What type of ideas catch the intrigue of the Venture Capital Community? That question was answered at the final round of the Innovators Business Pitch Competition, sponsored by Accenture, held on February 26 during FuturTech. The three student teams that presented ideas to a panel of judges were vying for a total of $5,000 in funding and a chance to refine their ideas with Silicon Valley talent at GameChange, a joint venture of Accenture and Softbank Venture Capital. The event began with a brief introduction from the moderator, Paul Kirsch, Program Manager of the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurship. Paul credited Larry Weyer, MBA2 and Sachin Gadhavi, MBA '00 for founding the competition. This year, the competition was supported by the High-Tech Club and the Entrepreneur and Venture Capital Club and run by Larry Weyer, MBA2, Shelley Scipione, MBA2 and Shane Rahmani, BBA2. Jeff Gans, MBA '00, provided much-needed organizational support and funding on the part of Accenture. The primary goal of the Innovators Business Pitch Competition is to provide UMBS students with a forum to develop and present their ideas to VCs. The competition required students to develop business pitches, a scaled-down version of a business plan, detailing ideas that were not fully developed, with the goal of involving a greater portion of the student body.
A speaker series guided students in developing the idea, writing the plan and pitching to Venture Capitalists. The series brought members of the Entrepreneurial and Venture Capitalist community to the Michigan students in order to: build awareness in the Michigan student body about entrepreneurial activists, assist student groups in cultivating their plans, and provide a forum for students from the Business School, Engineering School, Law School, and Public Policy school to rally around common interests. By writing the business pitch in conjunction with the speaker series, students were able to get additional direction and feedback from Venture Capitalists from Arbor Partners, Waypoint Ventures and Accenture.
The Business Pitch Competition Finals represented the three best business pitches out of a pool of submissions selected by the Wolverine Venture Fund. The finalists took home $3,500 for first place, $1,000 for second place and $500 for third place.
The Finalists were:
Evisen: Evisen provides a platform that helps individuals transform their information, knowledge, and skills into digital products available for sale over the Internet. Evisen is led by University of Michigan MBA candidate Michael Beaton and Ph.D. Candidate Haksun Li.
Flex-Labs: Flex-Lab Technologies (FLT) specializes in the application of advanced sensing technology to the medical and environmental testing industries. Flex Lab is led by University of Michigan MBA candidates John LoPorto, Dean Nowicki, Richard Smith, Ph.D and alumnus Steve Rose, Ph.D.
Mobius Integrated Systems: Mobius Integrated Systems designs and manufactures integrated circuits to allow companies to efficiently create products for embedded applications. The Management team consists of Michael McCorquodale, Matthew Guthaus and Keith Kraver, Ph.D. Candidates from the University of Michigan.
The student teams gave fifteen-minute presentations followed by ten minutes of questions from the judges. The judges were comprised of the following Venture Capitalists:
Chris Risik: Ardesta Capital, Ann Arbor, MI
Katrin Hilner: Katalyst, Philadelphia, PA
Mark Giometti: Accenture, Boston, MA
Jason Lazar: ITU Ventures, Los Angeles, CA
The diverse panel of judges came back with a quick decision to declare Mobius as the winner. Flex-Labs commanded second place and Evisen finished third. Mobius was presented by Michael McCorquodale, who pitched his team's technical product with clarity and pizzazz. Michael showcased his knowledge of the market and the potential for his product as he handled multiple rounds of questions from the panel and the audience with ease. Finally, he indicated that he needed to further develop the concept and develop a more detailed plan with the help of MBA students. He has recently found the added expertise needed by teaming up with a group of six MBAs within the structure of ES 515/517 (fondly known as "Lawlor's class, though it is taught by Tim Petersen of the Zell-Lurie Entrepreneurial Institute this semester).
This year's business pitches were even stronger than last year's. This is likely a reflection of the changed market that now favors the Finalists' business models of semi-conductors (Mobius), medical devices (Flex-Labs) and person-to-person "P2P" (Evisen) business models. These models replace the previously-favored business-to-business ("B2B") and business-to-consumer ("B2C") Internet business models. The HTC Club and the EVC Club will face the challenge of continuing to increase the size and scope of this competition to continue to attract, develop and reward the innovative ideas of Michigan students.
Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone who contributed to the success.
The Value of the Innovators Business Pitch Competition for BBAs
by Shane Rahmani, BBA2
srahmani@umich.edu
As a former participant and, this year, as co-coordinator, the benefits for undergraduate students' being involved in the Innovators Business Pitch competition are very clear to me. Through the Business Pitch Competition, the Entrepreneur-Venture Capital club has provided a solid outlet for BBAs to explore their business ideas and put their entrepreneurial spirit to the test. New ideas and business innovations are the life-blood of our modern day business world. Without them, economies would not thrive and opportunities would not emerge. Competitions like the Innovators Business Pitch Competition, and conferences like the FuturTech Forum, challenge entrepreneurial students to explore and evaluate those business innovations, while creating innovators along the way.
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