Photos From The Michigan Business Challenge Awards Reception and Grants Announcement

The Pryor-Hale Award for Best Business for $20,000 went to Fashion Forward Maternity – a socially responsible online boutique where savvy professional women can borrow high quality and designer maternity and nursing fashions at a fraction of the price of new

Erin Lewis (EMBA ’12), Judy Skiles Lavers (NOT PICTURED:Sannie Sapier)

Photo by: Austin Thomason, U-M Photo Services

Runner-up Converge Medical Technologies was awarded $10,000 – a medical device company that develops patient brain function monitoring solutions through principles of neuroscience

Jay Johnson (MSE, MIC Fellow ’12), Anna Ng (MHA, MIC Fellow ’12), Mike Johnson (MD/MBA, MIC Fellow ’12), Anthony Tsai (MD, MIC Fellow ’12) (NOT PICTURED: George Mashour)

Photo by: Austin Thomason, U-M Photo Services

@Fingertips received $26,000 in Prizes and Grants including $5,000 for the Williamson Award for Most Successful Team of Business and Engineering Students – a for-profit social-entrepreneurial company that builds devices enabling the blind to use modern touchscreen devices

PK Mishra (MBA ’12), Nick Wilcox, Roger Potter (BSE ME ’12), Siyang Chen (MFA ’13)

Photo by: Austin Thomason, U-M Photo Services

Thru.im was awarded the Most Successful Undergraduate Team for $2,500 – a mobile website that lets you transact with any business via free text messaging for consumers who want to communicate with businesses through text

Chad Stark (BBA ’11), David Spiro (BBA ’12) (NOT PICTURED: Calvin Gee (BS Informatics ’12), Cheng Chen (BS Computer Science Engineering ’12)

Photo by: Austin Thomason, U-M Photo Services

The Beet Box was awarded a Applebaum Dare to Dream Integration Grants of $5,000 – providing healthy fast-food options that support and reward a healthy lifestyle

Alexander Perlman (BA ’13), Robert Fitzpatrick III (BA ’13),  Eric Harbour (BS ’13), Alex Horak (BS ’13)

Photo by: Austin Thomason, U-M Photo Services

Digital Maxim was awarded the $2,500 Applebaum Dare to Dream Integration Grants- providing regional books in eBook format for all popular eReader devices to serve the needs of immigrant populations living in developed countries

Thirumurthi Ranganathan (MBA ’13) (NOT PICTURED: Sriram Ramanathan (MBA ’13), Deviprasad Taluk (MBA ’13), Ramalingam Subramaniyam, Manushyaputhiran)

Photo by: Austin Thomason, U-M Photo Services

Venture Capital Know-How Pays Off in VCIC Semifinals

In addition to helping students excel as entrepreneurs, the Zell Lurie Institute and Ross also do a lot of exciting work preparing students that have the desire to go on to work in venture capital. Among the opportunities provided are the three student-led venture funds, participating on the competing team at the annual intercollegiate international Venture Capital Investment Competition and the option to enroll in specialized investment courses.

It gives us great pleasure to announce that the Michigan team at the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) placed first in the Mountain Division during the regional semi-finals held on February 10 at the University of Colorado. The team, which consists of Sachin Agarwal (MBA 2012), Kwesi Buabeng (MBA 2012), Steve Davidson (MBA 2013), Abhishek Kakani (MBA 2012), and George Tan (MBA 2012), beat out competitors from Rice, Chicago, Kellogg, Notre Dame and Wisconsin.

VCIC is an annual international educational event for MBAs to learn about venture funding. Now in its 15t^h year, VCIC is a very powerful learning experience during which students are the investors, and real entrepreneurs pitch to them while over a dozen VCs serve as judges. It’s a win-win-win experience: students learn (and win cash), entrepreneurs connect with investors and VCs get an early peek at some viable deals.

Coached by Tom Porter, Manager of the School’s Frankel Commercialization Fund, the Michigan team will be heading to the VCIC international finals on April 12-14 at UNC in Chapel Hill, NC. Good luck!

Zell Lurie in the News: Peter Adriaens, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Tim Faley, Managing Director of Zell Lurie

If you haven’t read or heard, Peter Adriaens and Tim Faley have provided their expertise for several hot topics in recent weeks. Peter Adriaens, a professor of entrepreneurship at the Zell Lurie Institute, offered his expert opinion on internet company valuations as Facebook filed its IPO. Additionally, Tim Faley, managing director of the Zell Lurie Institute, weighed in on his thoughts on entrepreneurial education for the Financial Times.

On Wednesday, February 1, 2012 Facebook filed their prospectus, which was highly anticipated for the startup turned social network giant. On the day the document was filed, Peter was featured on MSNBC as a source for the article, “Facebook offers plenty of reasons not to like its shares.” Peter analyzed the risk factors including the unknown total value of the company, and “restrictions on getting into China, which could hamper its growth.” Peter also compared Facebook to Groupon explaining, “if Facebook can keep costs down that’s good.”

The next day, Peter was featured in Forbes and VentureBeat. In Forbes, “Facebook Valuation: We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know,” Peter brought insight into how the value of Facebook may be affected by information not available in the prospectus such as the challenge to improve the click-through rate as well as the overseas laws which prohibit detailed data about users, which could impact future target-marketing. He concludes, “Careful analysis of the risks associated with its revenue streams almost certainly will mean that the hype and recent growth rates cannot be sustained, and that the initial offering will not be reflective of its valuation going forward.”

Peter was also featured in VentureBeat’s article, “What Facebook isn’t telling you about its risky ad business.” Peter argued, “Facebook, for its part, partially alluded to this potential risk in the S-1, but didn’t do so in a way that provided full transparency to would-be investors.”

VentureBeat had a follow up article, Facebook worth $94B, private market says, about the dollar value of Facebook. Peter pointed out, “the $100 billion number that has been circulated so widely… is all based on 5 percent of the shares being worth potentially $5 billion.”

While Peter provided expert opinion on the Facebook IPO, Tim Faley offered his perspective on entrepreneurial education. “Entrepreneurs are only taught half the lesson” focuses on how entrepreneurial education is incomplete and ends with a hopeful call to action for business schools to offer more well-rounded entrepreneurial curriculums. Tim’s opinion has spurred additional commentary responses such as this reaction in the Financial Times.

Check out the articles in their entirety below:

·         MSNBC

·         Forbes

·         VentureBeat

·         VentureBeat Follow Up

·         Financial Times

Tips for Business Plan Competition Success: How to Successfully Discuss Key Components of Your Business

Business plan competitions have been around for many years and are an invaluable resource in shaping your business creation and development skills and possibly earning enough prize money and services to help get your business launched.  Many community organizations as well as University-based entrepreneurial programs across the U.S. host competitions. On campus, business plan competitions are wildly popular and entrepreneurially-minded undergraduate and graduate students of all disciplines want to know the tricks of the trade to succeed at these competitions.

It takes a lot of practice and coaching to learn what’s needed. At the Zell Lurie Institute students can get involved in the Michigan Business Challenge – a multi-stage, campus-wide business plan competition – that requires business plan component deliverables due as teams move further along the competition track or the Dare to Dream program offering funding to explore an idea, research the business potential, develop a business plan, and launch. Both programs provide the opportunity for students to team up with other entrepreneurially minded students from across campus to move a business idea forward and to receive one-on-one coaching from Institute staff.

Having a great business idea needs a great pitch to succeed and a key component for any pitch begins with learning how to succinctly plant the seed to start a longer discussion.  Professor Tom Kinnear has some interesting thoughts on the topic.  Tom is also the Executive Director of the Zell Lurie Institute as well as an investor, board member or founder in starting 11 companies.  One piece of advice he has for distinguishing your pitch is to communicate “what it is you are trying to do – that’s big and solves a problem [pain] not currently solved by others.”

Following are key components of a successful pitch:

• A successful pitch conveys the passion of the speaker and clearly articulates the market need. It is well-crafted and rehearsed and stays on time. It is the beginning of a longer discussion that piques the interest of your audience and ultimately convinces them to continue the conversation.  The best feedback after a pitch is “tell me more.”

• The ultimate goal of the pitch is to communicate, succinctly but adequately, the service or product you offer as well as describes the solution of how you are going to solve ‘the pain’ and your product’s/service’s unique, value-add offering.

• The content of your pitch should not only address the problem that needs solving and the product or service that will solve it, but also the customer, the market, how the company will make money, the competition, and the company’s competitive advantage. Together this information should foreshadow the future potential of your startup.

Always remember that you are in front of investors and business leaders who often serve as judges and who have the potential to serve as mentors or future board members or to provide initial funding as you grow and develop your business.  Whether or not you take top prize, the competition experience, as well as the coaching you receive and the connections you make among other teams and with the judges are all ways to develop your entrepreneurial skills and knowledge while earning your degree.

Michigan Growth Capital Symposium Application Process Has Opened for Presenting Companies

The application process has begun for presenting companies for the 31st annual Michigan Growth Capital Symposium. MGCS is the Midwest’s leading event for attracting the best investors from across the U.S. and introducing them to high-quality, early stage and growth companies seeking funding. Presented by the University of Michigan Zell Lurie Institute‘s Center for Venture Capital & Private Equity Finance at the Ross School of Business with support from the Michigan Venture Capital Association, this year’s Symposium will be held May 15-16, 2012 at the Marriott Resort in Ypsilanti, Mich.

MGCS features programming and opportunities for startups and venture capitalists. Since 2000, more than three-hundred companies have presented at the Symposium and about 70% of those companies have gone on to raise capital totaling more than $1.7 billion in investments.

Applicants should be privately-held companies from a range of industries and seeking $500,000 to $20 million in funding. For any company that presents, there is a valuable opportunity to pitch their business to venture capitalists, angel investors and institutional investors. Another valuable tool is that presenting companies have access to expert coaching, preparation assistance, exhibit space, and investors all in one place.

The early application deadline is February 23 and the final deadline is March 6 at midnight. Presenting companies will be independently selected by a committee of qualified venture capitalists from across the U.S. The selected companies will be notified on April 5. The application, as well as registration and sponsorship information, can be found on the Symposium’s website, www.MichiganGCS.com.

The Zell Lurie Institute at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business Has Named Eight Semi-Finalist Student Teams in Annual Michigan Business Challenge

The Michigan Business Challenge has narrowed down to eight from the original 45 student teams. After round one, fourteen teams were selected to compete in round two where each team was given seven minutes to describe their company’s solution to a pressing market need or pain, an estimation of the market size, and support for the team’s financial assumptions. The teams then had 10 minutes for questions from the judges.

This competition simulates the multi-phase business development and planning process required to commercialize a great idea, while also providing mentoring at every step in the process. In the past decade alone, over 500 teams have participated in the Michigan Business Challenge where they have received nearly $375,000 in prize money. Many earn enough seed funding in this and subsequent business plan competitions to fuel a successful launch and at times, attract sizable Series A investments.

Semi-finalists were named on Friday, Jan. 20 they are:

• @Fingertips – Building a device that enables the blind to use modern touch-screens on smartphones and other devices
• ASK Interfaces – Designing a user interface for mobile devices for individuals with fine motor control disabilities
• AutoBike – Designing a user-friendly automatic shifting system for recreational bicyclists
• Converge Medical Technologies – Creating a neuro-monitoring device would allow improved evaluation of patient sedation and awareness in surgery and in the critical care unit
• Fashion Forward Maternity – An online boutique for women to rent high quality and designer maternity fashions
• Stride Sports – Designing and manufacturing fitness and exercise equipment
• Surf-face – Mobile dating application that leverages Facebook to facilitate meaningful connections
• thru.im – Mobile website that lets customers transact with any business via free text messaging

The semi-finals and finals will take place on Friday, Feb. 17, during which the eight semi-finalist teams will present their entire business plans to judges. Following the semi-finals that day, four finalists will be selected to discuss their businesses with a panel of professional investors during a 30 minute interactive session. The winning teams for the Challenge and the Winter 2012 recipients of Dare to Dream grants will be announced during an evening reception at the Ross School of Business. For more information, see www.zli.bus.umich.edu.

The Zell Lurie Institute at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business Launches Venture Shaping Program

For aspiring entrepreneurs, one of the most exciting—and challenging—parts of an MBA program can be putting the initial framework around a potential business idea. Well known Ann Arbor-based entrepreneur Tim Mayleben realized this and, along with his wife, have generously donated to the Samuel Zell and Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies to create the Mayleben Family Venture Shaping Program, a grant program that teaches student teams from across the University how to transform identified opportunities into businesses.

The Venture Shaping program will serve as a perfect stepping stone between two of the University’s top existing entrepreneurial grant programs. As the newest part of the Institute’s well-established Dare to Dream grant program, Venture Shaping will allow student teams to participate in an action-based, three-step process to measure the potential value of their business in the market.  These measurements include: a directed discovery, value system synthesis and profiting from capabilities (PFC) framework evaluation.  At the end of the iterative process, students will have a clear description of a business that will solve a validated market need, as well as tangible insight into its commercial promise.

Twenty-five student teams will be awarded cash prizes to take their idea to the next step in the business development process, with guidance from Institute faculty and potential cash infusions from more advanced phases of the Dare to Dream program. Visit http://www.zli.bus.umich.edu/events_programs/ for further details on upcoming deadlines and how to participate.

Michigan Entrepreneurship Leaders Forum

The Samuel Zell and Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business has joined forces with Michigan State University’s Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Broad College of Business to create the Michigan Entrepreneurship Education Leaders Forum.  Last week the forum held its first meeting with representatives from the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, as well as Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Grand Valley, Wayne State and Western Michigan Universities. The meeting addressed how entrepreneurship programs can—individually and collaboratively—provide students with the critical entrepreneurial skills needed and the best, most effective practices for doing this. Discussion topics included teaching and funding models as well as the scaling of more intensive student experiences.

“Bringing our region’s top entrepreneurial educators together is the best way to ensure we maximize every opportunity for students throughout Michigan to create meaningful entrepreneurial ventures, impact start-up development, or innovate within a corporate environment,” said Managing Director of the Zell Lurie Institute Tim Faley.

At the University of Michigan, the Forum represents another way the Zell Lurie Institute, a part of Michigan Ross, is delivering on the long term vision of Sam Zell to catalyze the proliferation of entrepreneurship throughout the greater Michigan region and the entire country. The group will next meet in May. For more details about Friday’s forum, check out the Xconomy article.

Zell Lurie Supported Startups Present at the Accelerate Michigan Business Plan Competition

Last week, the Accelerate Michigan business plan competition took place at the University of Michigan’s North Campus Research Complex in Ann Arbor where students and companies presented their business plans. Of the 28 teams that presented at the business plan competition, ten companies had received previous support from the Zell Lurie Institute ranging from funding, coaching, and tenancy in TechArb (an office space for students working developing their business idea), to direct exposure to investors at the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium. 

Among the companies with former ties to the Zell Lurie Institute is DeNovo Sciences. Founded by Kaylan Handique, DeNovo Sciences provides a user-friendly platform for cancer research and diagnosis.  Specif­i­cally, the com­pany plans to sell an instru­ment sys­tem and reagent kit that allows for the sep­a­ra­tion, detec­tion, and retrieval of cir­cu­lat­ing tumor cells (CTCs) from periph­eral whole blood.  The Institute had helped Kalyan Handique with the business plan development of a previous company he founded, HandyLab. That company ultimately went on to receive several rounds of investments from the student-led Wolverine Venture Fund.

Four of the semi-finalists at Accelerate Michigan had previously presented at the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium, an annual venture capital conference held by the Zell Lurie Institute where presenting companies are provided coaching and the opportunity to pitch in front of investors from across the U.S.  In addition of the companies below one received investment from the student-led Frankel Fund. They are:

• Fusion Coolant Systems (2011) provides a cool­ing and lubri­ca­tion sys­tem which increases pro­duc­tion rates and tool life.
• NEXTGEN Metabolomics (2011) has devel­oped pro­pri­etary dis­rup­tive tech­nol­ogy and prod­ucts which allow faster and more con­cise mea­sure­ments of the effects of dis­ease (diag­nos­tics), tox­ins (tox­i­col­ogy), drugs (phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal, bio­process), and food (agri­cul­ture, nutri­tion) on any liv­ing organ­ism and will become the foun­da­tion upon which the metabolomic industry will be built.
• Accio Energy, Inc., (2010) is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based early-stage renewable energy company which is developing unique “turbine-less” wind energy generation technology, specifically though the Aero­voltaic™ sys­tems.
• Phrixus Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, Inc., (2010) a clinical-stage spe­cialty phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pany, is a startup company devel­op­ing Carme­seal™ to treat car­diac dys­func­tion and dilated car­diomy­opa­thy (DCM) in patients with Duchenne mus­cu­lar dys­tro­phy (DMD) and acute decom­pen­sated HF (ADHF).

The winner of the $25,000 student competition first prize Are You a Human (AYAH) uses games for human ver­i­fi­ca­tion online through their PlayThru program.  PlayThrus are a five to ten second game which allows advertisers, as well as AYAH, to score the humanness of the interaction.  As a Detroit-based web startup, AYAH has been actively involved in securing multiple financial investments and other aid from the Zell Lurie Institute.  AYAH has a long list of grants and scholarships including a Dare to Dream grant ($5,000), Ann Arbor SPARK Boot Camp Scholarship ($1,000), TechArb tenancy, winnings from the Rice Business Plan Competition ($154,100), and a Frankel Fund investment.  All of these opportunities and investments were a direct result of the programs and mentoring provided by the Zell Lurie Institute.

Another highlight of the Accelerate Michigan business plan competition was the success of previous Dare to Dream recipients, a grant program that awards up to $10,000 to promising student start up companies.  Four recipients of Dare to Dream grants took home prizes or placed as finalists at the Accelerate Michigan business plan competition.  These student companies include:  AddressMe, an app to update, share, and group addresses and print off labels; Fashion Forward Maternity, a University of Michigan concept which bills itself as the Netflix of maternity fashion; Design Inno­va­tions for Infants/Mothers Everywhere (DIIME) (winning a $10,00 student People’s Choice Award), a high-quality low-cost technologies that increase access to maternal and infant care in limited resource settings (the company entered the Michigan Business Challenge and was also awarded  TechArb tenancy); and MEMStim, a semi-conductor company that designs and sells electrode leads to medical device companies for use in neurostimulators.  In the past, MEMStim won the Michigan Business Challenge ($27,000), a multi-stage business plan competition for University of Michigan students, the San Diego State University Venture Challenge ($5,000) and the Venture Labs Investment Competition ($1,000).

Congratulations to all teams who participated!

Six Critical Skills Entrepreneurs Need to Succeed – Managing Growth

With a keen understanding of and experience mastering the first five entrepreneurial skills – identifying the opportunity, designing, assessing, planning, and resourcing the business, students then must understand how to manage growth. After all, once launched, a start-up company needs to grow rapidly in order to achieve its goals and meet its investors’ expectations. To achieve that movement, skill in managing growth within a resource-constrained environment is vital. This skill enables entrepreneurs to create a sound strategy for scaling the business, including identifying tangential markets, attracting new customers and improving product and service offerings.

Chief executives from companies in various stages of growth visit the classroom to discuss their management challenges as part of the Managing the Growth of New Ventures course taught by Tom Porter, the Institute’s executive-in-residence.

For “in the trenches” learning, Entrepreneurial MAP provides students with an opportunity to work in a start-up environment where they can develop entrepreneurial leadership skills and exercise their ability to drive results. Marcel Gani internships also afford students a first-hand view of growth management at large corporations, small companies and start-ups. The annual Global Private Equity Conference shines the light on the entire life cycle of companies by engaging experts from private equity, investment banking and other business sectors in discussions of the latest developments and directions in private equity finance.