This 12 months’s MIT $100K Business Plan Contest drew a report 215 groups to compete for the coveted grand prize: $100,000 to begin a enterprise enterprise or market a brand new product. On Tuesday night, eight finalists pitched their concepts to a capability crowd in Kresge Auditorium — and whereas just one workforce walked away with the massive examine, there was loads of seed cash and startup alternative to go round.
The profitable workforce beat out the competition with its pitch for CloudTop, a Web-based software that will allow the person to attach disparate laptop packages in a single on-line software. The workforce says the app might present a completely new computing paradigm: Instead of getting to hold round a laptop computer with all of your saved recordsdata, you could possibly entry these recordsdata from any laptop with an Internet connection. With the app, a person might take photographs from Facebook, edit them in Pixlr, and save them right into a Microsoft Word doc — all inside the similar safe Web browser.
On Tuesday, the CloudTop workforce of 4 MIT college students appealed to the viewers and judges with a closing pitch line: “We envision a world where your digital life goes wherever you go … it’s totally freeing.” The $100,000 prize now frees the CloudTop workforce to pursue commercialization alternatives.
But the remaining finalists didn’t go dwelling empty-handed. In addition to creating one final enterprise pitch, every finalist obtained $15,000 for rising to the top of their respective observe: life sciences; services; cellular; net/IT; vitality; and the Segal Family Foundation’s rising markets observe. Two extra finalists have been chosen as wild playing cards for Tuesday’s finale.
The contest additionally sponsored a number of offshoots: a $10,000 Data Prize, sponsored by Thomson Reuters, for the workforce with probably the most progressive data-centric marketing strategy; a $5,000 YouTube Pitch Prize, awarded to the workforce with the perfect 60-second video pitch for a enterprise thought; and a $2,000 Audience Choice Award, for the workforce with the perfect pitch of the night time, as voted by viewers members by way of textual content messages.
An entrepreneur’s playbook
The occasion’s keynote speaker, Todd Park, appointed by President Barack Obama earlier this 12 months as chief know-how officer for the United States, commented enthusiastically on MIT’s entrepreneurial spirit, noting that contests such because the $100K assist to “unleash entrepreneurship” and push know-how options into {the marketplace}.
Often pacing onstage and drawing appreciative laughs from the group, Park talked about his earlier expertise as chief know-how officer — or “entrepreneur in residence,” as he known as it — for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. There, he was tasked with making public the company’s huge archive of medical information. He determined to “take a page from the MIT playbook” and maintain a competition — which he fondly dubbed “Datapalooza” — to determine progressive methods to make use of well being information to assist shoppers.
Park now hopes to carry comparable entrepreneurial contests to resolve among the nation’s largest points in vitality, public security and finance. “There’s no problem that we can’t invent ourselves out of,” he stated. “Don’t stop being addicted to building something out of nothing. That’s what makes an entrepreneur.”
Everyone’s a winner
The $100K competition’s runner-up, LiquiGlide, pitched a product that will clear up a very sticky downside: The workforce invented a slippery, biocompatible coating that may very well be used to line ketchup and mustard bottles. A video illustrating the product confirmed a blob of ketchup sliding via a glass bottle with a easy tilt of the hand — a frictionless various to at the moment’s much less user-friendly condiment designs. The group’s quirky pitch earned it the Audience Choice Award, together with $2,000.
Two groups pitched health-related enterprise plans: IoVista, a finalist within the rising markets observe, introduced a plan for a handheld gadget that shortly performs eye exams. The workforce stated the gadget may very well be helpful in areas corresponding to rural India and China which have few skilled eye specialists.
Podimetrics, a finalist within the life sciences observe, made its case for what appeared like a shower mat — however when a workforce member stood on the mat, a display screen overhead projected a picture of his ft. The workforce designed the mat’s sensors to shortly detect abnormalities which can be widespread issues for sufferers with diabetes.
In the services observe, Cryoocyte pitched a brand new technique to freeze fish eggs — a difficult operation that the workforce stated might assist rejuvenate fisheries if shares collapse. The workforce hopes to each make a revenue and replenish fish shares, an answer workforce members envisioned as “enabling the blue revolution.”
Several groups introduced options to vitality and web-based issues. SolidEnergy, a finalist within the vitality observe, pitched a brand new battery design that will stretch a laptop computer’s battery life on a single cost to 16 hours. Team member Qichao Hu, whose PhD thesis spawned the design, listed the various MIT collaborations that helped to enhance the design. “The story of SolidEnergy is only possible at MIT,” Hu stated.
The workforce MegaMIMO sought to unjam wi-fi connections. The workforce identified that in one of many late Steve Jobs’ displays, the Apple co-founder had requested the viewers to energy down all laptops and smartphones, so Jobs himself may connect with a wi-fi community. “This might work for Steve Jobs, but not for the rest of us,” a workforce member stated.
MegaMIMO’s answer is an “access point design” for overcrowded networks that clears up interfering indicators, permitting extra customers to wirelessly join with out dropping information transmission velocity. The workforce capped their presentation with the tagline: “Mo’ MIMO, no problems.”
A possible various to Craigslist got here within the type of Peddl, a workforce that pitched an app for getting and promoting items and providers on-line. Like Craigslist, the applying emphasizes native items, however with an added bonus: The app creates maps, flagging listings near a person’s location or deal with. The user-friendly interface permits a buyer to point curiosity in an inventory, contact a purchaser, ask for a cheaper price, or put up an inventory. “For the last decade, Craigslist has dominated the local market,” the workforce pitched. “We think this area is ripe for disruption.”