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That closely echoes what I've seen locally; one business plan competition has had the the majority of winners (for the past 5 years that I've tracked it) not even bother to start a company, they just go get consulting jobs.

The contest doesn't even bother to list the old winners on their website, they know what's going on.

Business plan contests really don't seem to work.

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I played tennis quite well in high school and college. I never tried to go pro. Does that mean the tennis teams failed?

I swam competitively in college. I didn't try for the olympics. Does that mean the swim team failed?

There are a lot of valuable lessons one can pull from a business plan competition even if you don't become a founder, or even if you never intend to become a founder.

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