CSOM hosts first venture competition

The first Boston College Venture Competition was hosted by the Carroll School of Management on Wednesday afternoon. The competition was founded by four BC students: Eric Hilberg, BC '06, Bill Clerico, A&S '07, Matt Becker, CSOM '08, and Paul Santora, CSOM '08, in order to give BC students interested in entrepreneurship an opportunity to present their ideas, receive feedback, and, for the top three projects, win money to launch their respective entrepreneurial projects. First prize was $10,000, second prize was $3,000, and third prize was $2,000.

"The reason I wanted to create this was because there was nothing else like it. I had been interested in entrepreneurship for a while and looked around and there was really no locus of that action here at BC and I thought starting a competition like this was a good way to do that. You see fliers for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology competition, but why do we send our students over there? We should have one of those, I thought," said Hilberg.

And so, Hilberg started working on the idea about a year ago, formulating and constructing a program that he thought would interest other entrepreneurial students at BC. After talking with a couple of his professors, Hilberg came into contact with other professors and alumni who showed interest in the idea. He eventually contacted several acquaintances - Clerico, Becker, and Santora - and a core of four students made up the group.

They eventually presented their idea to Dean of CSOM Andrew Boynton. His response was positive, but the group had to alter its plans in some ways before it took off.

The competition was sponsored by several companies: Highland Capital Partners, Goodwin Procter, North Bridge Venture Partners, and Solasta, Inc. Hilberg also pointed out that competitions like this one are common, so finding sponsors was not difficult.

A "kickoff" event for the competition, hosted at the beginning of the semester, explained the basics of the competition. "It went really well. We made our first contacts for sponsorship there," said Hilberg.

After that there were a couple other events, at which panelists spoke. The panelists included Peter Bell, Bill Geary, professor Mike Naughton, Ron Guerriero, John Hession, Jean-Paul Sanday, Matt Acalin, Eric Hilberg, and Larry Begley.

Students interested in the competition immediately got to work on their projects and eventually submitted their proposals - three-page executive summaries - in February. After that, each group was assigned an alumni mentor, who helped the students with their projects.

Twelve groups made it to the semifinals, but only five advanced to the finals, which were held yesterday.

After an introduction by Clerico, the first group - comprised of Jossi Schwebel, CSOM '08, William Wrobel, A&S '08, and Robert DeLeon, A&S '08 - presented "Tealicious," which promoted a chain of cafes like Starbucks that focused on tea and its health benefits.

Next, Alex Lindahl, CSOM '08, Nick Ramirez, CSOM '07, and Miles Lennon, a student attending Columbia University, presented "Q-Note," which was a text messaging service company that sent out text messages supported by advertising companies.

A refreshment break offered time for the first two groups to receive feedback, and afterward presentations resumed with a group comprised of Kevin Slemp, CSOM '07, Matt Wiggins, BC '06, and Nick Fisser, CSOM '06. They presented "QuickHomeFix," which is a Web site like eBay that allows homeowners to put up plans for renovation and construction, on which service providers can bid.

Kate Cournoyer, A&S '08, and Joe Colasuonno, A&S '07, the fourth group in the competition, presented "CampusNites," which is a service that hosts subsidiary sites that act as universal homepages for college students around the country. EagleNites, the BC subsidiary CampusNites, was profiled in the April 12 issue of The Heights.

The fifth group - comprised of Adam Goobic, A&S '07, Brad Hayes, A&S '08, Klaus Ley, and Scott Acton - presented "Just-Tracking," which pushed software that tracks cells in clinical trials and allows scientists and doctors to speed up their clinical research.

The judges, after offering feedback and deliberating, decided the winners, who were announced at a dinner in the Fulton Honors Library at 7:15 p.m., after Becker opened the awards ceremony. "CampusNites" came in first place, "Q-Note" in second, and "QuickHomeFix" in third.

All in all, the first BCVC was very successful. Hopefully, it will remain a BC tradition for years and eventually rival MIT's contest in competition, notoriety, and ingenuity.