined project management requirements.

Does the Kauffman Foundation use iStart for research? Yes. The Kauffman Foundation will use information from submitted business plans as data points in its ongoing research on entrepreneurship.

What if my business plan contains proprietary information I don’t want the public to see? No problem. We only post your abstract for that very reason – and only with your permission.

Does it cost anything to post an abstract on iStart? No, not a penny. In this economy, everyone deserves a break. This is yours.

What happened to studentbusiness.com? The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation bought it in 2009. We renamed it iStart and created more functionality, including an easier-to-use user interface. We also added the public side of the site to increase transparency – and your chances of getting noticed.

How much does it cost to host a competition on iStart? It varies. Here are some general guidelines to help you budget:

• Nonprofit partners pay $500 per competition.
• For-profit partners pay $5,000 per competition; $15,000 for unlimited competitions for one year; or $25,000 for unlimited competitions and the ability to keep submissions from being displayed on the public portal for up to six months.

TIP: Recruit a sponsor, such as a patent attorney, to cover the cost. He or she will get targeted exposure for as long as your competition is active, and you will have your site paid for. It’s a win-win!

iStart provides you and your staff with efficiencies and consistency that will save hours of work and enhance your competition’s overall reputation. It’s worth the investment.

Where do notification e-mails come from? They are sent from notification@iStart.org.

What if e-mails from iStart get caught in my spam filter? We can’t guarantee that won’t happen, but our tech people are working continually to avoid these types of issues. You also can add @iStart.org to your Safe Senders list and mark messages you have received from iStart as “not spam.”

Where does my reply to the notification e-mail go? It goes directly to competition administrators. There is no middleman.

What types of files does iStart accept? Anything – PDFs, JPEGs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets. You name it. But, don’t expect iStart to accommodate thousands of 10 megabyte downloads. We have our limits.

What should I do if I want to host a competition on iStart? It’s easy! Just follow these steps:

1. Contact Katie Petersen, our director, at Katie@iStart.org with the following information:
   • Your institution’s name.
   • Your subdomain. (This is the Web address that uniquely identifies your competition. For example, a subdomain of “Rice2010” results in a competition Web address of http://Rice2010.iStart.org. Also, the shorter the subdomain, the better. And, remember to include a date, such as 2010.)
   • Your competition administrator’s e-mail address.

Is iStart only for business plan competitions? No, you can have idea competitions, pitch competitions, etc. Our minimum requirement is that participants submit an abstract. The length of that abstract is up to you. It can be a paragraph or it can be five pages.