Your Experience can Empower our Entrepreneurs

Houston Community College and our Center for Entrepreneurship are preparing for the 18^th annual HCC Business Plan Competition (Competition). We invite you to be a part of our 2025 HCC Business Plan Competition Advisor Cohort. Join other experienced entrepreneurial, business and technology experts who give one-on-one advising to a team selected to move through our competition.

Competition training and advising is virtual with optional opportunities to meet your team in person.

Advisors are a powerful and sustaining thread in the program. As an Advisor you will have an opportunity to help entrepreneurs of all ages who are entering the HCC Business Plan Competition to take expert advice and use it to become more successful.

• Approximately thirty entrepreneur teams will be chosen to compete in the 2025 Competition. We accept proposed, startup and existing companies who are entering to create refined and polished plans to start and/or grow their businesses.  Each team (of 1 to 5 contestants) will move through the competition training and advising from late February through May. All contestant teams will be matched with Advisors. If you become an Advisor, you will be matched to a team based on your areas of expertise and the team's business concept and needs. Advisors are critical to the success of the Competition. 

Your Experience can Empower our Entrepreneurs

The Role of the Advisor is to:



• Encourage contestants to meet deadlines and complete competition;
• Review contestants' work regularly;
• Advise and guide contestants pointing out deficiencies and making suggestions;

• Lead by example: meet commitments, keep contestant(s) positive, encourage timeliness and complete work, follow-up on status of suggestions made at previous meeting; and
• Serve as a Business Plan Reviewer.

Your time commitment is about 20-25 hours from February through May 2025. 

This includes:

• An Optional Virtual Advisor Orientation on February 4^th, from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm on Zoom - https://bit.ly/BPCAdvisorORNT  
• Advisors Only - no competition applicants/contestants. 
• This Orientation is not Required, but it is a great way for advisors new to our competition to learn more about how it works.

Six Contestant Training Sessions

Four on ZOOM and Two Onsite:

We request advisors attend at least three of the six competition training sessions:

• Tuesday evenings from 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm. (Includes: 30 minutes of networking with competition leaders, contestants and advisors, 2 hours of presentation and 30 minutes of Q&A).
• Feb 25 - Virtual, Mar 4 - Onsite, Mar 18 - Virtual, Apr 1 - Virtual, Apr 15 - Virtual and May 6 - Onsite.
• One-on-one advising meetings with your team - Advisor and contestant teams meet one-on-one in between training sessions, at mutually agreed upon times. These can also be virtual if that is your preference. We've noticed that some teams meet at an agreed upon time once a week or they arrange to meet periodically before or after each training session. If any advisor and contestant team collectively wishes to have an in-person meeting, this can be done, provided that every member involved feels comfortable with meeting in-person. These meetings can be done until plans are due on May 5. Slide presentations and one minute videos are due May 12.

• Optional Attendance at Business Plan Pitches on May 28, 2025 if your Team Makes the Finals!  
• Optional Attendance at Awards Ceremony - June 05, 2025 from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Give the Business Plan Contestants the advice and guidance you wish you had when you started or wanted to grow your business. New and Returning Advisors, please use the link below that applies to you to submit your interest and tell us a bit about your area of expertise. This helps us review submissions, connect and fit advisors with the right teams and business concepts.

Timing - Building the Advisor Cohort - We will announce accepted teams on February 20th and will pair teams with advisors as we move toward the first training sessions. We pair teams with advisors by considering advisors' experience and each accepted team's business concept.  We will respond to your submission throughout this period. We will be communicating with advisors via emails from c4e@hccs.edu; and sometimes via a phone call or text to speak to or reach an individual advisor. 

Thank you for your time and consideration! Being of service as a volunteer advisor can change the lives of these entrepreneurs!

Advisors New to This Competition - If you have not yet served as an advisor in this Competition, please click below on our new advisor quick form to submit your interest and introduce yourself: 

New Advisor Quick Form

Returning Advisors - For those of you who have previously served as an Advisor for this Competition, please click on this link and complete the mini - form to say 'yes' and we would be honored to have you with us again:

Returning Advisors - Even Quicker Form 

Return to Homepage - 2025 HCC Business Plan Competition

About the Glenda & David Regenbaum Center for Entrepreneurship

HCC Northwest

OUR MISSION: To help entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses.

We do this by offering workshops, seminars, summits, classes and competitive training and advising, while also providing practical knowledge, resources and connections. We are also known for three Signature Programs: the Annual HCC Business Plan Competition, now in its 18th year; the HCC Small Business Success Series; and the HCC Mattress Mack School of Selling. 

Our Center for Entrepreneurship is part of the Houston City College Office of Entrepreneurial Initiatives. The Office of Entrepreneurial Initiatives was established to build and sustain the Houston business community through effective and relevant educational initiatives to help businesses grow in revenue, personnel and business opportunities. The Office of Entrepreneurial Initiatives leads and coordinates all business and entrepreneurial initiatives by providing system-wide support, and leadership to fulfill HCC’s Strategic Agenda to “Cultivate and Entrepreneurial Culture Across the Institution.”

The HCC Office of Entrepreneurial Initiatives has been honored with a number of prestigious awards. For more on awards in recent years; https://conta.cc/4nXEyuG

On behalf of all of our entrepreneurial programs and staff, we thank all of the entrepreneurs, partners, sponsors, volunteers, students, and HCC faculty and staff who have contributed to our efforts! Without your support and dedication to our programs, these awards wouldn't have been possible!

Contact us at c4e@hccs.edu or 713-718-6650