Peter Farrell Cup Finals Night recap

Pluvision, developer of a unique eye-wetting solution, took first place at this year’s Peter Farrell Cup Entrepreneurship Competition, held Wednesday 26 October on the UNSW Kensington campus.


Team Pluvision, from L to R: Hye Won Lee, Eric Wei, Noellie Garand,
Dr Wallace Bridge (lecturer), Niklas Olsson, Maurice Chiarello (lecturer)


In addition to going on to compete in the John Heine Entrepreneurial Challenge in December, the Pluvision team is heading to Sweden to compete in the I2P Idea2Product® competition in November.

“We’re really excited about getting selected as one of the top 15 finalists,” says student Niklas Olsson of Pluvision. “But I can’t believe we just won the Peter Farrell Cup. When I first started at UNSW I heard about the Cup but I never dreamed we’d win it!”

Of the 17 business plans submitted, eight were selected to present on the finals night. Each finalist is invited to present their enterprise to NewSouth Innovations Concept Development Meeting.

“It’s great to see students across campus identifying and tackling real-world problems. Their energy and passion was clear to see in the final pitches they delivered,” says Dr Steve Brodie of NewSouth Innovations. “I have no doubt that some of these students will go on to become successful entrepreneurs.”

Further commercialisation services are offered to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners, and to the teams meriting Honourable Mention from the judges. 

RevoSen, developer of a myocardial ischaemic detection method, and Future Surgical Solutions, who have developed a novel bone-healing technology, won Honourable Mentions from the judging panel.

 

Judges, from L to R: Dr Kevin Cullen (NewSouth Innovations),
Anne-Marie Birkell (OneVentures), Peter Davison (Fishburners),
Simon Pinson (BSF), Bryce Summerell (Posse)

"It's clear to me there is no shortage of innovative research and enterprising individuals across a wide range of disciplines at UNSW,” says Peter Davison, one of the judges and a founder of co-working space and entrepreneur community Fisburners. “It’s tremendous to see students learning the basics of entrepreneurship within the university environment…the teamwork between postgraduates, undergraduates and academics to produce plausible business plans was a feature of the competition - innovative and promising in itself. I hope the University continues to make strides towards fostering student entrepreneurship."
This year’s competition featured a People’s Choice Award which was handily won by BioMark, who also placed 3rd overall.


BioMark team members, from L to R: Hayley Cullen, Arjanna Chitranjan,
Dr Wallace Bridge (lecturer), Timothy Couttas,
Maurice Chiarello (lecturer), Sasa Mitric.


Professor Greg Whitwell, Deputy Dean of Programs and Students at the Australian School of Business, remarked on the high levels of collaboration evident in presentations.

“And it’s collaboration of different sorts, between disciplines certainly, but also, remarkably, between undergraduate and postgraduate students, which is extremely rare,” he says. “I commend all the teams who made it to the finals and presented some really quality and high-level ideas.”

NMT (Novel Muscle Technologies), presented their business plan for an enterprise utilizing a unique synthetic gel that, when inserted into the body, can temporarily replace muscle tissue and provide a framework for new cells and muscle fibres to grow on.



Novel Muscle Technologies (NMT) team members, from L to R: Shruthi Hariharan,
Dr Wallace Bridge (lecturer), Scott Jamieson, Maurice Chiarello (lecturer), Anishka Tewari

Based on research done by Scott Jamieson, their business plan and presentation impressed the judges enough to award them second place, with remarks about the sophistication of both the idea and its development into a business. Judge Simon Pinson says,“It really is impressive what we’ve seen here this evening!”










We are pleased to confirm Ernst & Young and RosesOnly as sponsors of the CIE. We would like to thank the Farrell Family Foundation and Gary Zamel for their generous donations. We also acknowlege the continuing support of the Australian School of Business. All of our sponsors help provide the means to host networking events, award prizes, and reimburse our suppliers and service providers. In exchange, these donors receive good karma and public recognition as supporters of innovation and entrepreneurship. To become a sponsor of CIE and support our community engagement activity, please contact us at cie@unsw.edu.au.

Announcing the Peter Farrell Cup competition FINALISTS!!

 After a (ahem) slight delay, we are pleased to announced the finalists in the Peter Farrell Cup Entrepreneurship Competition. 

Of the 17 entrants, EVERY team was picked by at least one judge as a being worthy of further interest.  However, the following eight had the highest and most scores, earning them the right to pitch LIVE to the judging team.

These eight teams will be presenting their ideas and enterprises to our five judges on Wednesday evening, 26 October, in the Ritchie Theatre (Scientia Bldg) on the UNSW Kensington campus, beginning at 6 PM.

Come along to hear the newest and best of UNSW innovation and entrepreneurship!  (If you haven't already done so, please register here so we can get the catering numbers right.)

Abracadaver
BetaMed
Biomark
Future Surgical Solutions
Munchable
NMT
Pluvision
RevoSen

Many thanks to our judges for their hard work in reading, evaluating and scoring the business plans.  We look forward to your assessment and feedback on the live pitches!

Bryce Summerell - CEO at The Entourage, founder of DateRate.com.au, founder at Meet Bryce, and president at ACESUTS
Anne-Marie Birkell - General Partner in OneVentures and non-executive director for RedFlow Technologies Ltd
Simon Pinson – co-founder of BSF Group
Kevin Cullen - CEO NewSouth Innovations Pty Limited
Paul Levins - President Australia and New Zealand, Intellectual Ventures
Peter Davison - founder, Fishburners

For more information, please don't hesitate to contact the CIE (cie@unsw.edu.au)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
We are pleased to confirm Ernst & Young and RosesOnly as sponsors of the CIE. We would like to thank the Farrell Family Foundation and Gary Zamel for their generous donations. We also acknowlege the continuing support of the Australian School of Business. All of our sponsors help provide the means to host networking events, award prizes, and reimburse our suppliers and service providers. In exchange, these donors receive good karma and public recognition as supporters of innovation and entrepreneurship. To become a sponsor of CIE and support our community engagement activity, please contact us at cie@unsw.edu.au.

Peter Farrell Cup competition RESULTS!!

Mobile phone-based taxi booking and payments platform developer TaxiApps took first place in the 10th annual Peter Farrell Cup Business Plan Competition last Thursday. The event was hosted by the Centre of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE) in the School of Strategy & Entrepreneurship at the Australian School of Business (ASB). 

The competition offers teams of students the opportunity to create and develop an innovative business idea,  then present it to a panel of five judges comprising business founders and venture capitalists.

“The whole process, from coming up with idea and then thinking through what we wanted to do and how we were going to do it – the whole thing just gathered momentum and then I started thinking `Hey, we could really do this’ and now it’s just really exciting that we’re going ahead with this,” said TaxiApps team member Ned Moorfield, a student of the AGSM. “The contest really gets you going.”


Dr Peter C Farrell with 1st place winning team, TaxiApps. From L to R:
Trung Nghi Tiet, Ned Moorfield, Dr Farrell and Andrew Campbell

Other winning ideas were: on-site toxic halogenated waste recycling, hangover and osteoporosis medications, and an online social network for casual workplaces.
“I was really impressed at the sophistication of not only the presentations but the ideas themselves,” commented Axelle Marjolin, UNSW student and spectator, at the evening’s events. “I certainly wasn’t expecting so many technical ideas with that much development behind them.”

Judge Gareth Dando, founding Managing Director of Southern Cross Venture Partners, also expressed surprise at the ideas presented, saying, “I’m quite impressed with the calibre of the ideas and businesses [the teams] put together. There are some quite good ideas here, and not just for students.”

Teams were judged not only on their written business plan – which determined, from the initial 25 applicants, who would go on to win one of the ten spots in the finals presentation roster – but also on live presentation and their ability to field questions from a tough judging panel.

“The Peter Farrell Cup is about articulating a business idea, and doing that through a brief written plan and verbal pitch. It provides an opportunity to experience what it’s like to actually have an idea, develop a business model around it, and then solicit interest and feedback about the opportunity from real investors - people who know what they’re talking about and evaluate such opportunities on a professional basis,” said Dr Martin Bliemel, CIE’s Director. 

“Sure, the judges are looking for a unique selling proposition, a clear market and risk analysis, and investment attractiveness, but what else they really want to see is that spark in the eye of the person telling them about it, they want to see that passion for the idea,” he explained.

Dr Peter C Farrell, AM, Founder and Executive Chairman of ResMed Inc, sponsor of the competition, was on-hand to announce the winners and present awards.

Ernst & Young and TiE also sponsored the event by offering full membership with the TiE and attendance at Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur Of The Year ™ awards dinner to the winners.

A special addition to this year’s competition was the unveiling of the new Peter Farrell Cup competition trophy. Jointly designed by Selena Griffith, Lecturer at UNSW’s College of Fine Arts (COFA), Dr Miles Park, Senior Lecturer in UNSW’s Faculty of the Built Environment (FBE), and Industrial Designer Hugh Worthington (BSc. Design UNSW) of Vert Design in Redfern, the uniquely stylized cup is representative of the “crucible” effect of the competition on rough business ideas that are distilled and concentrated through participation in such competitions.

New Peter Farrell Cup trophies by UNSW's COFA and FBE, and Vert Design


Made from recycled aluminium bicycle tire rims, the outside of the hollowed half-sphere has a roughly mottled surface created by a process called lost-foam casting. As the surface turns the edge from the outside, the level of polish increases until it reaches the centre of the hollow, which is almost a mirror. 

“We wanted it to represent the ideas [in the competition] needing to be polished, and be something of value to hold. The polished texture changes the form, and it looks different and feels lighter as the texture changes,” said Andrew Simpson, Principal Industrial Designer at Vert.

First, second, and third place winners each receive a smaller replica of the Cup engraved with their team name to take home. The original Cup will remain on display at the CIE with the first-place team’s name engraved on the highly polished steel plate on which the trophy rests.  

“Although it’s a long evening with ten 15-minute presentations, the level of activity and networking at the event was tremendous,” stated Dr Bliemel. 

“One participant, Sampath from Solbij, which is a provider of solar chargers for mobile devices, did not make the finals but still came to the event and guerrilla-pitched the judges in their break to demonstrate the massive progress he made since his initial submission. Now that’s taking initiative and being entrepreneurial!” said Dr Bliemel with a laugh.

In addition to the prizes initially offered, the winning teams have also been invited to pitch to more investors at Seed Accelerator’s upcoming Sydney Startup Networking event on 9 December. TaxiApps is also going on to compete in the John Heine Entrepreneurial Challenge in Adelaide, and Solbij has received further advice from one of the founders of Sydney Angels. 

Winners were:

1st place - TaxiApps (mobile phone based taxi booking and fare payment platform)
2nd place - ACIRO (on-site toxic halogenated waste recycling) 
3rd place - OsteoPlus (osteoporosis medication)
4th place - Resaca de Borrachera (hangover cure at the molecular level)
5th place - Shiftr (online social network for casual workplaces)

Winning teams of the 10th annual Peter Farrell Cup Entrepreneurship Competition

For more information please contact the CIE at +61 2 9385 9730.

Peter Farrell Cup Competition - NEW DATES!!

REGISTER HERE!

2009 Peter Farrell Cup Winners (repost)

(reposted here as part of a de-cluttering of the CIE website. Stay tuned for announcements of the winners of the PitchFe$t earlier this week. Registration for the 2010 Peter Farrell Cup is now open)

2009 Press Release

'Ad-a-Bottle', a business concept that provides advertising directly on bottled water distributed exclusively to office building food courts, has won first place in an Australian School of Business competition to encourage student entrepreneurism.

The Peter Farrell Challenge Cup entrepreneurship competition offers students the opportunity to bring innovative business ideas to life.
“The Peter Farrell Cup was a catalyst for me to write a business plan and now I'm poised to implement it, and hopefully people will be drinking Ad-a-Bottle by next April,” said winning team member Iris Qi.

Some of the enterprising ideas in this year's Finals included a Wi-Fi based paperless receipt system, an online rental service where parents can order equipment and toys for their children when on holidays, and an electronic display system to eliminate changing price tags.

More than 45 teams from the University of New South Wales and other participating universities entered the competition, hosted by the Innovation, Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship (ICE) Club at the Australian School of Business, with eight teams participating in the Finals held on November 19, 2009.

The finalists presented their business plans to a panel of four judges including high profile business founders and venture capitalists.
Teams were judged on criteria including sound risk analysis, financial attractiveness to potential investors and a clear identification of current market need. The written business plan, oral presentation and responses to judge’s questions helped determine the overall winners.

Christopher Witt, Director of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at the Australian School of Business, said the aim of the Peter Farrell Cup is to foster entrepreneurship and instill a passion for research and innovation. More than $40,000 in prizes and scholarships was on offer to the finalists to pursue their business ideas.

“The Peter Farrell Cup strives to link research projects and businesses with student teams to produce credible business plans that help all parties. It frames the time period and requirements, and rewards excellence through prizes and scholarships," said Mr Witt.

“Amongst the partners of the CIE is the NSW Enterprise Workshop. This outstanding organisation offers finalists a scholarship to continue into the Enterprise Workshop three month long business planning program, enabling students to take their business ideas to the next level,” he said.

Ramanan Krishnamoorthy, President of the ICE Club, said the Peter Farrell Cup promoted the reality of business innovation as a real option for graduating MBA students.

“The life of an entrepreneur can be extremely rewarding; you are working for yourself on something that you are passionate about, and there is the opportunity to excel to your fullest potential,” said Mr Krishnamoorthy.

2009 Finalist Team Synopsis

Humanity Life Sciences: provides predictive medicine services via DNA analysis of genetic predisposition to inherited conditions in Greater China. The Tag Team: use of electronic display systems to eliminate the manual process of changing price tags via a wireless, centrally controlled system. Tiny Travel: a retail and rental service whereby parents can order equipment, toys and necessities for their children online to be picked up at the holiday destination, lowering baggage necessities. Mercurius Ltd.: a device to estimate the fouling propensity of a given feed water prior to reverse osmosis membrane filtration to predict how frequently a filter must be cleaned or replaced. Ad-a-Bottle: provides advertising on bottled water distributed to food-outlets in office building food courts via exclusive distribution channels. Viva Blu: a chemical-free, cost and energy effective water-purification technology using a photocatalysis reaction. Wildcard: a Wi-Fi based paperless receipt system whereby the receipts are stored in an online personal account. Equigreen: a rechargeable lithium-ion battery designed to power electric vehicles.

Peter Farrell Cup Business Plan Competition - REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN - register your team before 5 PM on 24 September 2010!

Now in its 10th year, the Peter Farrell Cup Competition provides students with the opportunity to bring their innovative business idea to life by pitching to a panel of experts from the Sydney entrepreneurial community. The competition is open to all currently-enrolled UNSW students, and to teams containing at least one currently-enrolled UNSW student. Teams submit a business plan and finalists are selected to pitch their ideas "live" to the judging panel.

Cash prizes are awarded as follows:

• 1st place - $5,000
• 2nd place - $2,500
• 3rd place - $1,000
• 4th place - $500
• 5th place - $500

Details
Open to all AGSM, UNSW,MBS, UTS, University of Sydney and Macquarie University students in two formats:

• Student Teams  
• Start-ups & Existing Businesses

Student Team criteria

• **Must have at least one currently-enrolled UNSW student in the team**
• Students from any of the above universities allowed.  

Start-ups and Existing Businesses criteria

• **Must have at least one currently-enrolled UNSW student in the team**
• Must not have received external funding  
• Must not have revenue exceeding $500k pa  
• Must be less than 2 years old  
• Must be a registered Australian business  
• Must be original work  
• Look for due dates in the new CIE Google Calendar 

Key Dates

1. Team Registration due - 5 pm, Friday 24th September
2. 1-page Synopsis due - 5 pm, Friday 1st October
3. Business Plans due - 5 pm, Friday 29th October
   
4. Finalists Announced - Friday 5th November

Finalists will be pitching their idea to the judges and a live audience on Thursday 18 November

Business Planning Seminar - Tuesday, 5th October 

presented by Dr Martin Bliemel (time & location TBA)

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN - register your team before 5 PM on 24 September 2010!

Global Student Entrepreneur Awards

Reposted from http://gsea.org/awardinfo/Pages/GraduateStudentAward.aspx (Note: there is also a high school version)


In 2010, for the second year, the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) will recognize a graduate student entrepreneur at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) annual Global Finals award ceremony.

The winning international graduate student entrepreneur will be flown to the 2010 GSEA Global Finals, receive a complimentary hotel stay and have the opportunity to present their business to an international panel of EO Members, student alumni, guests and media.

Graduate Eligibility Criteria:

1. The student must be a graduate student at a recognized University or College for the 2009/2010 academic year and enrolled in school at the time of application.
2. The student must be the owner, founder or controlling shareholder of their company and principally responsible for its operation.
3. The student’s company must have been in business for at least the last six consecutive months, and the business must be a for-profit business.
4. The student must have not been the GSEA winner in the past and/or were not one of the five finalists for the 2009 GSEA Global Finals competition.

Eligible graduate students who are interested in the award must submit the application form.


Click the link to download the application: Graduate Application Form

The submission deadline for the Graduate Award is 15 September 2010.

Once the submission deadline is over, the completed Graduate applications will be reviewed by a panel of EO Members and one international winner will be selected. 

Graduate Application Evaluation Criteria:

1. Completeness. At time of review, the student entrepreneur submitted a signed letter from accountant or financials verifying business revenues;
2. Application show student entrepreneurs' ability to overcome obstacles;
3. Clarity of business mission and vision;
4. Leadership;
5. Innovation

Please send your completed application form to infor@gsea.org 

John Heine Challenge - Intent to Compete Forms Due Monday 7 June

Intent to Compete Forms Due Monday 7 June!
Do you have students with business ideas ready for pitching to investors? Help them find their road to success by participating in Australia’s premier new venture competition. Be recognised as a university that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship as part of their student programs. Secure your university's place to compete in the John Heine Entrepreneurial Challenge – submit an Intention to Compete form today. Just follow these three simple steps and your university's place will be secured: Click on the link to the Intention to Compete Form Type in your details Select the 'Submit by Email' button at the top of the form Submit your Intention to Compete Form today to give your students the opportunity to:
GROW PITCH CONNECT NETWORK	their new venture, their business idea to potential investors, with entrepreneurs and industry experts, with graduate students from around Australia.
Submission of an Intention to Compete form does not commit your university to participate in the 2010 competition. Rather, it secures your university's place in the competition and assists the organisers in planning. The form is available here: http://www.johnheinechallenge.org/competitor/ For further information about the Challenge, visit www.johnheinechallenge.org or contact Event Administrator, Julie-Anne Sully ja.sully@qut.edu.au or 07-3138 8380. Host University Organising University
The John Heine Entrepreneurial Challenge 9 & 10 December 2010 The University of Adelaide, North Terrace Campus www.johnheinechallenge.org

NYC Next Idea: Business competition (foreign ideas launched in NYC)

Here's an interesting twist on a business competition. Submission eligibility is that you are a (team of) student(s) at a non-US university, but interested in launching the business in NYC.

Details at: www.nycedc.com/nextidea

Registration deadline: October 1, 2010 for finals in NYC in April 2011

Media release: Peter Farrell Cup winners 2009

MEDIARELEASE:
November27,2009
Student entrepreneurs get a chance to take their ideas to the marketplace

'Ad-a-Bottle',a business concept that provides advertising directly on bottled water distributed exclusively to office building food courts, has won first place in an Australian School of Business competition to encourage student entrepreneurism.

The Peter Farrell Challenge Cup entrepreneurship competition offers students the opportunity to bring innovative business ideas to life.

“The Peter Farrell Cup was a catalyst for me to write a business plan and now I'm poised to implement it, and hopefully people will be drinking Ad-a-Bottle by next April,” said winning team member Iris Qi.

Some of the enterprising ideas in this year's Finals included a Wi-Fi based paperless receipt system, an online rental service where parents can order equipment and toys for their children when on holidays, and an electronic display system to eliminate changing price tags.

More than 45 teams from the University of New South Wales and other participating universities entered the competition, hosted by the Innovation, Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship (ICE) Club at the Australian School of Business, with eight teams participating in the Finals held on November19, 2009.

The finalists presented their business plans to a panel of four judges including high profile business founders and venture capitalists.

Teams were judged on criteria including sound risk analysis, financial attractiveness to potential investors and a clear identification of current market need. The written business plan, oral presentation and responses to judge’s questions helped determine the overall winners.

Christopher Witt, Director of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE)at the Australian School of Business, said the aim of the Peter Farrell Cup is to foster entrepreneurship and instill a passion for research and innovation. More than $40,000 in prizes and scholarships was on offer to the finalists to pursue their business ideas.

“The Peter Farrell Cup strives to link research projects and businesses with student teams to produce credible business plans that help all parties. It frames the time period and requirements, and rewards excellence through prizes and scholarships," said Mr Witt.

“Amongst the partners of the CIE is the NSW Enterprise Workshop. This outstanding organisation offers finalists a scholarship to continue in to the Enterprise Workshop three month long business planning program, enabling students to take their business ideas to the next level,” he said.

Ramanan Krishnamoorthy, President of the ICE Club, said the Peter Farrell Cup promoted the reality of business innovation as a real option for graduating MBA students.

“The life of an entrepreneur can be extremely rewarding; you are working for yourself on something that you are passionate about, and there is the opportunity to excel to your fullest potential,” said Mr Krishnamoorthy.

For more information please contact CIE Director, Christopher Witt on 02.9385.5654.