Enter a Competition

Overview
Business Competition

Competition Rules

Application Criteria

  • All applications must fit one of the competition's six clean technology category definitions
  • All applicants must have a team of at least two individuals
  • All entries must be a startup with less than $1,000,000 from private third party funding (from equity investors such as angel investors and venture capital firms)
  • All entries must be a startup with less than $5,000,000 from all other sources of funding (grants, family and friends, and your own pocket); this sum is in addition to and separate from the limit on private third party funding
  • You must pay the application fee by the application deadline
  • At least one applicant team member must be a United States resident, citizen, or legal alien (e.g. F1, H1 visas).

Startups and Funding Limits

All entries must be a startup that has received less than the financing limits above at the time of application fee payment. A startup can be a group of people who have formed a team to enter the contest. However, a legal entity (corporation, LLC, or similar) must be created prior to receiving any prizes, and any such legal entity must have an ownership structure typical of an independent startup.
Our prizes are not intended to subsidize corporate or university projects. The amount and source of any secured capital arrangements should be clearly identified in the team's application.

Student Definition

To be eligible to pay the student fee, the Team Leader must be a full-time student at the time of paying the application fee, and the team must have a majority of student members, including the Team Leader. Students of any education level are invited to participate, and all may be in full-time or part-time education, except the Team Leader who must be in full-time education.

Non-disclosure

An individual volunteer working closely with your company may choose to sign an non-disclosure agreement on his/her own behalf (but never on behalf of the Cleantech Open); if you plan to disclose confidential information you should ask your should ask your mentor or other volunteer assisting you if he/she will agree to sign a non-disclosure, noting that both the language and the execution of the agreement are your responsibility - the Cleantech Open does not provide or enter into such agreements. If you have valuable intellectual property, please seek legal advice prior to submitting your application. By entering the competition, each applicant will acknowledge that information provided by such entrant is at risk of disclosure. The disclosure of any information regarding your intellectual property may constitute a "public disclosure" that adversely impacts your potential rights. Practically, we expect that most applicants and participants will be able to present a compelling business case without divulging unprotected proprietary information.

Exclusions

You may not apply for the competition if you are a competition volunteer, judge, category expert, mentor, chair, regional director or a competition adviser, or if you are in any other way involved with the organization or operation of the competition. Immediate family members of the aforementioned people are also ineligible to compete. People who are affiliated with the competition's sponsors and/or partners may be eligible to participate. Please contact us if you have an eligibility question.

Disqualification

The Cleantech Open reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any entry that in its judgment violates the letter or the spirit of the competition guidelines, processes and rules of the Cleantech Open competition, and its decisions are final and binding. If you are selected as a semifinalist at least one team member must attend the four required events shown below. At least one team member must attend and non-attendance at events will not qualify you for a refund - we want to encourage you to participate! Required events include:

  • Academy in July (East Coast or National Academy - you may attend one or both, but you must attend one)
  • Academy in July (East Coast or National Academy - you may attend one or both, but you must attend one)
  • Regional Awards in October
  • Global Forum in November

The Cleantech Open reserves the right in its sole discretion to alter at any time the prize packages referenced in this Website and in our collateral material and other communications.

Taxability

All winnings are taxable and the winners must complete a form W-9 prior to payment.

Intellectual Property Rights Owners

Before submitting your business plans, we urge your team to confirm with appropriate advisors or legal counsel that any intellectual property described in your plan is protected, by appropriate intellectual property filings, notices, (patent, copyright, etc) by the owning institution and/or individuals. We also recommend that you determine in advance whether your plan describes a technology, invention, copyrightable work or other intellectual property owned by your employee or university.

If you are not sure about the legal status of your own or third party intellectual property or any other aspect of your plan, we urge you to seek independent legal counsel.