UIC Liautaud Students Win Concept2Venture Business Plan Competition

Tuesday, December 13, 2011, Student Center East: UIC College of Business Administration hosted the seventh annual Concept2Venture (C2V) UIC Campus-Wide Business Plan Competition.

Thanks to the sponsorship of J.B. & M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation, Cricket Communications Inc., Caterpillar Inc., SNR Denton, ViMedicus Inc., Illinois Ventures, Trillium, Nimlok Chicago, PaloAltoSoftware, the UIC CBA, the UIC Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, the UIC Family Business Council, the UIC Illinois Small Business Development Center, and Microsoft, 15 Concept2Venture Semifinalist Groups presented C2V business plans and elevator pitches. Contest rules required that oral business plan presentations stay within 15 minutes (followed by up to 20 minutes of Q&A from the judges), while elevator pitches were held to 90 seconds from start to finish.

Also a special thanks to Mr. Raymond J. Roman, UIC alumnus, keynote speaker, and Executive Vice President and COO of Leap Wireless International Inc. / Cricket Inc., as well as thother esteemed judges and UIC alumni.

To learn more about Concept2Venture, the teams, or the business plans, please visit uic.edu/cba/ies/C2V.

Congratulations to all C2V participants, and best of luck to the finalists who advance to regional competitions:

• Graduate Team First Prize: $5,000 to NovoView Diagnostics (Dominic Blank, Michelle Shah, Joe Sheahan)
• Graduate Team Second Prize: $2,000 to Metropolitan Farms (Benjamin Kant)
• Undergraduate Team First Prize: $5,000 to True Herban Clothing (Salim Rowe)
• Undergraduate Team Second Prize: $2,000 to Caf’Rae Dulce (Eileen Galvin and Rae Gottlieb)
• Elevator Pitch: $1,000 to NovoView Diagnostics (Dominic Blank, Michelle Shah, Joe Sheahan)
• Sustainability Award: True Herban Clothing (Salim Rowe)
• Social Venture Award:  IOMI Technologies (Scott Green, Hares Norman, Ryan Roberts, Demetri Sepsis)
• Best Non-CBA Award: Terra Energy (Tim Ritter)