Participating and Qualifying Teams/Schools
The following teams have qualified for the final round of 2010 Tulane Business Plan Competition:
Cortical Concepts (John Hopkins University)
Nuru Light (University of California, Berkley)
Winduction (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Cortical Concepts (John Hopkins University) has developed an orthopedic implant for use in spinal surgery, completed three rounds of prototyping, and demonstrated efficacy in human cadaveric testing. The focus of the implant is to address problems associated with osteoporosis and spinal surgery. Patients who have osteoporosis usually tend to have the most to gain from undergoing spinal surgeries, but have been largely underserved by the orthopedics device market.
Nuru Light (University of California, Berkley) is a social enterprise that seeks to provide an affordable and clean off-grid lighting system that will appeal to close to 4 billion rural poor in the developing world. The proposed solution is the Nuru Light LED lighting system- a modular, bright white, portable, ondemand (POD) light that is charged by the world’s first commercially available pedal generator, the POWERCycle. Customers will be able to buy or rent the POD light directly from local entrepreneurs, who will provide recharging services for a fee. Nuru Light works with microfinance institutions (MFI) to provide asset loans to finance local entrepreneurs to start their own microfranchises (recharging stations). The micro-franchises keep all of the recharging revenue, while paying Nuru Light a monthly service fee. Nuru Light expects bulk of the revenue in initial year from sale of equipment and in the latter year from recurring service fee revenue. Our vision is to remove the existing disparity by providing affordable light to the 90% of East Africans who live without electricity and spend up to 40% of their income on kerosene; the people who can least afford it, people who need it the most.
Winduction (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is to commercialize an innovative line of small wind turbines. Our patented and proven design (prototype is currently running in Ireland) allows small wind to be cost-competitive (grid-parity) in many developed markets vs public utilities (gas and electricity), enabling profitable distributed generation to become a reality.
Biographies for the final round judges can be found here
The following teams have qualified for the second round of 2010 Tulane Business Plan Competition:
BizWiz, Johns Hopkins University
Bombyx Technologies, Cornell University
CADIA Technologies, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Canark Technologies, University Of Manitoba
CervoCheck, Johns Hopkins University
Charlie Mike Technical Institute, The Wharton School – University of Pennsylvania
Circle Food Store, Tulane University
Cortical Concepts, The Johns Hopkins University
Green Silane, University of Michigan
InSpiro: A new generation of incentive spirometers, The Johns Hopkins University
MB Therapeutics Inc., University of Hawaii, Shidler College of Business
NanoFex, Tulane University
narrative, Ohio State University
NuMe Health, Tulane University
Nuru Light, University of California, Berkeley
Rebuilding Together New Orleans Deconstruction and Salvage Program, Depaul University
Runa, Brown University
SolarCycle, Georgetown University
U + Capital, University of Pennsylvania
Winduction, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Air Force Academy
Brigham Young University
Brown University
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Cambridge University
Coles College of Business, Kennesaw State University
Cornell University
Depaul University
Drexel University
EFREI School of Engineering, Paris
Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University
Florida State University
Gadjah Mada University
Georgetown University
Graceland University
Graziadio School of Business, Pepperdine University
Hough Graduate School of Business, University of Florida
Howard University
Humboldt Universität
Illinois Institute of Technology, Kent College of Law
Johns Hopkins University
Kenan-Flagler School of Business, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Louisiana State University
Louisiana Technical College- Jefferson Technical Campus
Loyola University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nova Southeastern University
Owen Graduation School of Management, Vanderbilt University
Purdue University
Rice University
Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaii
Southern University and A & M College
St. Edward’s University
Technische Universitaet Berlin
Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University
The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania
Universidad de Chile – Tulane University (Joint Venture MBA for the Americas)
University of Arkansas-Fayetteville
University of British Columbia
University of California, Berkeley
University of Georgia
University of Kinshasa
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
University of Louisville
University of Manitoba
University of Maryland
University of Michigan
University of Texas – Austin
University of Virginia
University of Windsor
