Student Entrepreneurs Rake in $40K in Cash in Elevator Competition at Wake Forest University
WINSTON-SALEM, NC – More than $40,000 in cash prizes were handed out to student entrepreneurs at the 12th Annual Wake Forest University Schools of Business Elevator Competition. Thirty-five teams from around the world converged at BB&T Headquarters in Winston-Salem, N.C. on March 26 to make two-minute elevator pitches to a panel of judges in hopes of winning seed capital for their business ventures. SF Managing Director Dave Gilroy has served on the 3-judge panel for 11 consecutive years.
Medtric Biotech from Purdue University took home the top $20,000 prize in the Traditional Track for OSMOSETM, a unique method of destroying bacteria for the prevention and treatment of infected wounds. The team members are Rob Einterz, Sean Connell and Jianming Li. They received automatic entry into the Venture Labs Investment Competition and can qualify for up to a $500,000 investment from the Piedmont Angel Network.
OsComp Systems from Massachusetts Institute of Technology finished second, BlackLocus from Carnegie Mellon University was third, Hemova Medical from Johns Hopkins University was fourth and Medici Medical Technologies from Duke University placed fifth in the Traditional Track.
EYEChina from the University of Oklahoma won first place in the Social Entrepreneurship Track and $10,000 to invest in a plan to provide one million residents of rural Sichuan with high-quality, accessible and affordable cataract surgeries by 2020. EYEChina team members Patrick Loung, Lucas Rice, Samantha Toth and Barry Conrad will also advance to the final screening round of the Echoing Green Foundation’s business plan competition.
Other Social Entrepreneurship finalists included: Ix-Neox from Johns Hopkins University (second), SMILE Floss from Thammasat Business School (third), Antenatal (fourth) and SevenFOUR (fifth).
BOLD from Ball State University won $1,000 for garnering the highest number of Fan Favorite votes on ElevatorCompetitionLIVE.com. The website had more than 18,000 hits over a 24-hour period. Visitors from Europe, Asia and North America were able to follow the competition through student blogs, videos and photo galleries on ElevatorCompetitionLIVE.com.
Team SMILE Floss from Thammasat Business School in Bangkok, Thailand received a special “Road Warrior” award. The team traveled 27-hours to get to Winston-Salem, N.C. for the Elevator Competition.
The Elevator Competition is a student-run event organized and produced by 2nd year co-chairs: Will Dow (MBA ’11), Chris Van Roekel (MBA ’11) and Roy Hykal (MBA ’11) with a team of MBA, MA, and undergraduate steering committee members and over 50 other student volunteers. The faculty advisor is Stan Mandel, Professor of Practice at Wake Forest University Schools of Business and Director of the Angell Center for Entrepreneurship.
