Announcements

Business Plan Competition announces semifinalists

The Tulane Entrepreneurs Association has announced the semifinalists for the 2011 Tulane Business Plan Competition. The competition, which takes place on Friday, April 8, at the Freeman School, will award up to $70,000 in cash to the most promising new venture.

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This year’s competition attracted 76 entries from 50 universities in five countries, including China, Thailand and Spain, and the 20 ventures selected to move on to the second round run the gamut from biotechnology to finance to alternative energy.

“Yet again, we have been extremely impressed by both the quantity and quality of the plans submitted in this year’s competition,” says Chris Williams, president of the Tulane Entrepreneurs Association, organizer of the annual event. “It gives us reassurance that the principles of conscious capitalism are continuing to spread throughout the global business community. The plans advancing to the second round represent the best ideas that our generation has to offer, and the Tulane Entrepreneurs Association is proud to be associated with ventures of this caliber.”

The Tulane Business Plan Competition is the nation’s only competition dedicated to the principles of conscious capitalism. In order to be considered, ventures must demonstrate not only market potential but also the ability to positively affect all stakeholders and the society in which they operate.

The 2011 semifinalists are:

  • Bioceptive (Tulane University)
  • Drop the Chalk LLC (Tulane University)
  • Eden Organic Water (Northwestern University)
  • EMOPP (Tulane University)
  • enVivaTech (Tulane University)
  • Forfront Industries (Ball State University)
  • G&G Heritage Hotels (Purdue University)
  • GTC NOLA (Tulane University)
  • HomePoint Testing (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
  • Nooch (Duke University)
  • Oculeve (Stanford University)
  • Orthopeptide Biotechnology (Drexel University & Tulane University)
  • OsComp Systems (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
  • Pathostat LLC (University of Arizona)
  • Project Yele (Carnegie Mellon University)
  • Rebirth Financial Inc. (Tulane University)
  • Sanergy (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
  • Tilapiana (Brigham Young University)
  • True Products LLC (Dartmouth College)
  • TrueId Security (University of Louisville)

Each of the above ventures must now submit a full business plan for review by competition judges. On March 18, the Tulane Entrepreneurs Association will announce three finalists who will be invited to compete for a grand prize of $50,000 in the competition’s live final round.

This year, thanks to a gift from the Domain Companies, the competition will also award a prize of $20,000 to the venture judged to have the most positive economic impact on New Orleans. In addition to the six Tulane-based plans above, five other ventures were  chosen to move on to the second round of the Domain Companies New Orleans Entrepreneur Challenge. Three finalists will be selected to compete for the $20,000 prize in a live round following the Tulane Business Plan Competition.

The 2011 Tulane Business Plan Competition is sponsored by the Domain Companies, the Graduate and Professional Student Association of Tulane University, the A. B. Freeman School of Business, the Graduate Business Council of the A. B. Freeman School of Business, Crescent Bank & Trust, Nola Graphics, the Tulane Association of Business Alumni, and the New Orleans BioInnovation Center.

For more information about this year’s competition, visit TulaneBusinessPlanCompetition.com.

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