Decisions regarding the Competition and the Winners

All decisions regarding the competition rules, procedures, and processes are at the sole discretion of the BYU Rollins Center. Changes and/or interpretations of these rules may be made by the BYU Rollins Center at any time, even though they may be (or may appear to be) in conflict with previously published information. The selection of the teams to compete and the decision of the winners are at the sole discretion of the judges and the BYU Rollins Center. Best efforts will be made to make decisions in accordance with these official Eligibility Guidelines. If teams feel like they fit the spirit of the Eligibility Guidelines below, they can petition for an exception by sending an email to rollinscenter@byu.edu.

Purpose of the Competition

The express purpose of the Miller Competition Series (MCS) is to prepare students to launch entrepreneurial ventures while simultaneously pursuing their degree program at Brigham Young University (BYU). In addition, the MCS serves as a starting point for student teams to participate in other student student venture competitions across the country.

Ownership

If equity has been assigned, a minimum of 20% of the competing company must be owned by BYU current students (see definition below).

Control

Student participants must be current students* (see definition below) and control a minimum of 51% of the company’s voting rights at the time of the competition. We recommend maintaining this control for at least two years beyond the date of the competition.

Management

The MCS is for student-created and student-managed ventures, as such student participants should fill key management roles (Presidency or C-Suite) in the venture.

Revenue

Ventures with more than $100,000 in revenues prior to July 1 before of the competition year, are not eligible to compete. This includes proceeds received from successful crowdfunding raise (Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, etc.). Note that this requirement is intended to help student teams meet the requirements of other student venture competitions across the country.

Investment

Companies who have received up to $100,000 of investment from friends, family, and business accelerators are eligible to compete. However, companies having received professional investment are not eligible.

Note: We do not encourage investment prior to the competition cycle because investment encourages scaling. Premature scaling can lead to startup failure by violating the customer discovery and validation process.

Prior Participation

Teams may resubmit business ideas that have been submitted in prior MCS competitions, as long as the teams comply with the other eligibility guidelines. The finalist winners* from the previous competition cycle, however, are not eligible to compete with the same business idea.

*This includes the Top 20 from Big Idea Competition, Top 5 from BMC, and Top 8 or 10 (depending on how many are chosen) from NVC.

Nature of Venture

Ventures cannot be a buyout, an expansion of an existing company, a real estate syndication, a tax shelter, a franchise, a licensing agreement for distribution in a different geographical area, or a spin-out from an existing corporation. Licensing technologies (eg. tech transfer) from universities or research labs is encouraged, assuming they have not been commercialized previously, but must clearly indicate what was provided by the licensing agreement (patents, partnerships, etc.) before student involvement.

Current Student Status

Qualifying BYU-Provo students must be degree-seeking students enrolled in at least 6 credit hours for undergrads or 3 credit hours for grads in at least one semester of the competition year. Online courses will only count toward the minimum credit requirement if they fulfill graduation and degree-specific requirements. Some competitions may have BYU-Idaho and/or BYU-Hawaii teams invited to participate. The same eligibility guidelines apply to those teams, but in relation to their respective university.