Brilliant idea? You've got 60 seconds to explain it

Maybe while you are staring aimlessly at your physics notebook, a brilliant venture pops up in your brain. What if you were given the chance to launch that product? Or perhaps even get funding and possible investors?

Last Friday, Feb. 25, several students from all facets of campus were given that opportunity during the final round of the Business Plan Competition, sponsored by the College of Management. Five student and alumni teams competed for thousands of dollars in prize money as well as the chance to turn their start-up ideas into reality.

The five finalists were narrowed down from several other teams in a preliminary competition held a week earlier on Feb. 18.

The annual competition, sponsored by local technology firms, is open to any student, alum or professor of Tech (excluding management professors) that would like to see their new technologies or ideas taken to the next level.

"Even though the business plan has to involve new technology, it does not have to be developed within Georgia Tech, and does not have to be a technological product," said Ismael Martin, a Tech alum and a participant's in last year's competition. "It could be a service using high tech, [such as] GPS technology to track rental cars."

One of the motivating factors behind the success of this annual competition is the dedication of the competition's organizer Pat Dickson, an assistant professor in the College of Management.

Dickson said that the competition was often a natural extension for many of the classes the College of Management offers. "We have two courses at the undergraduate level and three courses at the graduate level that provide direct help for students interested in competing," he said.

The competition has steadily grown over the years. Interested groups had to demonstrate commitment early on by participating in a series of workshops that began in the fall and spanned several months.

Eligibility has also been extended to all current Tech students and any Tech alumni who are within five years of graduation. The competition also attracts participants from far and wide, including a group of UGA students who recruited a Tech student in order to be eligible.

In the future, Dickson said he sees even more expansion, such as adding a "Social Responsibility" award for the plan that has the most public good associated with it and even broadening the scope of the competition internationally.

Radatec, an Atlanta-based company, is one of the competition's success stories. Radatec took part in the competition in 2001, taking first place. Many other technology start-ups are housed in the Advanced Technology Development Center at Technology Square.

This year's winning team was ImmersiTech, a company that would market a technology used to assess head injury among athletes.

Jeff Ramsaur, one of the members of ImmersiTech, explained that their venture took shape only after he found the rest of his team.

"We all wanted to work together and decided we would find the right project later," he said.

In fact, the right project took a little while in coming. "The ImmersiTech solution was not our first project," Ramsaur said. "We actually spent a lot of time on another venture before finding some fatal flaws that caused us to seek a new direction. We have learned how to work together and tailor our roles to fit our strengths, much like you would do in a real business."

Ramseur feels the management based curriculum was instrumental in his team's success. "Every MBA class I have taken has fed into this plan," he said. "It was not about learning to be an entrepreneur but rather about learning how to establish a compelling and actionable business strategy, marketing plan, contingency strategy and workable financial plan."

Many of the start-ups were conceived as part of MGT 6165: Venture Creation or MGT 6789: Technology Ventures, classes where students formulate a complete business plan.

However, all of the groups said that in order to be ready for the competition, the total effort involved was about three times greater than the initial effort for the class.

"Talking to potential customers and investors-the more they got excited about technology, the more it drove us and confirmed our feelings about the potential of the venture," Ramsaur said. However, creating a business plan also involved less lofty tasks. "The least enjoyable part was creating the financials," he said.

One of the highlights of the competition was the "elevator pitch" portion, which took place on Feb. 18, a week before the final round. During this part of the competition, the teams presented their business plan to a panel of judges for a prize of $500 in grant money-but with a twist.

"[We] hold the 'elevator pitch' where one team representative has 60 seconds to make their best pitch," Dickson said.

In the time it would take for an elevator ride, the team must tell what the company is about, what problem they are solving, what they are going to accomplish it-and the most important of all, they must capture the attention and the imagination of the judges and the audience.

"We have a panel of judges that selects the winner based on one criterion-which team would most likely be invited to your office tomorrow in order to let them present their full business plan," Dickson said.

However, there were many other components to the competition, including an initial screening and an intensive Q&A session.

"Just making it to the competition is challenging," Martin said.

ImmersiTech plans to go on to compete in the Venture Challenge at San Diego State University and the New Venture Championship at Oregon State University later this spring.

ImmersiTech's advice for future entrepreneurs? "Seek out and be receptive to constructive feedback and don't be afraid to admit that you don't know something . Just follow up with the right answer when you get it-and keep your solutions as simple as possible."