Put on your investment thinking cap.

     Imagine yourself a venture capitalist with deep resources to invest in a new business.  Of these three opportunities, which would be your first choice? 

1. A global, e-commerce business that simplifies and expands opportunities shopping for gift cards.
2. A device that reduces expectant mothers’ uncertainty about going into labor and improves hospitals’ pre-natal services.
3. A service that allows employers to reduce their employee health care costs by up to 60% by providing them access to global health care providers, including travel coordination.  

     Choosing the best one of these will be the challenge for three financial experts at the 11th Annual Aleris New Venture Competition at the College of Business October 12 and 13, 2007.   11th Annual Aleris New Venture Competition (Program Details)

     As presented by teams of IMBA students, the new business concepts are competing for more than $16,000 in prize money.  The event includes a ‘trade show’ and ‘elevator pitch” competition on Friday evening and business plan presentation on Saturday. The Saturday competition, held in the Horn Auditorium, starts at 8 a.m. and is open to the public. Admission is free. Winners will be announced at approximately 11:30, and the top-ranked team(s) will advance to regional events in 2008, vying for a bid to the Moot Corp Global Business Plan Competition and ultimately hoping to launch their business.  The program is coordinated by IMBA director Van G.H. Clouse.  The IMBA is U of L’s unique, nationally recognized two-year MBA program for entrepreneurial thinking.    

The IMBA teams and their advisors are:

* The Partum Group (Katie Dawson, Dr. Divya Cantor and James Mudd)

     The Partum Group is developing the MaternaTRAC™, a medical device that quantifies precisely the changes of a woman’s cervix as she progresses through labor. Traditionally this has been a subjective measurement prone to error.  The MaternaTRAC™ will help identify adequate inductions of labor, reduce missed deliveries, identify pre-term labor and create alarms for risk factors. Use of the MaternaTRAC™ will provide for improved physician diagnosis and treatment and better management of labor and delivery units by hospitals, including lower liability costs and fewer errors. 

Faculty Coach: Van Clouse

Mentor:  Suzanne Bergmeister

* Health Network Solutions (Sam Castle, Greg Hermann, Adam Rinaldi and Kumar Subramaniam

     Health Network Solutions provides a service to companies that will reduce employer health care costs and expand employee health care benefits. Through our service offering, we provide self-insured US corporations with a means to offer employees access to hospitals and health care facilities around the globe.  The full-service system will include travel coordination, and will allow companies to manage and pay for health care expenses incurred by employees at approved international locations, which typically charge 60 percent less than U.S.-based facilities for equivalent or superior care.

Faculty Coach: Van Clouse

Mentor: Suzanne Bergmeister

* ShaBamm (Ashish Deshmukh, Laurie Ray, Todd Skaggs, Tiffany Wright)

     ShaBamm is a global e-commerce business that provides consumers with a simple, time-efficient, full-service way to shop for gift cards. The company offers an on-line venue for purchasing multiple gift cards from multiple domestic and international merchants in a single transaction and the ability to ship it directly to the recipient without shipping or service fees. ShaBamm also offers value-added services that include geographical locators to match recipients with merchants, gift-selection assistance, consumer-activated gift cards and the ability to purchase via cell phone. This service will be marketed domestically and in several key international markets.

Faculty Coach: Van Clouse

Mentor:  Suzanne Bergmeister

     The business plan competition judges include Martin McClelland, managing director, Mainstream Investment Advisors; Ed Nasief, Jr., senior vice-president, UBS Financial Services; and Wright Steenrod, principal in Chrysalis Ventures.

     Trade Show and Elevator Pitch competition judges are Susan Weiss, president and co-owner, Net Tango; and Paul van der Pol, principal, Tripoli Consulting.

     For more information about the competition, call the College of Business at 502.852.6440.

See 2007 New Venture Competition winners