How to Win Big and Get Ahead Fast

An End to Cost Overruns

Eric Hiller, a recent Harvard Business School grad and winner of a $20,000 prize at that school's competition, says his software will help engineers with a perennial problem: determining the cost of a piece of equipment before it's built. In fact, the program spits out cost estimates within seconds.

Michael Cronin, a managing partner at the private equity giant Weston Presidio, was impressed by Hiller's long history with the project. While Hiller was working on his engineering thesis at the University of Illinois, he pitched the idea to John Deere, which later helped fund his research. "His track record relative to what he was doing was really right on," says Cronin. "There's a broad appeal with manufacturers if it works well."

The company, FBC Systems, is now operating out of a storage room on top of an Urbana, Ill., flower shop. "At least it smells good," Hiller jokes. It's also near John Deere's headquarters. Hiller hopes to make his first sale to the tractor maker. Jess McCuan

The Pill That Fills

Dan Burnett is a business-plan competition junkie, having competed in the U.S., Britain, Canada, and even in India. At UC-Berkeley, his plan for a weight-loss company snagged $50,000. TheraNova will create a capsule that, once ingested, swells in your stomach, sharply reducing hunger.

Burnett, who has an M.D. and M.B.A. from Duke University, claims that his pill causes none of the negative side effects associated with its main rival, the IntraGastric balloon. And since it degrades over a week, it's not considered a drug and therefore no federal approval is necessary.

VC and judge Nancy Olson picked the plan over 58 others because she saw "huge consumer demand" for the product. Indeed, Burnett projects revenue of $41 million by 2007, with margins of about 61%.

Of course, he says, he won't hit those targets unless he raises up to $5 million more. The Berkeley win helps. "Winning on the East Coast gets you handshakes," he says. "Winning Berkeley gets you real meetings with VCs. It's a true launching pad." So far, he has met with a dozen VCs, and paid down his line of credit with the prize money. Matthew Fogel

The China Card

Gang Mai is looking for love among China's 200 million cell-phone users. His plan for a mobile phone dating service beat 30 teams to win $10,000 at UCLA, where he attended business school. His XieHou Entertainment Inc. will have a market-ready product and deals with Chinese carriers later this fall.

Though XieHou will face intense competition, judges often favor international ideas -- and these services are already popular in Japan. Judge Bud Knapp hailed the market as "new and largely untapped." "We are going to be the first generation of serious entrepreneurs in China," Gang adds.

Of course, being first can be bad. Gang would like to raise $1 million more, but finds VCs wary of investing in China. So he is now shopping it to Chinese-born entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Matthew Fogel

Heard From Your Fuel Tank Recently?

Yale's contest does not require teams to have current M.B.A. students -- just that one team member be associated with the university. And so it was that Anthony Uzzo, a local utility engineer, came out on top this year, winning the $12,000 first prize.

Uzzo's team of eight hails largely from the energy industry, though it does include one Yale employee and one alum. Their winning plan is for a company that will make monitors that float inside residential fuel-oil tanks, sending readings to dealers so they know when to refill them.

Uzzo says it's a $750 million market. Judges liked the sound of that -- and that eight monitors have been beta tested. Uzzo's team also stood out in the field of 30 because it had poured $20,000 and 10,000 hours into the project. "When an entrepreneur is already risking his own capital, you feel better about risking yours," says VC judge James Nahirny. Jess McCuan

It Worked in Europe, Why Not Here?

An ailing cat named Bodey inspired the grand prize plan at the Wharton School. Bodey's British owners, Wharton M.B.A.'s Chris and Natasha Ashton, knew pet insurance was popular in the U.K., but when they came to the U.S., they found few companies that offered policies. So the couple teamed up with an actuary and a veterinarian to form their own pet insurer.

Contest judge Karen Boezi, of the biotech investment firm Thomas, McNerney & Partners, was impressed by the team's thorough market research, including surveys of prospective customers. She also liked that both Ashtons had taken temp jobs at a veterinary hospital to better learn the price of pet care. Their win "was the combination of the domain expertise within the group, plus all this legitimate data -- and they'd proved that pet insurance had been successful in the U.K.," says Boezi.

CFO-to-be Laura Bennett estimates they'll need around $1 million in capital and a firmer deal with an underwriter before the business, Fetch!, begins selling dog and cat policies in early 2004. Snakes, rabbits, and iguanas will come later. "You need to build a base of policies first," Bennett says. "After that, we're expecting our profits to be very healthy." Jess McCuan

An Inventor Gets in on the Action

For years, futurists have been saying that drugs will one day be as tailor-made as a Savile Row suit. Amber Ratcliffe is set to exploit what she calls this "new world of personalized medicine."

Her business, NanoString, is developing a device that scans samples of blood or tissue to identify various genes that may cause diseases. Doctors can use the device -- invented by Krassen Dimitrov, Ratcliffe's former boss -- to prescribe the ideal drug for a patient.

Business-plan competition judges love ideas that have a certain epic quality, which no doubt helped NanoString sweep to victory at the University of Washington, and place third at Purdue -- winning more than $50,000. But one team member has since quit the project, taking half of the money. What's left is paying Ratcliffe's salary.

The competitions provide more than cash, anyway, Ratcliffe says. Contests impose a timetable for completing research and writing a plan -- deadlines that give the start-up process extra momentum. "Just being able to compete has helped us tremendously," she says. Plus, "it gave us exposure to VCs, lawyers, and other businesspeople." Matthew Fogel

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