Calling All Entrepreneurs: The McLane Law Firm Wants to Help Get Your Idea Off the Ground with the 2012 Start-Up Challenge

McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton, Professional Association with offices in Manchester, Concord and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Woburn, Massachusetts, is pleased to sponsor New Hampshire’s largest business plan competition – the New Hampshire Start-Up Challenge.

Launched in 2008 by the Manchester Young Professionals Network, the New Hampshire Start-Up Challenge is a business plan competition for entrepreneurs across the state who need help getting their business up and running.

The winner will receive a total prize package exceeding $35,000, including up to $25,000 in cash. In addition to receiving legal service from McLane, the winner will also get a seat in the abi Innovation Hub’s Accelerator Program, a one-year residence at the incubator, accounting services from Howe, Riley & Howe, CPA, of Manchester, as well as other prizes.

In order to qualify, contestants must email a written or video summary of their business plan by April 16, 2012.

Five contestants will be selected to move on to the next level.  They will be given the opportunity to participate in a series of educational forums coordinated by the abi Innovation Hub to help them further hone their business plans.

Two finalists will then go head to head in a live pitch event on June 20th at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College.

Applicants must 1) be a New Hampshire resident, 2) be the owner or founder of a for-profit business that is less than three years old, 3) have raised less than $100,000 in funding, and 4) generated less than $100,000 in revenue in 2011.

Past winners of the Start-Up Challenge include Nearby Registry, of Concord, Play@Work of southern New Hampshire, Float Left Labs, of Manchester, and Alternative Fuels and Technologies, of Rollinsford.

McLane joins Public Service of New Hampshire Dyn, abi Innovation Hub, Howe, Riley & Howe and Montagne Communications as sponsors of the Start-Up Challenge.

For more information and complete rules of the competition, please visit http://www.mypn.org/nh-start-up-challenge.

About the McLane Law Firm

Founded in 1919, McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton, Professional Association is the largest full-service law firm in the state of New Hampshire, with offices in Manchester, Concord and Portsmouth, as well as Woburn, Massachusetts. Driven by the firm’s depth of sophisticated legal expertise and an unwavering commitment to client service, McLane has built collaborative and lasting relationships with a broad spectrum of domestic and international clients.  www.mclane.com