OCTOBER 10 - 11, 2014
The Ballard Morton
NEW VENTURE
COMPETITION
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COMPETITION AND REWARD
The first-place team receives $8,000, second place receives $5,000
and third place receives $3,000. Runners-up receive $1,500 each.
Teams designated as Forcht Entrepreneurship Fellows receive $1,000
per team member, regardless of their order of finish. Additionally,
$500 each is awarded for best Trade Show, Fast Pitch and Business
Plan Presentation. Teams use their competition winnings to continue
development of their concepts throughout the competition season.
Ballard Morton New Venture Competition will pay awards directly
to each team’s legally formed entity. To receive payment the proper
Vendor Survey and W9 forms must be completely and accurately
filled out.
The Mountjoy Chilton Medley, LLP, Tax Service Award will be
awarded to any U of L College of Business MBA business plan
competition team that earns first place honors in a qualifying
competition and forms a legal entity in Kentucky within 2014-2015.
The service will include tax preparation for the initial year for the
newly-formed Kentucky entity.
The first-place team will have its choice between representing the
college in the 2015 Brown-Forman Cardinal Challenge (a Venture
Labs Investment Competition qualifying competition hosted
by the UofL College of Business) or at the 2015 Idea State U.
competition (Kentucky’s statewide business concept and business
plan competition). All finalist teams will have the opportunity
to represent the College of Business in regional, national or
international collegiate business plan competitions.
PROCEEDINGS
BUSINESS PLAN
PRESENTATIONS
Saturday, October 11, 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
PNC Horn Auditorium, Harry Frazier Hall,
College of Business
Each team will make a 15-minute presentation on its new venture
idea, followed by 20 minutes of questions from the panel of judges.
Presentation order was determined by random draw.
8:30 a.m.
to
8:35 a.m.
Opening Remarks
8:35 a.m.
to
9:10 a.m.
Homegrown Brewing Company
9:20 a.m.
to
9:55 a.m.
InScope Medical Solutions
10:05 a.m.
to
10:40 a.m. Engagely
10:50 a.m. to
11:25 a.m. Quake Tech
11:25 a.m. to
12:00 p.m. Judges’ Deliberation
Awards will be announced at approximately 12:00 p.m.
JUDGING CRITERIA
Judges use an evaluation form adapted from Venture Labs Investment
Competition designed to assess the written business plan, the poise
and professionalism of the presentation and the viability of the
venture. This quantitative assessment is meant to complement,
not replace, the qualitative evaluation of the judges in their
determination of winners.
Teams for this year’s competition were selected from concepts
developed by UofL Entrepreneurship MBA students.
Preliminary round judges were Jenny Corbin (Marketing Director,
MediVet America), Larry Horn (Co-Founder, TNG Pharmaceuticals
& Liberate Medical), Zach Pennington (CEO, US Chia), Viji Sundar
(restaurateur and entrepreneur), and Joe Rotella (Hosparus Chief
Medical Officer) -- all UofL Entrepreneurship MBA graduates.
TRADE SHOW & FAST
PITCH COMPETITION
Friday, October 10, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Atrium, Harry Frazier Hall, College of
Business
Judges are Vesta Brue, CEO/Founder, MedSignals/VitalSignals;
Jennifer Williams, Chief Cloning Officer, Cuddle Clones LLC; Martin
McClelland, President, Regent Investment Management, LLC. See
judges’ bios on back page of program.
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THE TEAMS AND
THEIR COMPANIES
Quake Tech (Christopher Head, Jatin Jatin)
Engagely (Gil Roberts, Christopher Shelton, Ben Gries)
Engagely provides the next generation of website security while
allowing web publishers and data buyers to gain real-time insights
from legitimate visitors. Using proprietary human verification
algorithms developed by two UofL PhD students, our Survette polls
visitors, instead of asking them to type in squiggly fuzzy letters. Web
publishers use Survette to better understand their customers and
prove user demographics to advertisers, winning better ad revenue
while decreasing costs associated with spam. Engagely leverages this
website network by selling access to data firms, brand managers, and
market researchers interested in gauging consumer preference, brand
awareness, customer loyalty, and other insights.
Quake Tech delivers a breakthrough, patent-pending technology that
works to predict and assess the risk of a high-magnitude earthquake
(8.0 or above) up to 40 minutes before it will occur. Quake Tech’s
high-confidence data and proprietary predictive model will assist
government agencies, NGOs, and businesses in their decisionmaking processes to ensure quality protocols are in place, disaster
readiness is achieved, and economic losses from secondary effects
of high-magnitude earthquakes are minimized. Quake Tech’s initial
entry into the market targets financial services companies, re-insurers,
and asset management companies managing significant investment
portfolios in the Northeast Asian region.
Faculty Coaches: Professor Van Clouse & Entrepreneur-inResidence Suzanne Bergmeister
Faculty Coaches: Professor Van Clouse & Entrepreneur-inResidence Suzanne Bergmeister
Homegrown Brewing Company (Kelley Crush, Matt Teives)
Homegrown Brewing Company is an innovative concept for
a microbrewery that will collaborate with the local craft beer
community to create its beer. We will host contests for home brewers
to enter their best beers, and allow craft beer drinkers to vote on
their favorites. The winning beers will become flagship beers for the
microbrewery. With two passionate home brewers leading the way,
and a concept that uniquely appeals to the craft beer community, we
believe we can excel in the $14.3 billion craft beer market. Because
we offer something different from every other microbrewery: beer
that is “crafted by the people, for the people.”
Faculty Coaches: Professor Van Clouse & Entrepreneur-inResidence Suzanne Bergmeister
InScope Medical Solutions (Mary Nan Mallory, Maggie Galloway,
Will Coburn, Adam Casson)
InScope Medical Solutions ensures the best outcomes for patients,
providers, and hospitals by working with practicing physicians to
develop innovative devices that solve critical clinical problems.
Representative of our company’s growing patent portfolio, InScope
Medical’s initial devices, the iDL laryngoscope and the flagship
OneScope, optimize airway intubation by combining two devices
into one. Whether in ambulances, surgical centers, emergency rooms,
or operating rooms these devices reduce physician stress, patient risk,
and hospital costs. InScope Medical’s management team will use its
unique skill set, including over 35 years combined experience in the
healthcare industry, to bring innovative devices to market.
Faculty Coaches: Professor Van Clouse, Professor Sharon Kerrick &
Entrepreneur-in-Residence Suzanne Bergmeister
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JUDGES
HOSTS
Vesta Brue, CEO/Founder, MedSignals/VitalSignals
Competition Director
Vesta has four decades of entrepreneurial experience, having
launched her first product while in college. In the last six years,
she has conceived, developed, and commercialized three
mobile health device portfolios–two of which are industry
leaders in medication management and home-based vital
sign monitoring (see www.medsignals. com). Vesta moved
the MedSignals/VitalSignals team to Lexington from Texas
in August, 2012, and has established an Innovation Research
Center for small R&D companies moving to KY, allowing
them to share infrastructure and resources under one roof.
As a Bluegrass Angel, she invests in startups and privately
in real estate. Through her own incubator, Vesta partners
with companies who capitalize on her team’s expertise in
introducing healthcare products. She holds an MBA from
Harvard Business School and a BS in journalism from Kansas
State University.
Van G.H. Clouse, Ph.D., is the University of Louisville College
of Business’ Cobb Family Professor of Entrepreneurship and
Director of the Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship. He joined
the college in 1986 and teaches Opportunity Discovery, New
Venture Creation, Business Plan Development, and Corporate
& Global Strategy. He previously taught at Clemson University
and headed its Small Business Development Center. In 2012,
Dr. Clouse was presented the University of Louisville Trustees
Award, and was inducted into the College of Business Craf
Society.
Martin McClelland, President, Regent Investment
Management, LLC
Regent manages more than $300 million in separate accounts
and two hedge funds. In addition to his activities at Regent,
Martin is the Chairman of the Board of the Enterprise Angels
Community Fund, and he is a director of Network Advocates
and Cuddle Clones. He has an undergraduate degree in
engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from
Harvard. At the University of Louisville, he is a member of
the Board of Overseers and the College of Business Board of
Advisors. Martin is married to Dr. Lori Warren (OB/GYN), and
they have three children (Dava -21; Evelyn – 19; Aidan - 13).
Jennifer Williams, Chief Cloning Officer, Cuddle Clones LLC
Jennifer is the founder and Chief Cloning Officer of Cuddle
Clones, a startup company that creates soft and adorable
plush versions of people’s pets. She has a BS in Mathematics
and Business from the University of Puget Sound and an MBA
from the University of Louisville. Jennifer spent 10 years as a
benefits consulting actuary and her last job before making the
entrepreneurial leap was with PwC. She is actively involved in
the entrepreneurial community in Louisville and periodically
develops financial models for other startups in the area.
Trade Show, Fast Pitch and Finals Moderator
Sharon Kerrick, Ph.D., is Director of the Entrepreneurship
Minor and Associate Director of the Forcht Center for
Entrepreneurship at U of L College of Business. Prior to
joining U of L in 2002 she was one of the owner/founders of
a technology firm that grew to over 300 full time staff in five
states for nearly 20 years. She has received numerous awards/
recognitions including Business First’s 40 Under 40 Leadership
excellence award, National Association of Women’s Business
Owners, and UofL excellence in teaching and service awards.
She teaches Entrepreneurship courses for undergraduates, MBA
students, and Global MBA students.
Entrepreneur-In-Residence
Suzanne Bergmeister is the Entrepreneur-in-Residence in
the University of Louisville College of Business. She has been
affiliated with the MBA program since 2003. She teaches New
Venture Creation/New Venture Finance and Business Plan
Development in the Entrepreneurship MBA, as well as MBA
electives New Ventures and Social Entrepreneurship. She also
teaches in the undergraduate entrepreneurship minor program.
Suzanne owns her own consulting company, Sunflower
Business Ventures, Inc. and is a retired Colonel in the Air
Force Reserves. She is Chair and immediate past President of
Venture Connectors (www.ventureconnectors.org), as well as a
founding member of the Network of Entrepreneurial Women
(www.nentw.com)
OUR BENEFACTOR
Funding for the New Venture Competition is made possible
through the generosity of T. Ballard Morton. In 1983, after
16 years as CEO of a leading family-owned broadcasting
company, Ballard Morton became Executive-in-Residence at
the University of Louisville College of Business. He called the
position “a secret dream come true.”
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502.852.4161
@UofLBiz #BallardMorton
For the next two decades, he proceeded to help the dreams
of MBA students come true. He crafted a unique course
—“Leadership”— and encouraged students to discover who
they were, what they believed in and what they wanted to
do with their lives. The challenges within the New Venture
Competition embody these principles and prepare students to
launch careers of opportunity and innovation.
To discover more about Ballard Morton, read his book “Gladly
Learn,” (Crescent Hill Books, 1997).