THIS MONTH'S MEETING
Tuesday,
December 12th, 2006
WPI, WorcesterCampus Center Odeum
$15.00 members
$25.00 non-members
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A Look At November's Meeting
The parade of company pitches and the extensive panel of judges made the WPI Venture Forum on November 14 an exciting evening, moderated by Ricky Berger, Chairman of the Program Committee and a member of the Executive Board.
Six cases were brought to the Forum for this "5 Minute Business Pitch Contest." The cases were presented in an order determined by drawing names from a hat. After each case presented, one of the judges with no connection to the company briefly commented on the case. The audience then rated the case on a scale of one through eight through handheld electronic voting devices on its innovation, market opportunity, presentation, and investability.
The judging was provided by an esteemed panel comprised of: William Contente, Managing Partner, Gesmer Updegrove LLP; Bob Creeden, Managing Director of the Center for Innovative Ventures (CIV) at Partners Healthcare; Chris Golden. President, Mission Critical Advisors; John Rainey, Senior Manager, Clark University Small Business Development Center; Mitch Sanders, Executive Vice President and Founder of ECI Biotech and a member of the WPI faculty; and Jerry Schaufeld, Cofounder, Incus Ventures Group and also a member of the WPI faculty.
Consistent Cardiogram Corporation, presented by Dr. Robin McFee, CTO. Consistent Cardiogram products provide heart monitoring for medical emergencies. Dr. McFee explained the company was devoted to "saving your life," noting that many in the audience looked as if they might need cardiovascular care sometime soon. The product speeds up cardiovascular care by connecting human beings to 21st century technology in a prehospital setting. She asked for $1.25 million to begin production.
TechLite Designs Corporation, presented by Bob Barton, Founder. TechLite offers power failure safety lighting solutions for residential and commercial markets. Barton is seeking $400,000 to start up Phase I and enter the residential market through contractors and homebuilders. Noting that competitors do not have the same technology, he said "we look like a standard and we look darn good."
Utoopia, presented by James Chen, CEO. Utoopia is an expert-driven community web platform that efficiently connects consumers with niche products and services around special interest areas. Chen's presentation was cut short after spending his five minutes discussing how people shop online and could use an expert community to help make buying decisions.
SourceAid, LLC, presented by Ronald Silvia, President. SourceAid's principal product is a citation builder with online and desktop software for the student market. Describing SourceAid as an e-learning company, Silvia said it was "riding the plagiarism wave," positioned to meet the needs of 27 million students to cite their sources properly. He asked for $527,000 in angel funds to generate additional sales with a sales representative and expanded distribution channels for a 2008 payback.
Hemetrics Development Corporation, presented by David Kaufman, President. Hemetrics products rapidly test for dehydration for the military under harsh field conditions, for athletes and for the elderly in both home care and institutional settings. Calling the elder market "low hanging fruit," Kaufman noted that the $4 test on a $1,000 device could prevent a $5,000 overnight hospital stay for an elder suffering from dehydration. He is looking for $10 million to create a $60 million company after receiving FDA clearance for their product. The US Army is sponsoring current lab tests.
Servprise International, Inc., presented by Cory Wallenstein, President. Servprise products allow companies to remotely reboot their business servers to minimize downtime and data loss. Servers crash, customers get frustrated, and IT staff have to travel to the server location at 2 a.m., Wallenstein explained. His product works "like the reset button preferred" by the hardware manufacturers. While they have distribution in the U.S., Japan, Denmark and South Africa, their $65,000 in revenue in the last two years isn't enough to keep the lights on. Targeting data centers, they have secured $313,000 in contracts and another $370,000 in commitments. He asked for $1.2 million to boost sales and marketing so the company can develop more products and visit other large data centers.
After the networking break, the audience ratings for the cases were revealed, based on criteria and overall score. The audience voted for (in no particular order) Hemetrics, Servprise and Consistent Cardiogram.
The judges then revealed their ranking of the cases to the audience, based on a company's sustainability and its proprietary technology: Consistent Cardiogram, Hemetrics and Servprise.
A brief period of questions and answers between the panel and audience ensued. Berger called for a second vote by the audience, with the audience voting for their "Top Case." Immediately after the second vote, the emerging top three cases, Techlite, Utoopia and Consistent Cardiogram, were brought to the "table of inquiry" for another 30-second "pitch" and further questions and answers from the audience and panelists.
After this final stage of examination, the audience voted one final time for the winner. The winning "5 minute business pitch" was Consistent Cardiogram, presented by Dr. Robin McFee. She received a $500 check from the WPI Venture Forum.
It was a terrifically interactive and exciting meeting, with a great deal of very valuable and fast-paced information being dispensed about building great businesses and communicating what is worth the investment.
