Monthly Program - June 8, 2010

Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Campus Center - Odeum

Five-Minute Pitch Could Be Profitable

Ten finalists, five judges and a room packed with audience members will help determine which company – or business idea – will win the Five-Minute Pitch Contest grand prize and audience choice award. The fourth annual contest, hosted by the WPI Venture Forum on Tuesday, June 8, will showcase the region’s most promising early-stage technology entrepreneurs, evaluated through two rounds of selection.

Both rounds will judge contestants on their business model, how their business applies innovation, the market opportunity, their competitive advantage, and their leadership team. Each presentation will be followed by a two-minute open discussion between the judges and the entrepreneur.  The judges and audience will then rate each business.  Once all the pitches are complete, the judges will deliberate and select the winner of the top $2,500 prize.  Audience voting will determine the $500 audience prize winner. Cash prizes are provided by sponsors Wolf Greenfield and Gesmer Updegrove.

Judging this year’s contest will be Anita Ballesteros, PhD, Licensing Officer at University of Massachusetts Medical School Office of Technology Management; Graham Brooks, Principal of .406 Ventures; Avi Goldberg, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at GreatPoint Energy; Steve Snyder, Partner and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Gesmer Updegrove, LLP; and Edmund J. Walsh, Shareholder at Wolf Greenfield and Sacks, P.C.

Anita Ballesteros

Prior to joining UMass in 2006, Anita Ballesteros was senior scientific editor at the journal Cancer Cell, and a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Timothy Kowalik in the molecular genetics and microbiology department at UMass Medical School. She holds a PhD in molecular oncology from New York University. Before attending graduate school, she held research and development positions in both academia and industry.

Graham Brooks

At .406 Ventures since 2007, Graham Brooks was previously business development manager at Bose Corporation evaluating strategic investment and acquisition opportunities within the digital media and consumer products markets. Brooks co-founded Accentus, a technology company that he spun out of Dartmouth College based on a technology he co-invented. He began his career as a software developer. A Kauffman Fellow this year, he received his MBA from Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business in 2002.

Avi Goldberg

Avi Goldberg has a decade of experience in multiple sectors, having co-founded GreatPoint Energy five years ago, and in 2001, Coatue Corporation, a microelectronics company developing novel polymer materials for the semiconductor industry, which was subsequently purchased by Advanced Micro Devices. He has also served as worldwide sales director of a voice over data network provider. Goldberg holds a BA degree from Boston University in political science and strategic intelligence.

Steve Synder

As Entrepreneur-in-Residence at technology law firm Gesmer Updegrove, Steve Snyder works with entrepreneurs to help them grow their companies. He previously spent 17 years creating businesses, taking three companies from vision to reality, successfully building and funding them.  Snyder began his career as a corporate and securities attorney. He earned a JD degree from Boston University School of Law.

Edmund J. Walsh

At Wolf Greenfield, Ed Walsh works with electrical and computer-related clients. He previously served more than 14 years as in-house counsel for technology companies, including Teradyne, Textron Specialty Materials and Raytheon.  Prior to entering law school, he developed operating system software and analyzed communications systems. He holds an MS degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and a JD degree from Suffolk University Law School.

Congratulations to the 2010 WPI Venture Forum Five-Minute Pitch Finalists!

The finalists are:

 

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2010 WPI Venture Forum Five-Minute Pitch!

The Winners of the 2010 Pitch Contest are:

Judges' Winner:  VitaSpider.com (currently beta product development stage) won the $2,500 prize awarded by the expert panel of judges.  Nicolas Xu, CEO of VitaSpider.com, described the company as a SAAS network focused on the financial accounting-related process automation. Xu believes accounting departments in small and mid-sized businesses are a waste of resources and with proper data integration and service aggregation, he can reduce accounting costs by at least 50% for SME, meanwhile increasing accuracy and reliability of their financial information.

Audience's Winner:  EndoSphere Surgical, Inc. won over the audience and collected a $500 prize.  CEO, Mel Prenovitz talked about how laparoscopic surgery is best performed using triangulation view of the surgical site.  With improved depth perception and eye-hand coordination the endoscopic image is viewed from one perspective while the instruments enter from another. The EndoSphere approach eliminates incision ports while allowing surgeons to regain full visual field with enhanced dexterity and improved cosmetic outcomes.

Special thanks to Wolf Greenfield and Sacks, P.C. and Gesmer Updegrove LLP for sponsoring the fourth annual WPI Five-Minute Pitch Contest

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Last modified: July 19, 2010 16:33:33