2004 business plan competition a ‘terrific event’

2004
business plan competition a ‘terrific event’

BY LIZ CRAWFORD
Special to the Rice News

Armed with business
plans ranging from fast food in India to hand tools to high
fashion, students from top-rated MBA programs competed in
Houston last month for more than $42,000 in cash prizes
during the 2004 Rice University Business Plan Competition
hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship
and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at
Rice University.

Thirty-four teams
from three continents — North America, Europe and Asia
— competed, making Rice University’s Business
Plan Competition the largest intercollegiate business plan
competition, based on the number of teams competing on campus.

This year for
the first time 17 teams — half of the competitors —
took home prize money.
The Hewlett-Packard Company Grand Prize of $15,000 was awarded
to the team from Carnegie Mellon University’s ClearCount
Medical Solutions (formerly known as SurgiCounter). With
a technique covered by two issued U.S. patents and a third
pending patent, the company uses radio frequency identification
device technology to electronically track and scan for surgical
sponges in the operating room. The ClearCount team also
won the Cogene BioTech Ventures Life Sciences Award of $2,000
for the best life science business plan of the competition.

In addition to
the cash prize — and free roundtrip airline tickets
sponsored by Southwest Airlines, the ClearCount team won
the opportunity to compete at the International MOOT CORP
finals competition to be held in May, where the team will
vie for $100,000 in seed funding to launch its new venture.
The Rice competition is one of the qualifying events in
the United States for the MOOT CORP finals.

The Shell Technology
Ventures First Runner-Up Prize of $10,000 was awarded to
the team from the University of Arkansas, Black Widow Hand
Tools. This company is commercializing the first significant
patented innovation in the hex key industry in the past
40 years, the dual action Black Widow hex key.

The Finger Interests
Second Runner-Up Prize of $5,000 was awarded to the team
from the University of California at Los Angeles, Krank
Magazine.

All of the teams
that reached the final rounds won prize money. The additional
finalists, who each won a cash prize of $1,000, were Taco
Tikka from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
vAudit from San Diego State University, Chipotle Business
Group from The University of Texas at Austin and E-Shipping
Solutions from the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton).

More than half
of the MBA schools that competed this year are ranked among
the top 30 business schools in the United States, including
Harvard, Wharton, Yale, Michigan, Northwestern, Columbia,
Duke and Cornell. Other schools that competed were Louisiana
State, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ohio State,
Rice, Southern Methodist, Texas A&M, the University
of Arizona, the University of Georgia, the University of
Houston, the University of Illinois, the University of Kentucky,
the University of Oregon, the University of Rochester, the
University of San Francisco, The University of Texas at
Dallas, the University of Virginia, the University of Washington,
Vanderbilt University, Indian Institute of IT and Management
and Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores
de Monterrey.

“Clearly,
each time the scope, breadth and quality of the teams along
with the overall vibrancy of the event have grown, markedly,”
said Paul Friscon, president and chief executive officer
of Houston Technology Center and three-time judge of the
competition. “This event is an outstanding opportunity
for the top business school student representatives to present
their well-prepared business plans to an extremely broad
panel of well-experienced business evaluators, potential
investors and seasoned entrepreneurs. This is a terrific
event, well worthy of Rice University’s coordination,
direction and sponsorship.”

Participating
in the three-day competition were more than 110 judges representing
a “who’s who” in the entrepreneurial community
— individuals representing venture capital, early stage
investors, investment banking, high-tech businesses, energy,
biotechnology and other industry participants and successful
entrepreneurs.

“The quality
of our judges is one of the reasons that the Rice competition
has become one of the largest business plan competitions
in the United States,” said Steve Currall, founding
director of the Rice Alliance. “This allowed us to
attract over 50 MBA programs to apply to this year’s
competition. The success of the competition is one more
sign that the city of Houston is fast becoming a leading
hub for technology entrepreneurship.”

The Rice Business
Plan Competition presented a prestigious group of speakers
during the three-day event: Jennifer Gill Roberts, former
general partner of Sevin Rosen Funds and founder of the
Forum for Women Entrepreneurs; Keith LeFebvre, vice president
within Hewlett-Packard Company’s Personal Systems Group’s
Americas Region; and Rod Canion, co-founder and former CEO
of Compaq Computer Corporation.

“This year’s
competition was a complete redesign from last year,”
said Liz Crawford, coordinator of the competition. “While
the 2003 competition was very successful, we received some
wonderful feedback from the participants and the judges
on additional events they would like to participate in.
As a result of this feedback, we added a team showcase,
feedback rounds, the wildcard round and the elevator pitch
competition.” The addition of these events made it
possible for the Rice Business Plan Competition to award
18 cash prizes — ensuring that half of the teams presenting
would go home with money.

Plans for next
year’s competition, slated for April 7-9, are already
under way.

Information about
the Rice Alliance can be found at <www.alliance.rice.edu>.
For more information about the Rice University Business
Plan Competition, visit <www.alliance.rice.edu/rbpc>
or contact Crawford at 713-348-6354.

— Liz Crawford
is events coordinator for the Rice Alliance for Technology
and Entrepreneurship.