College Mogul

I witnessed the excitement of Poll Everywhere when I attended the MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize and the MIT $100k last week. The live interactive text messaging polling service had people captivated and engaged as the audience eagerly watched the percentages on the bar chart fluctuate as votes poured in from phones to determine the crowd favorite and who would win $10,000 (Covalent Solar won). Suddenly, the host had to move on with his presentation and announced that the chart would be back up in a few minutes. The audience suddenly turned into an angry mob screaming for the service to be brought back up; they wanted to know who would win the prize and if they had voted for the team that was everyone else’s favorite too. They were too eager to know and it drove them crazy. They loved it.

It’s ironic that the polling service that is supposed to help determine a favorite actually becomes the crowd’s favorite itself. Read more »

If you’re a college student looking for an internship, then you should take note of InternshipRatings.com. I recently wrote about them after meeting with the founders, Stephanie and Lauren. They just launched “Take Note” a group edited blog about internship opportunities and professional advice for those aiming to land one. Like most startups, InternshipRatings.com has had trouble driving traffic to their site and acquiring users. Part of the difficulty comes from the actual marketing, but then extends to a greater problem of giving users valuable information to keep them coming back. The blog offers a quick solution for both problems. It provides more content that will help bring more eyeballs by giving search engines more pages to find and display in relevant search results, and students looking for internships may add the RSS feed to their reader and come back more often to view articles and gain valuable advice for their search. The blog is well written since articles are by professionals who know the industry. Articles seem to be coming out once every week. I would recommend more frequent posts so that search engines are being pinged everyday and readers don’t forget to check every week. It is crucial to fulfill user’s expectations that they will be able to find something new during every visit, no matter when that is. The continual improving and launching of new features is a smart move for any startup. This should help them a bit.

Ricky Van Veen shares the wisdom of the Technological Age for aspiring Web entrepreneurs.

Twenty nine years after they formed a musical group, the Beastie Boys still call themselves “boys,” though they have certainly toned down the animal-like behavior. A mere nine years after CollegeHumor went online, the “boys” are starting to resemble young adults. In 2006, the parent company of CollegeHumor, Connected Ventures, which also owns of Busted Tees and Vimeo, was acquired by Barry Diller’s Interactive Corporation. Today CollegeHumor shares an office with the likes of Match.com and Evite in IAC’s new headquarters designed by superstar architect Frank Gehry located on Manhattan’s West side.

Being part of a large conglomerate hasn’t stopped CollegeHumor from doing what they do best; wasting the time of millions of American men and women every month. At last count, the site had over nine million unique visitors each month. As a brand Collegehumor is as strong as ever, though they have a few more resources at their disposal now: “As part of a public company, there’s a lot of accountability and reporting that needs to get done. When you’re a private independent company, you’re a bit more agile.”

Not only has CollegHumor found a winning formula for time wasting in user-generated content, they have also found a way to make money from the pranks, skits and wet t-shirt contests.

iViz is a network security company founded by two IIT-Kharagpur alumni. They provide technology which enables organizations to strengthen their networks against hackers and intruders. Their patented software uses AI to simulate a hacker’s penetration techniques and eliminate human errors. The founder’s Bikash and Nilanjan developed the technology as a project on network security in IIT. When they saw the potential of a business in their project, they entered various business plan competitions to raise initial funds. Bikash also sold some of his paintings to fund their business.

I had the opportunity to talk to Bikash after he had won Conquest-2006, which was a business plan competition held at BITS-Pilani. While I couldn’t make much sense of his technology, I was inspired by his passion and vision. A few days after winning Conquest he incorporated iViz and began taking projects from companies. In a year he won UC-Berkeley’s Technology Challenge and also London Business School’s Asia technology venture competition. Recently Business Today put them in their annual top 10 Indian startups list. Read more »

Covalent Solar may hold the key to increasing efficiency and cost effectiveness of solar energy. They just won the $20,000 MIT Student Team Award at the MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize as well as another $10,000 the following day in the MIT $100k Business Plan Competition. Their simple, yet powerful idea is derived from concentrating sunlight onto smaller surface area rather than collecting it over a broader surface such as current solar panels. Their “Organic Solar Concentrators” look exactly like a quarter inch thick neon green piece of glass. However, the technology captures the light from the surfaces, redirects, and concentrates the light on the outer brim. The benefit comes from being able to create smaller photoelectric converters to turn the concentrated light on the brim into energy instead of large surface areas of solar panels such as the ones you are probably familiar with. Read more »

Here are some awesome pictures, courtesy of the Horn Group:

This is Thatcher Bell, a Principal at DFJ Gotham. He was the event’s MC.

This is Chris Thomas of Widetronix, which was this year’s winning team.

Walking away with the $250K…

To conclude the event, an interview with Michael Dwork (left), Founder and CEO of Verterra, last year’s winner.

Over the past 18 years, the MIT $100k Business plan competition has given birth to over 85 companies that amount to over $10 billion in market cap and produce an aggregate exit value of $2.5 billion! It’s no wonder that BusinessWeek has labeled it “the most acclaimed business competition.” Over 1,000 people participating in over 250 teams this year that were narrowed down to 7 finalists. We would like to congratulate Diagnostics For All for taking home the grand prize of $100,000 and CovalentSolar with taking the Audience Award of $10,000.

I just attended the reception and awards ceremony last night and have to say that it was a remarkably inspiring event with companies providing solar energy solutions, cyber security, mobile applications, and ventures that aim to bring health care to third world countries. It’s not only inspiring to see such innovative ideas, but ones that actually have the potential to solve some of the world’s biggest problems. Competitions like these that aid entrepreneurs are not only crucial for entrepreneurs themselves, but are crucial in expediting the commercializing of new technologies and innovation developed in the labs of these institutions. The gathering of these world-class entrepreneurs, investors, and potential investors, creates a unique environment that catalyzes the growth of companies that can open up new job opportunities for thousands of people. The companies that have sprung from MIT have already produced over 2,500 jobs. This might not have been possible without the $600 million dollars in Venture Capital funding that the event help to garner.

Diagnostics For All has a unique technology that has tremendous potential for social impact in health management care. Their service revolves around a simple piece of litmus type paper that is able to diagnose patients for certain diseases by exposing the paper to a drop of blood. Depending on whether the patient has a certain disease or is healthy, the paper will turn a certain color. This makes it easy for any person in third world countries to diagnose patients without needing expensive equipment. It is a big idea because it provides a simple, easy and cheap method for a problem that is currently difficult, inefficient, and expensive. By providing this revolutionary technology the non-profit diagnostic company will provide health care agencies and commercial organizations with a new generation of point-of-care tools to address the diagnostic and clinical management needs of the global medical community. Diagnostics For All may begin to bridge the gap between the difference in health care options and services in the developed world and third world countries through affordability and immediate feasibility.

Well, we’ve come to the moment you’ve all been waiting for. DFJ representatives are all lined up on the stage ready to announce this year’s winner.

THE GRAND FINALE:

2008 DFJ East Coast Venture Challenge Winner: WIDETRONIX (CORNELL)

All of the teams were impressive, and the competition was fierce, but at the end of the day Widetronix takes home 250K and entrance into the DFJ network.

Widetronix is up on stage right now. The company has developed a pace maker battery that only has to be replaced once in a lifetime, compared to competing batteries that require three replacements at an average cost of $43,000. The cost savings per person as a result of switching to Widetronix will be approximately $13,000 or $3.9 billion by 2011. The team (John Green, Chris Thomas) is from Cornell and is currently waiting for FDA approval.

The technology works much like a solar cell. Shining electron rays on to the device will result in the production of current and voltage; the radiation source has a 25-year life span. The intellectual property obtained on the materials allows the company to reduce costs by as much as 50%. The energy density of the device is much higher than current devices, meaning the device can be made smaller which reduces costs.

The judges are concerned about the safety of the product as well as why the company chose to go into the transplant market as opposed to other applications that would not require FDA approval. Some other end markets include microsystems and defense. Another good point brought up is that fewer replacements is really attractive to the patient, but the cost savings is not good enough for the insurance companies. DFJ was hoping for a larger reduction in total costs, especially given that the costs are spread out over a large period of time.

The fourth and last finalist for today is JetEye. The team is Yulee Newsome (Yale MBA, CEO) and Stephen Bathurst (CTO, MIT PhD). The presentation started off with an anecdotal story about the United flight that crashed due to engine failure, killing 111 people. According to the founders, the engine had gone through 6 engine expections, but still failed due to what they are calling “engine fatigue.” They are introducing a patent pending monitoring turbine and compressor blades during jet engine operation. The turbine would prevent fatigue failures, which cause 56% of catastrophic failures. A sensor will monitor the engine blade and send information to the JetEye data acquisition and processing unit after which it will be processed by proprietary systems and sent to the pilots in the cockpit. The company is protected with two pending patents at MIT.

The judges seem to be concerned about the fact that the FAA will require maintenance regardless of the fact that JetEye claims to be able to reduce maintenance needs to nearly zero. DFJ is wondering if airlines will adopt the technology until it is mandated by the FAA. The system costs $200K, according to the founders. Another pressure point the judges hit on, was funding. The founders claim they need $400K to get off the ground, which one judge believes would be “better for a Web 2.0 company” not a hardware and software aerospace systems company.

I’ll be back with the WINNER.

This morning eleven teams presented from the top universities on the east coast. Each team previously placed first or runner-up at competitions at their respective schools. A previous placement was actually a pre-requisite for application, after which the applicants were sorted and hand-picked by DFJ Gotham.

The first round presentations were essentially rocket pitches; each team had 5 minutes to present. In the final round, each presentation will 10-15 minutes in length, plus a 5 minute Q&A. I made a mistake in my previous post. There will actually be four finalists–Electro-Epi (Brown), Yan Engines (Columbia), Widetronix (Cornell), JetEye (Yale).

Electro-Epi just took the stage. The problem they are trying to solve is electron transfer in solar cells. Currently, solar cells rely on substrates that are incredibly costly and inhibit electron flow. Electro-Epi is going to manufacture and sell substrates with single crystal structures which will cost less and increase current density. They plan to break even in 2Q 2010 and sell for 15-20M in five years. The early exit plan is as a result of the fact that the founders believe that growing vertically may not be easy. Most of the information presented went way over my head, but the judges seemed to be questioning the business model.

Yan Engines is up now. They are trying to change the way engines are built to add more power with less fuel. The new type of engine features the patented D-cycle cylinder, developed by the father of the company president. The D-cycle cylinder Increases fuel efficiency by 30% and power by 80%. What’s the market size for engines? Currently, 142 million engines are produced annually, and unlike other proposed engine improvements, the D-cycle cylinder does not require engine manufacturers to invest in any other manufacturing plants or labor training–only five parts of current engines are modified to support D-cycle. One cool closing remark is that if every car in the world used the D-cycle engine, we would need 2.6 MBD (million barrels per day) less than right now, which would dramatically reduce reliance on foreign oil and pressure on oil supply.

Presentations just went on break. I’ll be back for the final two later.