Entrepreneurship club awards $10,000 in business plan contest

The Princeton Entrepreneurship Club awarded $10,000 to the top three teams in its 3rd annual Business Plan Contest held Saturday in Dodds Auditorium.

Of the 10 teams submitting proposals, Power Silence — boasting patented technology for better power regulation — was awarded the $5,000 first prize.

Mark Holveck '01, one of five Power Silence team members, said his team had the edge due to a superior understanding of the market for its product.

"Power was a different industry that most people don't really study," he said. "A lot of people didn't have enough market research. We really worked on that a lot for this contest."

Competing students submitted a business plan for a product or idea, including competitive market research, projected financial statements and short-term and long-term capital needs.

Howard Cox '64, general partner of Greylock Capital and chairman-elect of the National Venture Capital Foundation, donated the $10,000 in prize money and covered organizational expenses. Cox said he hopes his efforts foster entrepreneurship amongst students.

"When I was at Princeton there was very little interest in entrepreneurial experience. The only entrepreneur I knew was Dennis Keller '63, who started Tiger Pizza. He now runs a company called DeVry, and is a trustee of the University," he said.

Cox said the one criticism of the presentations was that they did not show sufficient market research.

"While the technical aspects were all excellent, we felt that the presentations needed a little more in the marketing area, because [teams] needed to understand a little bit more about what the competition was," he said.

A panel composed of 11 venture capitalists — including six Princeton alumni — judged the four finalists in Dodds Auditorium.

Panelist Anthony Marino '95, an associate at Venrock, described what he was looking for in a winning team.

"There tend to be two general buckets of skill, either technical skill on the product or skill in sales and marketing, and often the best teams are ones that combine those two areas," he said.

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Co-director of the contest and president-elect of the Entrepreneurship Club Adrienne Clark '02 said the focus of the presentations shifted this year.

"The focus of the plans has certainly shifted with the changing economy," she said. "This year there's a lot of new technology in the process of being patented."

The second-place prize of $3,000 was awarded to Influid Networks, a team headed by Brooke Lang '01 and Rob Katcher GS. Their company proposes to build routers with commercial hardware components and a patented extensible operating system.

Third-place winner Jonathan Jessup '01 of Palmare Innovations said the contest offers new entrepreneurs valuable experience.

"You don't have any idea of what venture companies are going to think [of your proposal] so you have an opportunity to put it out there and see what they think," he said.

Jessup and partner Erik DeBrun '02 focused on the commercialization of Dbtoolbox, a technology that provides point-and-click web-based interface.

Contest co-director Philip Michaelson '03 said he is excited that teams are going to pursue their plans after they graduate. "The contest empowers individuals with the contacts and resources to pursue their ideas, rather than more ordinary career paths."

When asked about their hopes for the future, Power Silence team members Darren Hammell '01 and partner Holveck smiled.

"Mounds and mounds of money," Holveck laughed.

The Princeton Entrepreneurship Club — founded in 1998 — sponsors the Business Plan Contest and brings speakers to the University with the goal of creating a forum for ideas and entrepreneurial opportunities.