????賴斯商業(yè)計(jì)劃大賽（Rice Business Plan Competition ）正在如火如荼地進(jìn)行，共有42名創(chuàng)業(yè)者們正在為120萬(wàn)美元的投資和啟動(dòng)資金而展開(kāi)激烈競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。往屆的多位獲勝者都將自己的公司賣出了高價(jià)：“我從沒(méi)見(jiàn)到過(guò)這么多零，”2005年獲勝者尼古拉斯?賽特開(kāi)玩笑道。他的公司被Adobe公司以超過(guò)1億美元的價(jià)格收購(gòu)。賽特和其他幾位往屆競(jìng)賽的參賽者們，在大賽期間談?wù)摿嗽趨⒓颖荣愡^(guò)程中學(xué)到了什么，以及他們?nèi)绾螌⑦@些經(jīng)驗(yàn)應(yīng)用到真實(shí)創(chuàng)業(yè)過(guò)程中。以下為他們給出的部分建議：

做好出錯(cuò)的準(zhǔn)備

????技術(shù)經(jīng)常在你最需要它的時(shí)候出現(xiàn)故障，但只要經(jīng)過(guò)精心準(zhǔn)備，就不必為此驚慌失措。去年大賽的獲勝者NuMat Technologies使用了大量視頻，而這在演示過(guò)程中特別容易遇到技術(shù)上的困難。為了確保比賽按計(jì)劃進(jìn)行，NuMat首席技術(shù)官克里斯?威爾莫表示，他提前檢查了所有練習(xí)室，對(duì)視頻設(shè)備進(jìn)行測(cè)試。一位評(píng)委記得，有一位參賽者做得更是徹底。這位參賽者帶來(lái)了一堆廣告板，上面是臨時(shí)制作的PowerPoint幻燈片，以防投影儀出現(xiàn)故障。

有時(shí)候，你需要忽視評(píng)委的存在

????2011年獲勝團(tuán)隊(duì)TNG Pharmaceuticals的CEO珍妮?科爾賓說(shuō)道：“對(duì)于別人給出的建議，不要立刻接受。”這是因?yàn)橛幸晃辉u(píng)委說(shuō)過(guò)：“這樣的建議并不一定是觀眾們期望看到的。”相反，她說(shuō)道：“應(yīng)該找出趨勢(shì)，并跟隨趨勢(shì)，而不是一些奇怪的東西。”

????有時(shí)候，你很難接受別人提供的所有指導(dǎo)。賽特說(shuō)道：“最后，各種建議之間可能出現(xiàn)矛盾。而正是在這樣的時(shí)候，你才會(huì)明白自己真正想要的是什么。”他補(bǔ)充道：“有一半的評(píng)委喜歡Auditude這個(gè)名字，而另一半則討厭這個(gè)名字。這時(shí)，我們知道我們是正確的。”

不要太過(guò)局限于商業(yè)計(jì)劃書(shū)本身

????在賴斯大賽中獲得贊同的商業(yè)計(jì)劃，不見(jiàn)得適應(yīng)市場(chǎng)。“評(píng)委是一回事，而消費(fèi)者則完全不同。你需要聽(tīng)的是消費(fèi)者的聲音，”賽特說(shuō)道。他在比賽中獲勝后，便徹底修改了商業(yè)模式。“所有的一切都是錯(cuò)誤的！”他說(shuō)道。賽特稱自己曾不止一次改變方向：“你不能過(guò)于固執(zhí)地執(zhí)著于比賽中的商業(yè)計(jì)劃。”

????眾所周知，隨著創(chuàng)業(yè)者們離開(kāi)課堂，走入現(xiàn)實(shí)社會(huì)，商業(yè)計(jì)劃必然要發(fā)生變化。科爾賓說(shuō)道：“你也可以直接把商業(yè)計(jì)劃書(shū)扔到窗外。”但她補(bǔ)充說(shuō)：“從比賽中獲勝當(dāng)然是很奇妙的過(guò)程，但要想讓自己的商業(yè)計(jì)劃變成現(xiàn)實(shí)，必須要有財(cái)務(wù)支持和專業(yè)知識(shí)。”

????毫無(wú)疑問(wèn)，與評(píng)委和其他團(tuán)隊(duì)的交流，才是賴斯商業(yè)計(jì)劃書(shū)大賽中最重要的部分。NuMat公司的本?赫爾南德斯表示：“贏得比賽不能保證創(chuàng)業(yè)成功，而比賽中失利也不意味著創(chuàng)業(yè)就會(huì)失敗。”問(wèn)問(wèn)BlackLocus就可以了。2011年，這支隊(duì)伍并未進(jìn)入最后一輪，但他們?cè)诒荣愔羞x中了關(guān)鍵的投資人，2012年，他們將公司賣給了家得寶公司（Home Depot ）。

????he Rice Business Plan Competition is underway in Houston, where 42 hopeful entrepreneurs are going head-to-head for $1.2 million in investments and startup cash. A few former winners have sold their companies for big sums: "I'd never seen so many zeros," joked Nicholas Seet, the 2005 winner whose company went to Adobe (ADBE) for more than $100 million. Seet and a few other former Rice contenders talked during the competition about what they learned while pitching at Rice, and how those lessons have applied to running an actual business. Here are a few of their tips:

Be prepared for everything to go wrong

????Technology often fails just at the moment you need it most, but that shouldn't faze the seriously prepared presenter. Last year's winner, NuMat Technologies, used a lot of videos, which are particularly prone to technical difficulties during a presentation. To make sure it all went according to plan, NuMat CTO Chris Wilmer says he went around to all the practice rooms beforehand to test the video equipment. A Rice judge remembers seeing a presenter who took it a step further and actually brought a stack of poster boards along bearing makeshift PowerPoint slides just in case the projector failed.

Sometimes you need to ignore the judges

????"Don't take anybody's advice instantly as you receive it," says Jenny Corbin, CEO of TNG Pharmaceuticals, the 2011 winning team. Just because one judge says it, "it doesn't necessarily mean that that's what the audience is looking for." Instead, she says, "look for trends and follow trends, not the oddity."

????Sometimes, it's impossible to take all the direction you get: "Eventually, the advice will conflict [with] other people's advice," Seet says. "And that's when you know you're where you want to be." He added: "Half the judges liked the name Auditude and half the judges hated the name Auditude. That's when we knew we were just right."

Don't get too attached to that business plan

????A plan that goes over well at Rice may not be perfectly suited for the marketplace. "Judges are one thing, and customers are totally different, and you gotta listen to the customers," says Seet, who radically changed his business model after his victory at Rice. "Everything was wrong!" he says. Seet says he switched directions more than once: "You can't be so stubbornly married to that plan."

????Business plans are notoriously subject to change between the classroom and the real world. "You might as well throw your business plan out the window," Corbin says. But, she adds, "Walking out of the door here as a winner, which is fantastic by the way, you've got the backing and the expertise to help you make that business a reality."

????Connecting with judges and other teams is arguably the most important part of Rice's competition. "Winning isn't a guarantee of success and losing isn't a stamp of failure," says NuMat's Ben Hernandez. Just ask BlackLocus. The team didn't make the final round when they competed in 2011, but they picked up key investors at the competition and sold the business to Home Depot (HD) in 2012.