After months of sweating the details and false starts – and despite the heavy load of classes associated with being a full-time student, 17 teams presented today at the University of New Mexico’s first Technology Business Plan Competition.
A who’s who of New Mexico venture capitalists, including VSpring’s Paul Ahlstrom, Verge’s Ray Rasosevich, and New Mexico Community Capital’s Jarratt Applewhite, whittled that group of 17 down to six finalist teams and then awarded first, second and third place prizes worth $25,000, $10,000 and $5,000 to the top three teams.
Satyrne Biotechnologies, a company focused on cranio maxillofacial surgery products and simulation software, took home the Michael Gallegos Prize for Entrepreneurship, totaling $25,000 and accompanied by $2,500 in services from accounting firm Grant Thornton. Team members Ryan Smith and Scott Lovald are graduate students, Smith in management at the Anderson Schools and Lovald in manufacturing engineering.
The Mirror Image Technologies project, which provides a business plan for organocatalyst pharmaceutical production, won the Technology Venture Corporation/Lockheed Martin-sponsored second prize of $10,000. The business plan was produced and presented by PhD chemistry student and Anderson MBA grad Ben Njus.
The HealthOne team won the Honeywell-sponsored third prize of $5,000. Anderson Schools MBA candidate Pranav Patel presented his team's plan to provide banking services to the healthcare industry.
Media Contacts: Sophie Martin, (505) 277-7117; e-mail: martin@mgt.unm.edu or Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at April 10, 2006 12:05 PM