First Place – BodyRox Fitness
Second Place – Fund for America
Third Place – NBA Math Hoops

Thank You to Our Judges!

First Round

Nate Lentz, Partner at Osage Partners
Brad Weinberg, Managing Partner at Shape up the Nation
Greg Baldwin, President and CEO at VolunteerMatch
Chris Savage, Founder and CEO at Wistia
Allan Tear, Managing Partner at Betaspring
Derek Scheuren, Co-Founder at Recommind Inc.
Sheila Ennis, Managing Director at Hypatia Capital Group
Richard Katzman, CEO at Kaz Inc.
David Martirano, Co-Founder and General Partner at Point Judith Capital
Jason Donahue, VP Brand Management at Zeo Inc.
Chris Abbot, President and Founder at Aslan Resort Fund
Deborah Mills-Scofield, Partner at Glengary LLC

Second Round

Andy Cutler, Founder and President at Cutler Communications
Saul Kaplan, Founder & Chief Catalyst at Business Innovation Factory
Charlie Kroll, Founder and President of Andera
Pamela O’Hara, President at Batchblue Software
Prithvi Tanwar, Attorney at Foley Hoag LLP
Jeffrey Weiss, Investor at the Clean Energy Venture Group

Members of the Brown EP community,

We are proud to announce that our largest event of the year, the Annual Startup Competition. Student teams have been working diligently to complete their business plans and pitch presentations. The competition will feature non-profit and commercial ventures alike, and teams will be competing for prizes totaling $50K in cash and in-kind services.

We would be honored to have you attend this phenomenal event, which is sure to be a close race.

When: April 14th, 2012, from 1:00-4:30pm
Where: Salomon 001 (on the Main Green)

Join us in showcasing and accelerating some of the brightest young minds at Brown!

Date: Saturday, November 19th

Time: 11:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Location: Brown Faculty Club (right next to Keeney) **note the change in venue**
Address: One Magee St, Providence, RI

Hear from renowned entrepreneurs and discover your own entrepreneurial spirit!              (To view the full schedule, click on the eventbrite link below)

 This event is free and open to the public, with a suggested donation
for attending alumni/community members. Please RSVP by visiting http://eprogram.eventbrite.com/

Social Kickoff Event

(FREE KABOB N CURRY)

Monday November 7th,  7-8pm (CIT Atrium)                                                                                                              

Think you have a startup idea for the next big thing? Then come to the CS-EP Social Kickoff to find out how you can get involved with the Brown entrepreneurial community.

While you’re at it, cross paths with some new people you might potentially want on your team (potential co-founder?), and engage with Brown alums Charlie Kroll (CEO of Andera; Venture for America Board Member) and Andres Douglas ’09 (CEO of Bakodo) as they speak of their experiences about starting a business. CS Professor Shriram Krishnamurthi will also provide his wisdom and inspiration in the start-up community.

Afterwards, take the challenge: what’s the worst startup idea you can think of? We’re talking ideas you wouldn’t consider prototyping in a million years. Bring a friend, come enjoy free tasty Kabob n Curry and hear people pitch their horrendous ideas.

1st Place: Cancer Creating Champions (Sidney Kushner)                                                                                                                                                             2nd Place: Munch Card (Ben Vishny)                                                                                                                                                                                   3rd Place: Sparketplace (Isaac Goldberg)

Thank you to all who participated! We look forward to hearing more about your ventures as they develop!

60 Seconds for a Chance to win $1000!

Students are given 60 seconds to pitch their business idea. The idea can be related to a non‐profit or for‐profit venture. In the past, elevator pitches have ranged from topics that include developing innovative software, providing cleaner-burning cooking stoves to rural villages in Peru, and creating a school fund for children in Africa. There will be two tracks for the E-Pitch Competition: Idea Stage Ventures and Developing Ventures to make sure teams at all stages of business development have the chance to win seed-funding.

 All participants must fill out this form by Thursday (10/6/11)

https://docs.google.com/a/brown.edu/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEYtN1F1VnpGOXdpa0NpZ2QtRm9vOHc6MQ

Grand Prize Winner
Rip van Wafels

First Runner-Up
The School Fund

Second Runner-Up
WaterWalla

We would also like to congratulate finalists PriWater and Privicare, the winner and runner-up of the 2011 RI Business Plan Competition Student Track!

RI Business Plan Competition Winners Announced

William J. Allen

Throughout a career of over 35 years, Bill Allen has been an innovative and strategic leader in the philanthropic and non-profit sectors.

Bill has a Master of Social Planning (M.S.P.) from Boston College Graduate School of Social Work. As Executive Vice President of Community Services (1977 to 2004) at the United Way of Rhode Island, he led a community building operation focused on systems change and achieving results. He built a team that has leveraged funds with individual and corporate donors, local and national foundations and government to achieve maximum impact in affordable housing, community development, family support, workforce development and out of school time activities. He served as Interim President of United Way of RI in 1996. He was one of three individuals who led a coalition which designed and successfully lobbied for Rhode Island’s welfare reform legislation.

Bill was elected to the Cumberland School Committee in 1986 and chair of the Committee in 1988. He has been president and a member of the boards of Lincoln School and the Cumberland Library. He now serves on the boards of Butler Hospital, Amos House, Children’s Friend and Providence Singers. He is the immediate past chair of the board of RI Kids Count and current chair of Clean Power Now. He is also an associate partner at Social Venture Partners Rhode Island.

He has held senior management positions with United Ways in Broome County, New York and Portland, Maine. He began his career as a caseworker for the Boston Welfare Department and has managed a Neighborhood Employment Center for Boston’s anti-poverty program. Currently he is on the part-time faculty at Brown University’s Taubman Center for Public Policy, Boston College Graduate School of Social Work and Providence College.

Richard Katzman

 Richard Katzman was Chairman & CEO of Kaz, Incorporated, a global consumer appliance company, until its recent sale in December 2010. Under his leadership, the company grew from $4 Million in annual sales to $500 Million by expanding its product offerings and international distribution, and pioneering brand extension licensing with the global power brands Vicks, Honeywell, and Braun. Mr. Katzman’s family has a tradition of entrepreneurship. His grandfather invented the electric vaporizer and founded Kaz in 1926, his father had a successful career as a professional cartoonist while also leading the company, and his brother founded the Princeton Review and 2tor.com.  Mr. Katzman graduated with an A.B. from Brown. He is a board member of the Princeton Review.

Erik Simon

Erik Simon is Director of Marketing and Communications for Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corp., the leading provider of credit building and credibility solutions for businesses.  Erik is responsible for all public communications, offline marketing and is heavily involved in business development deals as well.  Prior to Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corp., Erik was involved in advertising and business development activities for j2 Global Communications, a publicly traded company with customers in 45 countries around the world.  One of Erik’s key responsibilities at j2 Global was managing all business development, sales and marketing for eFax Free, the largest free online telco service in US. Prior to j2 Global Communications, Erik was involved in 2 start-ups focused on online video,  VideoBanner.com, one of the first companies focused on online video advertising, and Vosaic, a company founded to commercialize video technologies developed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, the same University that developed the Web’s first browser.  Erik was also one of the founding manager’s of Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, where he helped launch the largest archive of video testimonies ever created. Erik is a graduate of Boston University and a former speechwriter for two Boston Mayors, Raymond L. Flynn and Thomas Menino.

Allan Tear

Allan is a founder and managing partner of Betaspring. Allan has founded three venture-funded startups: Elastic Networks, Incanta, and WhyData. He has raised over $15M from angels, venture capital, and strategic partners, including Slater Fund, Intel Capital and AT&T. He is an expert in new product and service launches.

Allan is co-founder of Hackable City and Mashable City, open-source projects that facilitate social capital in our urban environments and communities through better information, transparency, and citizen engagement. He advises students and schools on entrepreneurship through the Brown COE program, MET School, and the Carnegie Mellon Dean’s Leadership Council. He was selected in 2008 for the Providence Business News “40 Under Forty” list. Allan is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, with B.S. degrees in Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Public Policy.

The teams that have qualified for
the final round are listed below: 

Axena Technologies
Cancer Creating Champions
MainGreen.tv
Privicare
PriWater
Rip van Wafels
The School Fund
WaterWalla

We hope that you come out to support these ventures!  We will be conducting an audience vote after the presentations (from 3-4 PM in Smith-Buonanno Hall room 106), which will account for 10% of the total score. See you there!

Date: Saturday, April 30, 2011
Time: 2:00 – 6:00 PM
Location: Brown University Smith Buonanno Hall (Pembroke Quad)
Address: 95 Cushing Street (East of Brown St.)

To register, please visit: http://epforum2011.eventbrite.com/
This event is free and open to the public, with a suggested donation
for attending alumni/community members.

Schedule of Events

2:00 – 3:00

Panel Discussion: Providence’s Particular Brand of Entrepreneurship

a discussion about the unique entrepreneurial environment that exists in providence in which local entrepreneurs will share their insight and experience as members of providence’s community of entrepreneurs

Panelists:

Angus Davis – Founder and CEO, Swipely
Hyun Kim – Founder and CEO, Mama Kim’s Korean BBQ
Julie Sygiel – Co-Founder and CEO, Sexy Period
Jack Templin – Founder and CEO, Lockify; Founder and Partner, Betaspring

3:00 – 4:00

Final Round of the 2011 EP Startup Competition

the finalists of the startup competition will each have 5 minutes to give their pitches to ep forum audience members, who will then vote on what they believe to be the best venture (this will account for 10% of the final score)

4:00 – 5:00 

Panel Discussion: The Entrepreneurial Process

a discussion centered around the processes behind entrepreneurship and the qualities of an entrepreneur – specifically, this panel will examine social and commercial entrepreneurship side-by-side in an effort to shed light on what the two often-divided spheres of venture creation share

Panelists:

Mike Baker – President and CEO, DataXu
Steve Glenn – Founder and CEO, LivingHomes LLC
Steven Wallace – Founder and President, Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company
Bert Crenca – Founder and Artistic Director, AS220

5:00 

Announcement of the 2011 EP Startup Competition Winners

5:00 – 6:00

Keynote Lecture
Kent Swig, CEO and Founder of Swig Equities

Hope to see you there!
http://epforum2011.eventbrite.com/