Tulane Business Model Competition announces semifinalists

Tulane University’s A. B. Freeman School of Business has announced the six teams that will compete in the semifinal round of the 2016 Tulane Business Model Competition.

The competition, an annual presentation of the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Tulane Entrepreneur Association (TEA), awards more than $40,000 in cash and prizes to startups and early-stage ventures that demonstrate a market-tested ability to adapt to customer needs. More than 40 ventures from across the U.S. and two foreign countries applied to participate in this year’s competition.

The six semifinalists will each receive $1,000 in seed money and the opportunity to pitch their ventures to judges on March 14 at a showcase presented as part of New Orleans Entrepreneur Week. Following the showcase, judges will select three ventures to move on to the final round at Tulane University on April 15, with a $25,000 grand prize hanging in the balance.

The six semifinalists and their university affiliations are listed below.

• Medvile (UCLA) is an online second-opinion platform that connects patients to doctors and hospitals worldwide.
• The Mercury Patch (Johns Hopkins University) is a low-cost physiological monitoring system for the detection and prevention of pressure ulcer development.
• Sensifoam (Tulane University) is a smart, adhesive patch that utilizes a matrix of soft, force-sensitive foams to transmit pressure data.
• Sensytec (University of Houston) uses smart cement technology to retrieve and analyze critical data on cement and concrete at any point in a structure.
• Tissue Engineered Nipple and Areola (Tulane University), a regenerative medicine approach, completely reconstructs the nipple and areola complex (NAC) for patients with incomplete or removed NACs due to disease, preventative surgery or birth defects.
• Ziel Solutions (Rice University) is a wearable tech company focused on minimizing the risk of injury from physical activity.

The semifinal round of the 2016 Tulane Business Model Competition will take place Monday, March 14, at 2 p.m. at the Chicory, 610 S. Peter St. The event is free, but attendees must register with New Orleans Entrepreneur Week. For more information about the competition, contact Stephanie Kleehammer at 504-865-5455 or skleeham@tulane.edu.