We recommend that you prepare all of your responses in the Word document provided in this
document so that you have a copy for your own records – responses submitted through the
website will not be accessible by applicants at a later date!
As a part of this application, we ask that you provide an eight-paragraph description of your
venture, in addition to uploading a copy of your current resume (in PDF or Word document
format).
Applications will be reviewed in the order that they are received. There are a limited number of
spaces available in the program, and once they are filled no more applications will be
considered. Thus, it will be to your benefit and increase your chances of acceptance to submit
an application as soon as possible.
Application deadlines are as follows:
First round deadline: March 1, 2014
Second round deadline: May 1, 2014
Third round deadline: July 1, 2014
Final round deadline - August 1, 2014
The program will have its official start on Saturday, August 23rd, 2014.
YOUR NAME AND CONTACT INFORMATION
Your name
Your home address
Your email address
Your phone number
PLEASE TELL US WHY YOU ARE INTERESTED IN E-SCHOLARS
Are you a current UMKC
student? UMKC alumnus?
How did you hear about the EScholars Program?
What do you hope to achieve
with the E-Scholars Program?
PROGRAM COST & ACADEMIC CREDIT
The cost of the program is $500 for the entire year, payable in two installments. The E-Scholars
Program is open to all applicants – you don’t need to be a UMKC student to apply.
For applicants who are also UMKC students, they may choose to receive course credit for the
program. Payment can be made in the same way as any university course; a three credit-hour
course at UMKC costs approximately $1200.
The name of your venture
Type Here
Submit an eight-paragraph summary of your venture idea using the following outline. Don’t
worry that you don’t have all the details about your venture. Just answer the following
questions as thoroughly as you can. When complete, your venture idea summary should be
about 4-5 pages.
We recommend that you prepare all of your responses in this Word document provided so that
you have a copy for your own records – responses submitted through the website will not be
accessible by applicants at a later date!
Paragraph 1:
Describe the problem or need that you seek to address. What are the pain points that your
potential customers experience? Can you assign a dollar cost to some of these pain points?
What is the time cost? What is the emotional cost?
Paragraph 2:
How many people do you estimate have this problem? How did you arrive at this estimate?
Paragraph 3:
Describe your solution. What are the characteristics of your product or service?
Paragraph 4:
Who are your key competitors? What are the characteristics of their products or services?
Paragraph 5:
Why will your target customers buy from you instead of from a competitor? How easy will it be
for customers to understand the differences between your product or service and those of
competitors? How much time and effort will it take to inform potential customers about those
differences? How open and receptive will customers be to your efforts?
Paragraph 6:
Specify the price you expect to charge and to whom (e.g., identify “price” as the retail or the
wholesale price). Explain the rationale for your price. How many potential customers will be
willing to pay this price? Explain the rationale for your revised market size estimate.
Paragraph 7:
Explain why you are the right person to start this venture. What abilities, experience, resources,
and connections do you bring to this venture? In short, what do you know, what can you do,
who do you know, and what do you have that uniquely qualifies you to succeed in this venture?
Paragraph 8:
Answer the following questions. In your opinion,
a) What are the strongest points of your idea?
b) What are the weakest points?
c) What information do you need to more accurately evaluate your idea?
ADDITIONAL TABLES, CHARTS OR FIGURES
Feel free to include any tables, charts, or figures that will help the reader understand your
arguments. However, if you include a table or chart, you still need to explain the content of the
table/chart and the importance of the content to your readers.
PLEASE CHECK YOUR DOCUMENT
Remember: Your idea summary is a marketing document that you will use to sell your idea to
mentors and investors. Spelling and grammar mistakes are indicative of your interest and level
of effort. Please check your document carefully prior to submission.
INCLUDE A CURRENT RESUME WITH YOUR APPLICATION
Please submit a Word or Adobe PDF resume document in addition to your venture description
Questions may be directed to Mark Parry, Director of E-Scholars Program, parryma@umkc.edu,
or Tom Boozer, Associate Director of E-Scholars Program, boozert@umkc.edu.
Any administrative questions may be directed to umkcescholars@umkc.edu or 816-235-6200. If
for any reason you experience technical difficulties in submitting the application form, please
contact us!