Thoughts From The Rice Alliance Business Plan Competition

by Karen Stearns on April 19, 2009

We’re all statistics. I’m what they call “over-informed.” I watch, I listen, I read and I worry. So many challenges ahead of us. What I heard last night at the 2009 Rice University Business Plan Competition makes me believe that maybe the future is not such a scary place. Perhaps there is merit in Russ Capper’s words, “It’s the innovators and entrepreneurs who will save us.”

The Rice competition is the largest intercollegiate business plan competition in the world, this year hosting 42 teams of collegiate competitors who each have developed a product worthy of prize money—more than $800,000—to finance future development and/or research. Any one of these products could change the world. Think I’m exaggerating? Here’s a sample:

A therapy that stops the growth of cancer cells and inhibits metastasis, the process through which cancer cells spread throughout the body.
A water purification system that recycles wastewater on-demand and at dramatically lower cost. (According to UNICEF, deaths from unclean water and poor sanitation are the SECOND greatest cause of death among children.)
Technology that harvests vibration to power automotive sensors without batteries.
A medical device that cures blindness by healing the cornea; this could also be an alternative to corneal transplant.
Light sources that use solar power or ultra-high efficiency LEDs that are eco-friendly, lower cost and enable new applications in purification, security and manufacturing.

Besides being judged on their business plans, these young entrepreneurs compete at being able to “pitch” their company in 60 seconds or less—in other words, why is your product important and why would I invest in it?” Every presentation was well-rehearsed and impressive. In the audience, entrepreneurial roll models and supporters such as Rod Canion, founder of Compaq Computers; filmmaker and serial entrepreneur Ashok Rao; and Linda Spain of OrthoAccel Technologies, a recent Rice Alliance alumna who completed a major round of financing in August 2008. And also present was a young man named Nicholas Seet, a former student at UCLA and winner of the 2005 competition. Seet, who spoke to the group with a poise, confidence and humor that he admitted he did NOT have as a competitor in the 2005 event, advised the team members in the audience, “The people in this room will be the leaders in their industries, so meet as many of them as you can.”

These are the stories we should see in the mainstream news. These focused and dedicated students hold a precarious future in their hands. It’s entirely possible that these innovators and entrepreneurs will save us all.