The Cornell Hospitality Business Plan Competition is an annual entrepreneurship event that begins at the start of the academic year when students form teams and develop executive summaries for their business plans. The competition ends in early spring during Hotel Ezra Cornell (HEC), when the student teams submit their final business plans and semi-finalist teams make their presentations to a judging panel that selects the top three concepts as winners.

Cash prizes for the top three finishers total over $35,000. The Business Plan Competition is a meaningful learning experience for students who are interested in pursuing an entrepreneurial venture and whose ideas serve as new independent ventures in the seed, start-up, or early growth stages.