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Abstract:
Thirty-six teams selected from 234 entrants from around the world

Teams Announced for 2008 Rice Business Plan Competition

Houston, TX | Posted on March 13th, 2008

The Rice Business Plan Competition would like to congratulate the teams selected for the 2008 competition. More than 230 entries were submitted, and from those 36 teams were chosen based on their executive summaries to compete in the April 3-5 event.

The teams will contend in four categories: life sciences, sustainability, information technology, and consumer goods and products. Winners of each grouping will go on to compete for the grand prize which is valued up to $325,000. All 36 teams will take home a prize and receive valuable feedback from more than 150 judges, who themselves are successful entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders.

Eight international teams will be represented this year, hailing from Canada (2), the United Kingdom (2), China, India (2), and Denmark.

The competition hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship along with the Jones Graduate School of Management, Rice University has sustained tremendous growth this past year, increasing prizes to $600,000 as well as gaining FORTUNE Small Business as the national media sponsor.

University Company

Texas Schools

Rice Lab Extensions

SMU LAB802

Texas A&M AiB Pharma

Texas at Austin qcue

Texas at Dallas (UTD) MicroTransponder

Other U.S. Schools

Arkansas at Little Rock TruSource Technologies

Brigham Young (BYU) Klymit

Carnegie Mellon NeuroBank

Chicago Etoh Pharmaceuticals

Duke Cerene Biomedics

Georgia Boreas Snowboards

Georgia Tech DiagNano

Harvard / Hanover Medical School (Germany) Enexra

Illinois at Chicago BioRegenix

Illinois at Chicago HeartSounds

Kennesaw State University HydroCoal Technologies

Maryland Callinex

Maryland Remedium Technologies

Michigan Potentia

MIT Project Einstein

MIT Aura BioSciences

Northwestern Wine with a Passion

Ohio State Traycer Diagnostic Systems

Oklahoma Perpetual Pharmaceuticals

UCLA FiberView

UNC, Chapel Hill Nolia Athletic Apparel

Virginia Husk Power Systems

Wake Forest Filigree Nanotech

International Schools

Aarhus (Demark) IMMUTELL

BITS Pilani (India) Vidyut Shakti

Cambridge (UK) Auto TB

Hong Kong (HUST) (China) Zeopane Microneedles

IIT Kharagpur (India) Diamas Coats

Lancaster University (UK) GlucoFast

Waterloo (Canada) Everlighting Innovation

Waterloo (Canada) Throne Technologies

THE COMPETITION The competition is designed to give graduate-level collegiate entrepreneurs a real-world experience to fine tune their business plans and elevator pitches to be able to generate funding to successfully commercialize their product. Judges will evaluate the teams as real-world entrepreneurs soliciting start-up funds from early stage investors and venture capital firms. The judges are asked to rank the presentations based on which company they would most likely invest. Past competitors have included many of the country's most prestigious universities including Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Wharton, Northwestern, Chicago, USC, Rice, Texas, and Texas A&M. Teams in the areas of life sciences - including medical devices, drug development and diagnostics, information technology and web 2.0, energy and clean technology, sustainability and advanced materials or robotics compete for prizes in the elevator pitch and business plan presentation. The competition is for new, independent ventures, developed by graduate-level students, with a company in the seed, start-up, or early growth stages. "Great ideas are just that - Great," said Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance. "But, taking that novel idea ensuring it holds a competitive advantage in the market, conducting market research and identifying opportunities, demonstrating management capability, financial understanding and investment potential are what develop that great idea into a venture and hopefully a financially-successful business." THE PRIZES The Grand Prize winner of the business plan competition will receive a package valued at up to $325,000 in total prizes, including a $125,000 equity investment from The Goose Society of Texas, potentially one of two new $100,000 prizes given by the Greater Houston Partnership's Opportunity HoustonSM, $20,000 in cash sponsored by Shell and Kenda Capital, as well as $80,000 in incubation and other services.

The first of the $100,000 Opportunity HoustonSM prizes will be awarded to the company with the best life science technology business plan. The second $100,000 prize will go to the team with the top business plan in one of the following four economic sectors: energy (including clean technology) and petrochemicals, information technology, aviation and aerospace, or nanotechnology. These awards will provide seed funding to launch these companies in the Houston region.

Two other teams will receive $20,000 cash awards. The $20,000 Dow Sustainability Award is given to the best plan to address world challenges for affordable housing, food, clean water, health & safety, and alternative/sustainable energy. The $20,000 NASA Earth/Space Life Science Award acknowledges the best life science plan with application in earth and space. Winners will be announced at the Awards Banquet on Saturday night, April 5, 2008 at the Intercontinental Hotel.

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About Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship
The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship (Rice Alliance) is Rice University's flagship initiative devoted to the support of technology entrepreneurship. The Rice Alliance is a collaboration among the Brown School of Engineering, the Jones Graduate School of Management, and the Wiess School of Natural Science.

Since its inception in late-1999, the Rice Alliance has assisted in the launch over 215 new technology companies, which have raised more than $350 million in early stage funding. The mission of the Rice Alliance is to support the creation of technology-based companies and the commercialization of new technologies. The Rice Alliance provides entrepreneurs with a collaborative network and forum for support, education, and exchange of ideas. It offers entrepreneurs access to the human and financial capital needed for success.

For more information, please click here

Contacts:
The Padgett Group
CJ Pappas
713-590-3771

or
Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship
Mary Lynn Fernau
713-348-5374

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