Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum
May 1, 2008
10th Annual UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition
Part 2
This special program of the Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum
features the Finalist Presentations and Award Ceremony for
UC Berkeley's Business Plan Competition. The Competition serves
as the convergence point for entrepreneurs across the greater
UC Berkeley community. Individuals from the schools of engineering
and business, the departments of biology and political science,
UC Berkeley alumni and undergraduates, University staff, researchers
from Lawrence Berkeley Labratory, and more are invited to
participate.
2008 UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition Winners:
1st Place (tied): Titan Medical and Implicit Interfaces
3rd Place: Omniox
People's Choice: Glycometrix
All Finalist Teams:
Carsala:
Carsala will leverage its proprietary technology to make used car buying a hassle-free process and save car buyers thousands of dollars. It will act as a buyer's agent, finding the right car and negotiating with dealers to obtain the lowest price possible.
Glycometrix:
Glycometrix leverages novel and proprietary glycan-based blood serum technologies for early stage cancer detection, monitoring, and ultimately, screening. Glycometrix plans to target a diagnostic for ovarian cancer first, where we have conducted a positive, 200-person clinical trial, and quickly branch into other cancers where we have preliminary clinical data. Glycometrix's founding team includes experts in glycan chemistry and management with experience in biomarker start-up companies.
Implicit Interfaces:
A very low percentage of apparel sales are conducted online, resulting in a loss of tens of billions of dollars each year for the apparel industry. To solve this problem, Implicit Interfaces has created a revolutionary new search technology that leverages computer vision and machine learning techniques. Using this technology, online retailers will increase conversion rates, increase browsing times, and create a remarkably better consumer experience.
Kebima:
Kebima is a mobile and online platform that allows event attendees and people interested in an event to share, connect, and interact in real-time. Our product empowers "social reporters" to report live and publish original media snippets related to an event and interact with "social viewers" who are interested in that event. "Social organizers" such as free-lance writers or syndicators can leverage our platform to consolidate the snippets and generate an article for additional event coverage and marketing.
LReady:
LReady leverages technology to help families get prepared for and stay connected during emergencies. Unlike most web companies which rely heavily on viral growth, LReady uses a third-party channel strategy that leverages the power of federally-funded groups and students to get parents to take action at home.
Omniox:
Omniox is a biotechnology company commercializing a breakthrough oxygen-delivery protein technology discovered at UC Berkeley's Department of Chemistry. Overcoming prior shortcomings, the Omniox technology builds on recent advances in chemical biology and genomics, enabling a controlled and systematic development of therapies to treat oxygen deprivation diseases. After thorough market segmentation and development path analyses, Omniox is seeking $6 million to pursue chemo-radiation enhancing oxygen-delivery therapeutics for cancer patients with poor prognoses, and for the development of a safe, universal, field-ready resuscitation fluid for trauma and surgery.
Reporterist:
An online news exchange and publishing platform. Goal is to improve the quality of online citizen journalism by providing a revenue model for both editors and contributors.
Titan Medical:
Titan Medical is developing a novel technology, called NanoFlow, which enables the high-precision and low-cost long-term delivery of a wide variety of therapeutic molecules. NanoFlow will improve therapy effectiveness, while lowering cost and side effects. The technology significantly improves upon the many current treatment regimens, such as that for chronic hepatitis C, allowing Titan Medical to have a rich pipeline with numerous potential markets.
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