Tulane Business Plan Competition announces first round winners

The Tulane Entrepreneurs Association has announced the 21 semifinalists who will advance to the second round of the Tulane Business Plan Competition.

The semifinalists were selected from among 93 applications submitted to this year's competition. Nations represented in this year's pool of entries include Canada, Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Germany, Indonesia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

"We are proud to have received a record number of applications from around the world for this year's competition," said Matt Dearmon, president of the Tulane Entrepreneurs Association. "The number of applications and the quality of those applications is a testament to Tulane's growing reputation in entrepreneurship and the hard work of the association."

The 21 semifinalists will now submit full business plans for evaluation by a panel of expert judges. The top three plans as selected by the judges will be invited to present their plans in a live competition at the Freeman School on April 16, 2010. The winning team will receive a cash prize of $50,000.

The semifinalist ventures and their host universities are as follows:

• ABCDiagnostics, University of North Carolina
• BizWiz, Johns Hopkins University
• Bombyx Technologies, Cornell University
• CADIA Technologies, University of Pennsylvania
• Canark Technologies, University of Manitoba
• CervoCheck, Johns Hopkins University
• Circle Food Store, Tulane University
• Cortical Concepts, Johns Hopkins University
• Green Silane, University of Michigan
• MB Therapeutics Inc., University of Hawaii
• NanoFex, Tulane University
• narrative, Ohio State University
• NuMe Health, Tulane University
• Nuru Light, University of California
• Rebuilding Together New Orleans Deconstruction and Salvage Program, DePaul University
• Runa, Brown University
• SolarCycle, Georgetown University
• U + Capital, University of Pennsylvania
• Winduction, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The 10th Annual Tulane Business Plan Competition is a presentation of Tulane Entrepreneurs Association, the Graduate and Professional Student Association of Tulane University, and the Graduate Business Council of the A. B. Freeman School of Business. For more information about the competition, visit www.TulaneBusinessPlanCompetition.com.