BOSTON, April 29 (AScribe Newswire) — Today’s economy requires a “special type of entrepreneur,” said one of the judges in the final round of the seventh annual Harvard Business School (HBS)Business Plan Contest yesterday. The six contending student teams — four of them representing traditional business ventures and two representing social enterprise ventures — have what it takes tostart a business at a time when the rewards are far from immediate, said Michael F. Cronin, cofounder and managing partner of the Boston-based venture capital firm Weston Presidio. “You realize thatyou’re in it for the long haul and you have a passion for what you do.”
FBC Systems, the winning team for the traditional business track, provides software that enables engineers and managers in product development to accurately estimate at an early stage in the process the cost of their designs. By using FBC’s software, engineers can do this in seconds — rather than hours, which is now the standard procedure.
Gyaana Ventures, the winner of the social enterprise track, seeks to eliminate functional illiteracy in India by enabling poor children to stay in school for several years beyond the fifth grade — a time when many drop out to help support their families. Gyaana’s founders have developed a plan to lend money to families to cover the cost of their children’s lost earnings and to help provide vocational training for children once they finish primary school.
Each team received $10,000 in cash and $10,000 in in-kind professional services. In addition, FBC Systems, as the winner of the traditional track, received the Dubilier Prize, established in honor of the late Martin Dubilier, a member of the Harvard MBA Class of 1952 and cofounder of the leveraged buyout firm of Clayton, Dubilier, and Rice.
The runners-up for the traditional track included Brontes Technologies, which has developed and patented a module that can inexpensively transform two-dimension instruments, such as cameras, endoscopes, and microscopes into 3-D; Jadoo Power Systems, which develops fuel cell technology for the covert camera surveillance market; and TrialBridge, which enables pharmaceutical companies to use Internet and software solutions to reduce the time required for bringing new drugs to market.
FoodSTOP, a for-profit organization dedicated to reducing the number of undernourished and malnourished children in Nigeria by providing efficient delivery and storage of fresh produce, was the runner-up for the social enterprise track
Thirty-two teams submitted plans to the contest — twenty-four to the traditional track and eight to the social enterprise track. Two separate panels of judges drawn from areas such as venture capital and nonprofit consulting determined the winners.
The HBS Business Plan Contest, the capstone of the School’s extensive entrepreneurship curriculum, educates students in the process of creating and evaluating new business ventures and prepares them for opportunities in traditional and social entrepreneurship during their careers.
