And the Winners Are…Conclusion of the Innovators Business Pitch Competition
Shelley Scipione, MBA2 and Shane Rahmani, BBA2 sscipion@umich.edu, srahmani@umich.edu
Issue date: 2/5/01 Section: News
- Page 1 of 3 next >
What type of ideas catch the intrigue of the Venture Capital Community? That question was answered at the final round of the Innovators Business Pitch Competition, sponsored by Accenture, held on February 26 during FuturTech. The three student teams that presented ideas to a panel of judges were vying for a total of $5,000 in funding and a chance to refine their ideas with Silicon Valley talent at GameChange, a joint venture of Accenture and Softbank Venture Capital.
The event began with a brief introduction from the moderator, Paul Kirsch, Program Manager of the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurship. Paul credited Larry Weyer, MBA2 and Sachin Gadhavi, MBA ’00 for founding the competition. This year, the competition was supported by the High-Tech Club and the Entrepreneur and Venture Capital Club and run by Larry Weyer, MBA2, Shelley Scipione, MBA2 and Shane Rahmani, BBA2. Jeff Gans, MBA ’00, provided much-needed organizational support and funding on the part of Accenture. The primary goal of the Innovators Business Pitch Competition is to provide UMBS students with a forum to develop and present their ideas to VCs. The competition required students to develop business pitches, a scaled-down version of a business plan, detailing ideas that were not fully developed, with the goal of involving a greater portion of the student body.
A speaker series guided students in developing the idea, writing the plan and pitching to Venture Capitalists. The series brought members of the Entrepreneurial and Venture Capitalist community to the Michigan students in order to: build awareness in the Michigan student body about entrepreneurial activists, assist student groups in cultivating their plans, and provide a forum for students from the Business School, Engineering School, Law School, and Public Policy school to rally around common interests. By writing the business pitch in conjunction with the speaker series, students were able to get additional direction and feedback from Venture Capitalists from Arbor Partners, Waypoint Ventures and Accenture.
The event began with a brief introduction from the moderator, Paul Kirsch, Program Manager of the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurship. Paul credited Larry Weyer, MBA2 and Sachin Gadhavi, MBA ’00 for founding the competition. This year, the competition was supported by the High-Tech Club and the Entrepreneur and Venture Capital Club and run by Larry Weyer, MBA2, Shelley Scipione, MBA2 and Shane Rahmani, BBA2. Jeff Gans, MBA ’00, provided much-needed organizational support and funding on the part of Accenture. The primary goal of the Innovators Business Pitch Competition is to provide UMBS students with a forum to develop and present their ideas to VCs. The competition required students to develop business pitches, a scaled-down version of a business plan, detailing ideas that were not fully developed, with the goal of involving a greater portion of the student body.
A speaker series guided students in developing the idea, writing the plan and pitching to Venture Capitalists. The series brought members of the Entrepreneurial and Venture Capitalist community to the Michigan students in order to: build awareness in the Michigan student body about entrepreneurial activists, assist student groups in cultivating their plans, and provide a forum for students from the Business School, Engineering School, Law School, and Public Policy school to rally around common interests. By writing the business pitch in conjunction with the speaker series, students were able to get additional direction and feedback from Venture Capitalists from Arbor Partners, Waypoint Ventures and Accenture.
