This document is intended to help you submit your entry. For official Competition Terms, please refer to the Competition Terms at https://younoodle.com/competitions/imagine_h2o/files/terms.

Completing the “Submit an entry to Imagine H2O” page

• All fields are required.
• The entry fields will not be judged by the Selection Committee to determine scoring and ranking of your entry. However, your answers will help determine your eligibility for the competition. (For information on eligibility requirements, please refer to the Competition Terms.) Your answers will also help Imagine H2O manage the competition.
• Eligibility Questions
  • Help answering the question on prior funding:
    • Begin by certifying that you meet the eligibility requirements on the Competition Terms
    • Total all your prior financings
    • List all prior financings. For each financing, indicate:
      • the date
      • the amount of the financing in US dollars
      • the structure of the financing (debt, equity, grant) and any helpful detail (such as “common stock” rather than simply “equity”)
      • the source of the financing (private individual, sophisticated angel investor, venture capital, bank, government, or other)
      • you may provide additional information if you feel it is relevant, but please be brief
    • Sample answer:
      • “The business meets the eligibility requirements. Total funding to date is $200,000 USD. The business has two prior financings. In January of 2008, we raised $100,000 in a common stock financing equity from three private individuals, who are friends and family and are not institutional investors. In February of 2009, we raised $100,000 USD of debt in the form of a bank loan from Bank of America.”
  • Help answering the question on meeting the Water Efficiency Business category:
    • Refer to the definition of a Water Efficiency Business in the Competition Terms
    • You do not need to write a long answer. The maximum word length is not a suggestion. Shorter is much better as long as you provide a full, accurate answer.
    • Briefly describe how your business fits that definition. A few guidelines that may help you:
      • Is water efficiency, as defined in the Competition Terms, a focus of your business?
      • Which of the customer segments in the definition do you or will you serve? (The answer may be more than one.)
      • Briefly state how your business will reduce demand or use of water
      • Why will your solution not reduce service or performance for users?
    • Sample answer:
      • “The business focuses on water efficiency. The primary revenue model is charging commercial and industrial customers a service to recycle processed water. This reduces customers’ demand and use by recycling water they would otherwise waste. Customers still meet their water volume and quality needs.”
• Impact questions
  • Help answering the water savings question:
    • We are trying to understand the likely magnitude of your business’ potential water efficiency impact.
    • Short answers are fine. You do not need to meet or approach the maximum word limit.
    • Try to be as quantitative as possible.
    • Assume your business is successful and look at year 5 of your projections. If you meet your plan (i.e. if you are selling as much of your product or service as you expect to in that year) how much water might you save?
    • Sample answer:
      • In year 5, we could save [500mm gallons] of water. We save an average customer [5mm gallons] per year by [better reducing water used for landscape irrigation]. We expect an average of [100 customers] in year 5. 100 customers x 5mm gallons = 500mm gallons anticipated water savings.
  • Help answering the social / environmental impact question:
    • If your business reaches significant scale, there may be a variety of impacts, both positive and negative. The question aims to spark your thoughts about the potential social and environmental impacts of your business.
    • The positive: We believe water efficiency is a positive impact, so you do not need to articulate general water efficiency as a positive impact. You might, however, note a specific impact that your business would have. For example, instead of noting that water efficiency can save water resources, you might note that your business can save a particular customer a certain % of water use. In addition, there may be significant positive impacts beyond water efficiency. For example, you may be able to save your customers energy.
    • The negative: We are not scoring this question, and hope that it will provoke honest thought. Thinking ahead, what negative impacts might your business create that you will have to manage as a business leader? For example, you may need materials that could harm the environment.

What should I include in my Executive Summary?

While all of the following points may not be applicable in your specific case and are not required to be included in your executive summary, we suggest you address the points that you believe are relevant. Please also pay attention to the quality of content, scope and presentation of the executive summary, and be as succinct, clear and accurate as possible.

We also expect to post some helpful examples and will link to them from this page.

• Business Summary
  
  • Briefly describe the specific product or service your business provides.
  • What do you / will you sell, for how much, to whom?
    
    • Briefly describe the status of your business. Is it still at the idea stage? Do you have a committed, full-time team? Are you already operating, and if so, how large is the business?
  • Briefly state the opportunity.
    
    • What is the problem or need that you will address? Why is it an urgent critical need for your customer? How is your product or service the solution?
    • We suggest you do not focus on global trends in water, but instead on the specific opportunity for your solution.

• Market Opportunity
  
  • Who is your customer?
    • Be as specific as possible about your target customers. If you expect to be able to address a different group of target customers over time, you should clarify the distinction.
      
      • Do you have any market / customer research?
  • Current size and growth of the addressable target market
    • If your target market is an existing market, what are the current dollars spent by your target customers? What is the future potential?
    • If you expect to address a new or emerging market, how big is it now and how big do you expect it to be? Why do you expect that market to develop?
    • Be sure to cite your sources for market information, and if you are calculating a market size or growth rate, please show how you arrive at your estimate.
  • Drivers of the size and attractiveness of the target market

• Customer Value Proposition
  • Urgency and priority of the customer problem / need that the solution addresses
    • Is your solution a “must-have” for the customer, or a “nice-to-have”?
    • Are there non-economic reasons for customers to buy, such as regulation that requires purchasing from you?
  • Strength of the customer value proposition of the solution.
    • How well does the solution fulfill that need for customers?
    • ROI: What is the customer’s return on investment for buying your solution?
    • Ideally, you should be able to state the total value in dollars that you can create for the customer, how much you charge, and therefore the customer return on investment from buying your product or service.
    • Payback Period: What is the payback period for the customer (how long, in years, does it take for the customer to capture enough value from your solution to cover the cost of buying from you)?

• Go to market progress and strategy
  • Progress to date
  • Quality and credibility of the strategy / plan to achieve scale and market adoption.
    • How do you target customers?
    • How do you / will you reach customers?
  • Does your business model allow you to profitably and rapidly grow to major scale?
    • How much does it cost your business to acquire a customer?
    • What is the economic value of a customer to your business?
    • How long does it / will it take to close a sale and collect cash from a customer?
• Competition
  • Competitive landscape
    • Who are your competitors? What do customers use now instead of your product or service? The more complete your assessment the better. A competitive matrix is often a good way to lay out your competitive landscape.
  • Competitive differentiation
    • What is your main competitive advantage?
    • Are you filling an open gap in the market or providing an improvement over similar products or services? If the former, why does that gap exist? If the latter, is your solution cheaper or better or both?
    • How innovative is the solution? Is it incremental or disruptive as a solution compared to customer alternatives?
  • Sustainable advantage
    • How can you defend your advantage? Do you have strong intellectual property, are you first to market, and if so, how long is your lead over the competition?

• Financial plan
  • Financials
    • Show historical (if applicable) and projected financials on an annual basis, going back up to 3 years, and forward for 5 years. Financials should show, for each year:
      • Income Statement
        • Revenue
        • Cost of Goods Sold
        • Gross Profit
        • Gross Margin
        • Sales, General and Administrative Expenses
        • Operating Profit
        • Operating Margin
        • nterest and Other Expenses
        • Taxes
        • Net Income
      • Cash
        • Beginning cash
        • Change in cash
        • Ending Cash
      • Historical or projected financing
    • How have you been funded so far?
    • What are your funding requirements and funding strategy? In particular, focus on the key milestones you need to reach, how much it will cost to reach them, and how you plan to finance your company to those points.
  • Try to demonstrate a credible and well–thought-through financial plan. As long as it is credible, the greater the potential magnitude and profitability of the business, the better.

• Team
  • List each member of the management team with a short bio.
  • Does your team have the experience and skills to execute your plan at least to your next major milestones? Can you recruit to fill the holes in your team?

• General quality of the presentation and pitch
  • Please also pay attention to the quality of content, scope and presentation of the executive summary, and be as succinct, clear and accurate as possible.
  • We will give further guidance on best practices for live pitches to teams that advance to Round Two or Round Three.

What should each resume look like?

Resumes should be no longer than one page in normal font. They should list professional experience (including dates of employment, titles, and organizations) and academic degrees (including institutions, years, and degrees). Resumes are strongest when they indicate that a team member can execute his or her role on the team.

Contact:
If you have any questions on the Submission Guidelines, please email prize@imagineh2o.org. If you have any questions about using the Younoodle platform, or any technical issues, please contact Younoodle at heesun@younoodle.com.