Print
Email
Print Edition StoriesWednesday, November 11, 2009
Aponos wins WPI Venture Forum Business Plan Contest
By Jim Schakenbach, Special to Mass High Tech
MHT's Galen Moore: Honoring innovation in New England
Ig Nobel Prizes 2009 award winners
Breaking down the MIT $100K
Aponos Medical Corp. of Kingston, N.H., walked away with $20,000 and bragging rights as the winner of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Venture Forum 16th Annual Business Plan Contest last night in Worcester.
According to Gina Betti, administrative director of the WPI Venture Forum, this year’s contest featured some format changes, adding an extra elimination round, contestant mentoring and the event’s first web conference.
“After an initial screening of applicants, we narrowed the field to twenty contestants who then received some mentoring before a second elimination round using a web conference format,” said Betti. “Even the applicants who failed to make the cut said this was one of the best exercises they’ve gone through.”
Three finalists were selected after the second round, including Aponos Medical Corp, a startup medical device company developing a tiny gastrointestinal wound closure clip; Marblehead-based online fundraising tool developer Memsaic LLC; and Resolute Marine Energy Inc., a Boston-based company developing to draw power from ocean waves.
Last night’s event featured a 15-minute presentation to the forum audience by each company’s CEO, each followed by ten minutes of questioning by a panel of three judges — Todd Hixon, founder and managing partner of New Atlantic Ventures, with offices in Cambridge and Reston, Va.; Frederic Morris, founder and partner of Cambridge-based Brook Venture Partners; and David Verrill, founder and managing director of Hub Angels Investment Group, also of Cambridge.
“It was an interesting process,” said Verrill. “Two of the three contestants had social benefit aspects, but interestingly the winner did not. Aponos simply had the best business opportunity and was imminently fundable.”
“The competition was very tough,” said Aponos CEO Ken Spector. “But even if we had lost, we still would have won, because we learned a lot from the competition and how to go about selling your company to investors.”
Comments
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
RSS Feeds
