Application and Eligibility

Application

1. Application is open from November 15, 2015 to February 12, 2016.
2. Teams must apply online (http://onemilliondollar.ust.hk/). No paper entries will be accepted.
3. Entries must be the original work of entrants.
4. Team required to submit a 2-page executive summary and copy of HKD300 entry fee bank-in slip through their online applications. Details please refer “Submission Rules”.
5. The collected entry fees will be made part of the “Student Team Prize”.

Team Eligibility for Application

1. The Competition is open to all full-time and part-time students at all levels and post-docs, alumni, researchers, faculty and staff of HKUST.
2. The team must have at least one HKUST faculty or student or alumni or staff. This applies to mainland or international teams who wish to compete in this Competition. International teams, which will not be required to have any members affiliated with HKUST, will be admitted upon invitation only.
3. The size of each team must be between 2 to 5 members. All team members must be registered members of the team. Changes of team members are not allowed after Round 2 submission.
4. Each team must have at least 1 member with at least 20% ownership in the proposed company.
5. Each team is ONLY permitted to submit 1 Executive Summary for Round 1 Assessment.
6. Each participant can only join up to 1 team.
7. A team leader should be identified for each team, who will be point-of-contact with the Competition organizer.
8. The team is not required to be a business registered company. The team can be an early stage company that had established no more than 3 years. The company can be at inventor stage or seed stage where there is an idea, a concept, or even a product, but little or no income has been generated yet. Team name has to be the same as company name and it is not allowed to be changed during the competition.
9. Companies that have received prior investment of more than HKD1,000,000, or ventures that have been in establishment / operation for more than 3 years, are NOT allowed to join the Competition.
10. The equity of the company should not be changed during the Competition.

Team Eligibility for Round 2 Assessment

1. Each team is ONLY permitted to submit 1 Business Plan of 8-10 powerpoint slides in PDF format.

Team Eligibility for Round 3 Assessment

1. Each team is ONLY permitted to submit 1 Business Plan of 15-20 powerpoint slides in PDF format
2. All members of each team must attend the Trade Show on June 1 & the Business Plan Evaluation on June 2 though it is not a compulsory for all team members to speak in the presentation.
3. There could be teams entering Round 3 Assessment through other channels, such as pre-screening in HKUST satellite campus.

Important Note:

(1) By submitting a business plan, the team represents and warrants the team have all right, title and/or interest in the business plan submitted and the information it contains is accurate and complete, and that by submitting the document the team is not and will not be violating any contract or third party rights including any patent, copyright, trade secret, proprietary or confidentiality information, trade-mark, publicity or privacy right. In addition, the team must have the relevant IP usage right of the technology or innovation proposed to further develop the business. The competition committee reserves the rights to request at any time the appropriate proof from the team on the IP rights.

(2) All teams are expected to abide by the rules enumerated above. HKUST reserves the right to disqualify any application that fails to conform to the rules of the Competition.