Let’s Hear it for our Winners!

The 7th Annual Business Plan Competition is now complete. The finalists did an amazing job with their presentations this morning.

Dave O’Brien, our current entrepreneur in residence and CEO of the Business Catapult, along with Jono Shuster of the Entrepreneurial Standards Forum, worked with each finalist to improve their oral presentation. I did not see a single powerpoint slide with a cramped income statement or balance sheet this year. In every case the value proposition was clear. Awesome job everyone. Huzzah!

Let’s hear it for our winners who were awarded more than $100,000 in cash and in-kind services.

1st Place. Developing Minds Software, Dawn & Mason Gregg, Michael Erskine, Colette Hanley, Lynn Sargent. This is the 2nd year that Developing Minds Software entered the Bard Center Business Plan Competition. Their perseverance has certainly paid off. Developing Minds Software serves families and educational institutions challenged with serving the developmentally disabled children by allowing practitioners to systematically collect data, assess the student progress, and adapt student programs to the changing needs.

2nd Place. Gobai-Culturally Inspired Cuisine, Kaidan Nguyen. Look for this novel restaurant to launch near 17th and Pearl sometime in the coming year. Gobai will create fresh and healthy Vietnamese-inspired dishes made with quality ingredients that are fresh from local farms to the customer’s plate. Gobai is designed to reawaken the fast casual restaurant industry with recipes that are nutritious and eclectic, that is served with the speed of traditional fast-food restaurants.

3rd Place. Snoasis Medical Inc., Robert Tofe - a Bard Center Incubator Company. Snoasis Medical is a biomedical company that offers dental regenerative products for use in both hard and soft tissue applications. Snoasis Medical products target periodontal disease and damage caused by trauma and gingival recession.

4th -6th Place (in alphabetical order)

Healthy Travels, Raj Joseph - Winner of our first International Award sponsored by the IIB and CIBER at the University of Colorado Denver. Healthy Travels is a global healthcare service enabler that offers a comprehensive medical tourist solution by providing a premier healthcare experience outside of the United States coupled with unique first class travel opportunities during the recuperation and recovery phase.Robotics Assisted Gait Training, Timothy S. Nicklas

Robotics Assisted Gait Training , Tim Nicklas - Winner of our NonProfit Award sponsored by New Century Ventures and the Ward Family. Robotics Assisted Gait Training is a nonprofit business at Childrens Hospital for installing and operating a system that provides rigorous, customized monitoring for gait training utilizing modern technology that implements tried and trued therapies for patients with gait impairment.

Tissue Genetics Jeffrey Holt, M.D., James Bowman, Kimberly Gibson & Vanessa Clark - was the winner of the Bioscience Award. Tissue Genetics is a biomedical diagnostic company that identifies patients with genetic diseases, helping to determine their optimum course of care. Their novel diagnostic kits will establish a new paradigm for screening for hereditary diseases.

Brad Feld gave an amazing keynote address on the role of failure in the future successes of entrepreneurs.

I thank all of you who were able to attend.