The eighth annual competition showcased diverse and innovative life science, medical and mobile technologies, as well as language lesson products. Entrants to the competition submitted their business plans in January. The four finalists were selected in February and spent two months refining their plans and presentations. At the competition finals on April 9, each team spent 20 minutes presenting their plans and 10 minutes fielding questions from the judges, who were venture capitalists and lawyers specializing in start ups.

While the judges were debating their choice of winners, the audience had the opportunity to vote on which team they would invest in using wireless technology donated by Platinum Sponsor Brown Rudnick. The most popular teams with the audience were not necessarily the most popular with the judges. After the judges announced the winners, they explained in detail what they liked about each business plan and what the teams needed to improve.

1st place:

Headed by Roberto Reif ENG'08 with teammates Jonathan Scherer GSM'08, Dave Spenciner GSM'09, and Adam Winston GSM'08, Essense Medical Inc. develops disposable medical tools that can both diagnose and treat cancer in real-time, while reducing the need for biopsies. The tools incorporate a patented optical biopsy sensor that can identify cancerous tissues non-invasively by using light, therefore guiding the treatment towards the site of interest. Essense Medical Inc. will initially focus on screening and treating colorectal cancer to speed-up colonoscopy procedures and reduce the cost of healthcare. The company expects to translate the technology platform into other important medical markets.

2nd place:

Presented by Erick Ramos Murillo GSM'07 and Rodrigo Navarro Huerta GSM'07, RemesaTel aims to help Mexican citizens in the US and Mexico reduce the exorbitant fees currently being paid for financial and commercial services by providing access to credit and trading opportunities through mobile text messaging. In 2007, $24B in cash remittances was sent from the US to Mexico. In Mexico, families have access to more than $6 billion dollars in cash and government subsidies but often lack the basic financial instruments (like credit cards) that would allow them to access these funds at a reasonable rate. The result is payments ranging from 20%-300% over regular prices. By using RemesaTel mobile technologies, families will be able to conveniently transfer funds and realize significant savings.

3rd place :

Anirban Chatterjee GSM'08 and Paul Mirer presented their business plan based on breakthrough biomaterials technology developed at Boston University. AutoNAIS offers a simple, convenient alternative to DNA sample preparation that looks and works a lot like a common laboratory pipettor, but quickly performs sophisticated separation and sampling procedures that now take many valuable hours to complete. Ideal for molecular biologists, the AutoNAIS is easy to automate, saving time and effort and enabling many types of cell-based research to become truly high-throughput.

ITEC 2008 $50K Business Plan Competition Sponsors

The annual Competition is supported by a variety of business partners, including Platinum Sponsor Brown Rudnick, and Gold Sponsor Seyfarth Shaw. Additional sponsors include Cummings Properties, GrandBanks Capital, Kodiak Venture Partners,Paul Horn & Associates, TeleEMG (2005 Competition Winner), SV Life Sciences, and World Wide Entrepreneurship Holdings Corporation.