I was co-lead organizer of the MIT Clean Energy Prize last year, a national biz plan competition with a $200k cash grand prize (and partner to the MIT 100K). We

I was co-lead organizer of the MIT Clean Energy Prize last year, a national biz plan competition with a $200k cash grand prize (and partner to the MIT 100K). We never thought ourselves capable of designing a competition where the winner was in any way assured of “making it”- the free market is the only force capable of determining that. But that wasn’t the point; the post is correct that the perceived ancillary benefits of forming a strong team, making deadlines, and meeting/facing potential customers and investors turn out to be what make the whole thing worth it (and not necessarily for the success of the business being pitched but for the skills built by the students). As pg implies, the judging is not "for real" since it's with OPM, but compare that to the usual indicators given at universities (grades) and it doesn't look so bad. The vast majority of the teams realize this too, and the ones who don’t are not the ones who go far. Winning the grand prize is basically a bonus for the the team who gets it... Is a b.p. competition for everyone? Probably not. I’d definitely prefer being a part of YC before winning the 100k (dreaming up a web app); YC community >> 80k. But they are not mutually exclusive and the b.p. application is only 2 pages and 10 slides. And a big success who actually won such a competition? How about EnerNOC, a $600M public co that won the Dartmouth competition in 2002. They do load balancing for electric utilities (big customers go low-power during peak demand). Probably doing more good for the world then all the apps in the app store.