Aragona shifts his attention to the product: "Does this stuff work?"
Another lesson they should have learned yesterday. "It's early," Levin says. "There's a lot of development facing us."
Aragona: "So the answer is, you hope so."
Another judge, William Glasgow: "You're planning to be based in Austin?"
Levin, happy with the new line of questioning: "We'd love to be based in Austin."
Glasgow was setting him up. "Where are you guys going to find real estate for $1 per square foot?" It's an assumption he dug out of the numbers in the business plan.
Levin laughs and turns away. Busted again. "Yeah, that's a mistake," he acknowledges.
The end. I think they've done poorly, but the judges are actually impressed. "At least there's an element of reality there," Aragona says.
"There's a potential here," says another judge. "It's a real market opportunity. It's the type of thing you'd want to fund."
4:05 P.M.
Next team, a "dot com": Home Dream S.A. from FundaÇÃo GetÚlio Vargas, Brazil. It's the only Internet business in the finals. The team plans to do a site with real estate advertising for homes in SÃo Paulo.
I'm struck by the sophistication of the proposal and very happy we didn't put GetOutdoors.com up against these guys. The team shows us how the site will work for consumers. It includes listings of homes and apartments with photos, even 360-degree virtual-reality tours of some properties. There is a URL locked in. Later the team plans to include maps, statistics, and other services on the site.
I'm impressed by the read of the market these guys have. The Internet is growing like crazy in SÃo Paulo. And Brazil has no multiple-listing service for real estate. They intend to get listings from independent real estate agents. Seems like a slam dunk; good for them, the agents, the property seekers. But the judges grill the team hard. Aragona: "Help me here. Tell me how you will get users."
After the questions, Aragona dismisses the Brazilians. "They're awful," he says.
"They did a great job, though," says one of the other finalist judges.
I agree, saying, "It looked good to me, but you guys grilled them."
"You don't have the business plan to see where we're getting our questions," says Aragona. "Besides, some companies are easier to grill than others. How do you grill a guy with a chemical-analysis product? But with these guys I can use my own sense to ask where they think they're going to get so many hits on a Web site."
The judges are on to the final entrant: Fabrica Co. Ltd., from Thammasat University, Thailand. (Thammasat has quite a rep at Moot Corp. Last year Thammasat's team demonstrated its lightweight bulletproof fabric by firing a handgun into a barrel lined with the stuff. Shocked the hell out of the judges.)
Chalermporn Siriwichai is the leader, one of three young Thai women in extremely short black dresses--selling the cookie factor a little. There are also two young Thai men with nerdy haircuts and dark suits.
Fabrica has a proprietary loom that will make fabric samples for textile makers, which then wouldn't have to shut down big commercial looms to make customer samples. It makes sense that this plan is from Thailand, which is a huge textile center.
Siriwichai starts by promising, "We will not discharge a firearm in the room this year and do not plan any other politically incorrect demonstrations." She gets laughs. The team handles American humor well, which maybe isn't so surprising when you think that graduate business students in Thailand are probably pretty cosmopolitan kids.
The loom isn't there. It was too cumbersome to bring, so the Fabrica team left it in Bangkok. But there are plenty of pictures, and the team members hand out tons of samples woven on their looms. They explain that the device was developed by one of their professors, and there are already 16 beta units in use. They're looking for $490,000 million now in return for 49% of the company's stock. The founders themselves will contribute $510,000.
Team member Amornrat Putrakul, a young woman with a serious demeanor and very good English skills: "The opportunity is now. Somebody will be able to engineer around our patents in two to three years." She's put her finger on what will be a key issue for the judges.
One judge cuts to the chase when the questions begin. He tells a story of seeing bazaars full of pirated merchandise in China and asks, "Are you concerned about your patent being protected in such countries?"
Putrakul: "That is why we are not going into China until the last year of this project."
It doesn't satisfy him. After the questions, he tells me, "There is no such thing as patent protection in Asia!"
I ask Aragona who he thinks might win. He doesn't know yet. "With Fabrica, there's a clear market there. But how do you compare it to a Vusion? Where would you write a check?" He tells me he has two in mind, then goes to meet with the others. It's the last I'll see of him at this event. Having done his thing, the chief justice leaves the building.
8:00 P.M.
We're at a banquet room in the Doubletree Guest Suites hotel. You have to be specific, because there are at least three Doubletree hotels in or near downtown Austin. Everybody's here--judges, teams, faculty advisers. Cadenhead is holding out on the results, building suspense--and, incidentally, ensuring that people actually stay for dinner. He has all his corporate sponsors to thank and probably wants everybody there to hear it. "Please enjoy your meal," he says. "I'll be back a little later with some announcements." Everyone laughs.
9:25 P.M.
Time for finalist prizes. Cadenhead announces the second runner-up, a $1,000 prize: JetFan Technology, Queensland, Australia. Hmm. I thought they might win the big one.
First runner-up (a $2,000 prize): Vusion, UT/Austin. Our guys. You can't keep a good investment opportunity down.
But who wins the big cheese? Cadenhead winds up for the big finish. "Motorola sponsors the $15,000 prize for the world championship," he says. The Motorola guy comes out with a huge, poster-size check for $15,000. "The winner: Fabrica, Thammasat University, Thailand!"
