TROY, N.Y. — Three teams of budding student entrepreneurs from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Union College will vie to win the final round of Rensselaer’s $50,000 Tech Valley Collegiate Business Plan competition on May 3. The competition will be held on Rensselaer’s campus in the Center for Industrial Innovation, room 4050, beginning at 6 p.m. The competition is sponsored by Rensselaer’s Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship at the Lally School of Management & Technology.

Each team will have 20 minutes to pitch their business plans to a highly experienced panel of venture capitalists from outside the Capital Region. The judges will have 10 minutes to question each collegiate business team.

This year’s finalists are from the Capital Region:

• Innovative Engineering Solutions is creating STOMP (Scanning Thermal and Optical Measurement Platform) — a foot scanning device that could aid diabetic patients with early identification of foot disorders caused by the disease. The team is composed of three engineering students from Rensselaer.

• Greensulate has developed an environmentally friendly organic insulation. This patented combination of water, flour, minerals, and mushroom spores could replace conventional foam insulations, which are expensive to synthesize and harmful to the environment. The team is composed of two engineering students from Rensselaer.

• Secondbreath Inc. is redesigning the way emergency medicine is delivered by creating a device to aid in a cricothyroidotomy procedure for emergency trauma patients.The existing procedure requires a surgical incision to allow air to pass through into the trachea. The team is composed of three students from Union College. 

“The Lally School is in the business of advancing technological entrepreneurship and innovation in today’s ever-changing global economy. Our annual collegiate business plan competition is a terrific example of how to make this happen,” said David Gautschi, dean of the Lally School. “From start to finish, the competition gives college students throughout the region the practical experience they will need to launch and grow a business. We are excited about the opportunity to help prepare the next generation of entrepreneurs.” 

The winning team will receive a $5,000 cash prize, and has the opportunity to receive $20,000 in seed funding, $15,000 in legal, patent, and financial services, and ancillary expenses for travel to a national business plan competition. The final level of the award is based on the company’s progress in implementing the business plan. The company also will receive a one-year virtual membership in Rensselaer’s Incubator Program. The program offers an extensive suite of business assistance services, including infrastructure-based support, consulting, business development, and networking opportunities. The second-and-third place teams will be awarded $4,000 and $3,000 respectively.

The winner of the final competition will be announced following the two-minute “elevator pitch” competition. The two-minute “elevator pitch” competition is open to the six semi-finalists. A representative from each team will have an opportunity to present their business idea to three judges; William “BJ” Johnson, executive director of U-Start Incubator @ Union College; Annette Khaler, executive director of the Science & Technology Law Center at Albany Law School; and Joanne Kapp, associate professor of marketing and management at Siena College. The team with the most effective pitch will win a $1,000 cash prize. 

Vayu Innovations, a technology start-up company founded by four MBA graduate students from the Lally School, won last year’s Tech Valley Collegiate Business Plan Competition. The company showcased its plan to develop and bring to market the Pocket Epi, a credit-card-sized, easy-to-carry self-injector that can be used by individuals or caregivers to deliver epinephrine during a life-threatening allergy attack. 

Dean Gautschi noted that BullEx Digital Safety, the 2005 competition winner, was one of five finalists in the national 2005 Fortune Small Business Competition. Last year, the company won the $100,000 prize at the Summit in Tech Valley’s annual business plan competition. The company has established an office in the Rensselaer Technology Park, with additional manufacturing space in the Capital Region.

About Rensselaer’s Lally School
Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management and Technology was founded in 1963 as an integral part of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the nation’s oldest technological university. Rensselaer’s Lally School is dedicated to advancing business through innovation. Its curriculum is designed to produce leaders who combine creative passion with the ability to integrate technology across business functions. Lally School faculty members emphasize the value of hands-on experience available through campus resources such as the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship and a world-class Business Incubator. Rensselaer’s Lally School offers graduate and undergraduate degree programs in management, doctoral programs in management and technology, an Executive MBA program, and a joint Sino-U.S. MBA for companies operating in China. For more information: www.lallyschool.rpi.edu.

About the Severino Center at Rensselaer’s Lally School
Established in 1988, the Paul J. ’69 and Kathleen M. Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship (SCTE) helps foster new generations of budding and successful entrepreneurs through outreach programs, education and research. Centered in Rensselaer’s Kenneth T. and Thelma P. Lally School of Management and Technology, the mission of the SCTE is to integrate educational and research programs by exposing every Rensselaer student to the practices and principles of entrepreneurship; infuse the fundamentals of entrepreneurship throughout the Rensselaer curriculum; extend Rensselaer’s leadership and national prominence in technological entrepreneurship; and enhance the synergy between entrepreneurship and information technology.

Contact: Jessica Otitigbe
Phone: (518) 276-6050
E-mail: otitij@rpi.edu