CBA News

C2V Contest Brings Out the Best in UIC Entrepreneurs

Eight teams of aspiring University of Illinois at Chicago student entrepreneurs pitched their new business concepts at the fourth annual Concept2Venture Business Plan competition December 16. Distinguished professionals in business, finance, law and entrepreneurship provided participants with valuable feedback and ultimately awarded the winning teams more than $21,000 in cash as well as in-kind services.

The participating teams, which included both graduate and undergraduate students from the university's 15 colleges, presented business plans for products in the automotive, medical and e-commerce industries.

AlphaMark Neuroscience, led by David Miller, Christopher Shoemaker and Aben Cooper, took first place in the graduate competition. AlphaMark Neuroscience is pursuing the development of a patented blood test to assess the effectiveness of antidepressants for patients suffering from Major Depressive Disorder.

Verta Carta, LLC won first prize in the undergraduate competition for their sustainable mobility business, which offers personalized travel bags created by an online art and design community. The team included Saeb Ahsan, Malgorvata Gonig Rejnowska, Robert MacNeill, and Justin Polera.

The elevator pitch competition was won by Optical In-Sight, an early-stage medical device company focused on commercializing a light-powered microactuator to potentially restore vision for victims of age-related macular degeneration.

Under the direction of Professor Rod Shrader, director of the UIC Technology Ventures Program, the Concept2Venture competition is organized by the UIC Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, College of Business Administration and the Liautaud Graduate School of Business, in collaboration with the UIC Office of Technology Management. Sponsors for the 2008 event included Jimmy Johns, UIC Innovation Center, Illinois Ventures, Sonnenschein Venture Technology, L.E.K. Consulting, Caterpillar, Inc., Nimlok Chicago, Illinois Business & Investor Forum, Presidents Advisory Council, Trillium Solutions Group, the Chicago West Side Entrepreneur Center and the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization.

To read the Chicago Sun-Times article about the competition, please visit here.