Student ingenuity on display in venture capital competition

An advertiser-driven web portal that serves as the home page for college students is the basis for the winning entry in the first Boston College Venture Competition.

The event, which took place April 24 in Fulton Hall, saw five teams of student entrepreneurs presenting business plans to a panel of BC faculty and alumni who have experience raising capital for new ventures. Cash prizes ranged from $10,000 for the winners to $3,000 for the second place finishers and $2,000 for the third place team.

Left to right: Nick Ramirez (CSOM '07, Q-Note), David Dundas (CSOM '03, CEO of YouAre Media), Alex Lindahl (CSOM '08, Q-Note), Miles Lennon (Columbia University '08, Q-Note), and Peter Bell (CSOM '86, Judge, Venture Partner at Highland Capital).

CampusNites, an outfit that is already operating a revenue-generating web portal for BC students, was chosen as the competition winner. CampusNites is operated by Kate Cournoyer '08, Andres Navas '08, and Joe Colasuonno '07.

Other groups vying for the judges' approval had names like QuickHomeFix; Q-Note; Tealicious and Just Tracking. Their business plans proposed such ideas as advertiser-supported text messaging, a tea-themed restaurant concept and cellular tracking software to aid medical research.

The winners said that they devised their plans separately, but once they learned of each other's ideas decided to join forces.

"I think that competitions like this really force students to come up with unique fresh ideas," said Joseph Colasuonno '07, a member of CampusNites, whose prototype was used as the basis for the upstart firm's business plan. "This is an age of innovation, and technology is constantly changing. Students are the most familiar with computers and there really is an age gap when it comes to computers and technology in general. The ideas of young people are what is going to dictate businesses and products of the future."

Said Navas, "The competition really opened my eyes to how developed an idea has to be before it will even be considered by venture capitalists. It also showed me that you need more than just a clever idea to have a successful business model — you need a whole other set of information, like marketing strategies, pricing strategies, revenue models, and a lot of numbers."

The competition's focus was not solely aimed at offering seed money to fledging ventures, however. The purpose was to offer students an education in the practical experience of competing for capital, a fundamental concern almost all firms share.

"The BCVC business plan competition provides students an opportunity to apply the exciting business skills they are learning in the classroom and combines those with an exciting opportunity to team up and create a robust business plan," said Carroll School of Management Dean Andew Boynton. "In the competition, they then have to take the next step and attempt to sell their plan -- ther core ideas -- to a group of seasoned professionals. From concept to formulating a plan to sellingideas in a real-world environment. You can't beat this as a learning experience."

Several firms including, Highland Capital Partners, Goodwin Procter, North Bridge Venture Partners, and Solasta, Inc. sponsored the competition.

Serving as judges were Peter Bell '86, Venture Partner at Highland Capital Partners; Bill Geary '80, General Partner at North Bridge Venture Partners; Prof. Mike Naughton, BC Physics Department Chair, Co-founder of Solasta Inc.; Brian Owen, '78 General Partner at Masthead Venture Partners; Chuck Moran '77, Chief Executive Officer of SkillSoft; Greg Strakosch '84, Chief Executive Officer of TechTarget and Carmel Shields '81, Executive Vice President of Shields MRI.

"We wanted to do something to bring together the students who are interested in entrepreneurship," said Bill Clerico, '07, who co-organized the event. "We're grateful to all those who helped make it possible."