Twelve students were named Technology Entrepreneurship Fellows for 2007. MBA and Law School students in teams of three, with support from UO faculty and Technology Transfer Office and PNNL commercialization staff, screened technologies invented by UO and Battelle scientists. Fellows visited UO and Battelle labs and conferred with the scientists who invented and are further developing the technologies. The teams go on to conduct feasibility studies involving due diligence around marketing, strategic, and intellectual property issues. At summer's end, each feasibility team will deliver an in-depth assessment of their technology's potential for commercialization. Teams identifying positive market attractiveness for their technology will then use this assessment as the basis for developing a business plan and investor presentation in the fall term New Venture Planning class.
Now in its sixth year, the TEP program is playing a major role in the experiential framework of MBA and other graduate students interested in entrepreneurship. Many of the TEP venture teams have gone on to participate in developing a business plan and an investor presentation in the New Venture Planning Class offered Fall Term. In this class they develop a complete business plan for the start-up company, and present their plan at "Venture Quest," the Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship's internal business plan competition. If the plan is well received, the team may be invited to enroll in Venture Launch during Winter Term and represent the UO at one of the upcoming major international business plan competitions.
The teams of Armozyme and hyPeer competed in several competitions in 2006-07. Armozyme represented the University of Oregon in four competitions; the McGinnis competition at Carnegie Mellon University bringing home a third place finish, the University of San Francisco BP competition, the New Venture Championship where they won the Lightning Round competition, and the Hong Kong competition where they also brought home a third place finish overall. hyPeer competed in the New Venture Worlds Competition at the University of Nebraska, and Venture Challenge at San Diego State University.
In 2005-06, the teams of FloraGenex and Uncorked competed in five external competitions. Each team brought home a third place finish, FloraGenex from the Venture Challenge at San Diego State and Uncorked from the Stuart Clark Venture Challenge at the University of Manitoba, Uncorked also won the tradeshow competition.
In the academic year 2004-05, the teams of Perpetua and CleanSmart competed in nine external competitions. Perpetua took first place at the Spirit of Enterprise competition, University of Cincinnati, Runner-up in the Asia Moot Corp in Bangkok, and earned a third place win at the New Venture Championship, University of Oregon, at the Moot Corp competition, Perpetua was awarded best written plan in their track and won the Access Venture Partners division of the Challenge Round.
CleanSmart brought home first place wins from the Venture Challenge, San Diego State University and the CanAm Bowl at the University of Manitoba, in addition they placed second at the NW Venture Challenge, at Boise State University and got an honorable mention at MOOT CORP at the University of Texas.
Between CleanSmart and Perpetua, the teams earned over $50,000 in prize awards plus at the CanAm Bowl the CleanSmart team was awarded a $100,000 credit towards participation in the Incubator Project at the University of North Dakota. Both teams are now incorporated and are continuing their development and venture launch activities including meeting with angel and venture capitalist investors. Much of the interest and many of the invest contacts are a direct result of their participation in the business plan competitions in 2005. Not exactly true. Both are incorporated, unless that has lapsed for CS, but only one is continuing its development. Let’s discuss before we go forward.
"The TEP experience is exactly what I wanted from my MBA education," stated Joseph Beck (MBA 2003) and a member of the Aqua Essence team. "The uncertainty of developing a venture coupled with the challenge of attracting investors and partners pushed my abilities to act and communicate effectively to the limit and beyond."
Twelve students were named Technology Entrepreneurship Fellows for 2007. MBA and Law School students in teams of three, with support from UO faculty and Technology Transfer Office and PNNL commercialization staff, screened technologies invented by UO and Battelle scientists. Fellows visited UO and Battelle labs and conferred with the scientists who invented and are further developing the technologies. The teams go on to conduct feasibility studies involving due diligence around marketing, strategic, and intellectual property issues. At summer's end, each feasibility team will deliver an in-depth assessment of their technology's potential for commercialization. Teams identifying positive market attractiveness for their technology will then use this assessment as the basis for developing a business plan and investor presentation in the fall term New Venture Planning class.