Purdue News
Purdue News
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February 13, 2004 Finalists vie for $100,000 in campus business plan contestWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Finalists have been chosen to compete for $100,000 in total prize money on Thursday (2/19) during the 17th annual Burton D. Morgan Entrepreneurial Competition. During the competition, beginning at 8 a.m. in Rawls Hall, Room 3082, six finalists will give full business plan presentations to a panel of professors and venture capitalist judges, and four other teams will make five-minute "quick pitches."
First prize is $50,000, and the winning team also gets free office space for one year at the Purdue Research Park and professional services. Second prize is $20,000; third, $10,000; fourth, $7,000; fifth, $5,000; and sixth, $3,000. Second- and third-place finishers qualify for reduced-rent office space at the research park. The top quick pitch wins $2,500; second wins $1,500; third, $750; and fourth, $250. Presentation times and finalist teams are: – 8-8:35 a.m. First full presentation, Chipotle Networks – 8:40-9:15 a.m. Second full presentation, OrganoDevice Technology – 9:20-9:55 a.m. Third full presentation, CELLTRACK – 10-10:35 a.m. Fourth full presentation, Automatic Caption Technology – 10:40-11:15 a.m. Fifth full presentation, BioQ – 11:20-11:55 a.m. Sixth full presentation, Optical Therapeutic Technologies – Noon to 12:10 p.m. Break – 12:10-12:25 p.m. First quick pitch, BDS Technologies – 12:30-12:45 p.m. Second quick pitch, Smoakin' Software – 12:50-1:05 p.m. Third quick pitch, ATTOSENSE – 1:10-1:25 p.m. Fourth quick pitch, Search Technologies The awards ceremony will take place at 2:30 p.m. in Rawls Hall, Student Forum. Teams can include undergraduates from any major, graduate students and professors, community members and students from other schools, but competition rules stipulate that a Purdue student must make the final presentation. Don Blewett, associate director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, said the teams will be judged on the basis of how they define and present a clear path to market. He also said the competition is taking place earlier this year than in the past 16 years so that teams will have the opportunity to take their ideas and plans to other business plan competitions – such as those at the universities of Texas, Washington and Oregon. The Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship may pay some of the travel expenses for any Burton Morgan Entrepreneurial Competition finalist landing a spot in these other events. Richard A. Cosier, Krannert School dean and Leeds Professor of Management, is director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, which is sponsoring the competition. He explained the center's mission is universitywide. "We want to be involved with technology transfer – helping bring Purdue research to the marketplace," he said. "We're very serious about educational events, such as this entrepreneurial competition. It's all part of making Purdue a much more entrepreneurially engaged institution." Last year's winners were mechanical engineering graduate students Dan Schlitz and Vishal Singhal. Their venture, Thorrn Micro Technologies, was based on a small, quiet, high-performance device they developed to cool laptop computers. The increased power in today's computers creates additional heat, making compact cooling devices more critical. Writer: Mike Lillich, (765) 494-2077, mlillich@purdue.edu Sources: Don Blewett, (765) 494-4485, blewett@mgmt.purdue.edu Richard A. Cosier, (765) 494-4366, rcosier@mgmt.purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu PHOTO CAPTION: A publication-quality photograph is available at https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/morganprize.03.jpeg
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