By Brian E. Clark
WisBusiness.com
The Governor’s Business Plan Contest has a new feature this year: a youth competition aimed at high schoolers with an entrepreneurial bent.
Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council – which has hosted the competition for the past five years – said young people in Dane County can win money for coming up with good ideas for new businesses.
“It’s all about trying to help kids who have some entrepreneurial instinct pull together the elements of a business plan and also learn what it means to start a company,” he said. “I think it can be a great learning experience for them with judging and prizes.”
If there is enough participation and interest this year, he said it will be expanded from Dane County to a statewide competition next year. The youth contest is sponsored by the Madison Community Foundation with a $5,000 grant. For details, see www.danecountyyes.com.
Interestingly, the team from the Platteville start-up Graphene Solutions, which was last year’s Grand Prize winner, included 17-year-old Phillip Streich. It is headed by CEO Phil Jackson and Jim Hamilton, a UW-Platteville chemistry professor, who worked with Streich — now at Harvard University — to develop purified carbon nanotubes and ultrathin graphite microsheets for use in electronics.
“I figure there are others out there like Streich,” Still said. “He is clearly a ‘whiz kid.’ We figure there is a huge amount of talent out there in our schools.
“We want young people who are not only gifted in science, math and engineering, but who also see that their work could lead to a new company.”
Still said the company has patent-pending technology that could transform electronics, optics and materials science. The grand prize victory earned Graphene Solutions cash and in-kind prizes worth more than $50,000, in addition to reams of positive publicity.
Daniel van der Weide, whose company Optametra, won last year’s IT division, said he benefited from participating in the competition because it “took us through process of increasingly detailed planning.”
He said the criticism received helped him focus and presentations “sparked interest from venture capital, further refining our business plan. The advice was priceless and we were contacted by groups outside of the state because of the press associated with the contest.”
Janet Phillips, whose Vector Surgical start-up won the Grand Prize in 2007, said the exposure to expert advice and the networking opportunities were well worth the effort of entering the competition.
In addition, she said investors had approached her company after learning about the its victory in the business plan contest.
The deadline to enter the contest is 5 p.m. on Saturday. For more information, go to http://www.govsbizplancontest.com/
The first phase of the completion requires only a 250-word entry. Contestants who advance to subsequent contest rounds will have the opportunity to expand their plan or idea. More than 60 judges drawn from the finance, sales, marketing, research and specific technology sectors will score the entries and provide feedback.
Since its inception in 2004, more than 1,300 entries have been received and nearly $850,000 in cash and in-kind prizes has been awarded. In 2008, 17 finalists won cash prizes.
In addition to the grand prize, Still said companies can also win first place in the categories of life science, information technology, business services and advanced manufacturing.
The winners will be announced at the annual Entrepreneurs’ Conference in Milwaukee. Still said 12 finalists will get the chance to do live presentations at the conference.
“It will make it more like a venture conference,” he said. “This change will give more people chances to present and gain some notice.”
Still said he had received 189 entries by Thursday afternoon and was expecting a batch more today and Saturday.
“I think because of the poor shape the economy is in, we’ll be seeing entries from some people who may have been downsized and are now considering starting their own companies,” he said.
“It’s a natural way for talented people who are now out of work to explore a start-up. I guess it is one of the positive of a recession. It is certainly a time when you see a lot of innovation.
“Very few companies can rest on their laurels,” he said. “And new companies are all trying to find different ways to tap into the markets.”
