by Lori Gallegos
Daily Lobo
A good idea is worth at least $25,000.
Students Ryan Smith and Scott Lovald found that out on Friday.
The Anderson Schools of Management held New Mexico's first Universitywide Technology Business Plan Competition, in which 17 teams competed for the top prize of $25,000.
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Smith and Lovald, whose team was called Satyrne Biotechnologies, won for their idea of redesigning plates used in surgery to repair jaw fractures in order to cut hospital costs by reducing complications and time spent in surgery.
The idea for the competition came from Sul Kassicieh, the associate dean of research and economic development at Anderson. He said UNM has been trying unsuccessfully to bring more entrepreneurial activities to campus.
"Since then the University has been trying to increase the exposure of UNM students to entrepreneurial activities, so Dean (Charles) Crespy and I suggested that we do this business plan competition," Kassicieh said.
Each team created an original business plan that was presented to a group of judges. The teams had 15 minutes to present their business plans and 15 minutes to answer questions posed by the judges. The top six teams from the first round - which included one wild card team - presented their plans to a new group of nine judges.
Kassicieh said the idea was "getting teams of students from the University from different backgrounds - some in technology, some in business, some in law, some in fine arts - to work together to create new companies, new ventures that would increase the number of companies that are created in New Mexico and therefore increase jobs and increase wealth as a result."
The groups did not only have the opportunity to win cash - they also got to network. The judges were mostly venture capitalists in New Mexico, with the ability to fund projects they thought seemed promising.
Phil Askenazy, of law firm Peacock Myers, judged the first round of presentations.
"I was very favorably impressed," he said. "They ranged from not quite there yet to really impressive."
Technology Ventures Corporation/Lockheed Martin provided the second prize of $10,000. It was awarded to Mirror Image Technologies, which was created by chemistry student Ben Njus.
Njus' idea was to use catalysts to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients for drugs such as Plavix, Concerta, Paxil and Xenical in an inexpensive, efficient and environmentally sound way.
That evening, winners were announced at the Doubletree Hotel. The third prize of $5,000 was given by Honeywell International and was awarded to a team of students who created the business plan for HealthOne, which would provide electronic banking services to the health care industry through the use of the Internet.
Kassicieh said all the finalists were winners.
"If you have a good idea that you work hard on, there's more money than $25,000 at the end of that process," he said. "If you can come up with a good concept, implement that, and put together a good company, a good service or a good product, the money will come - and 25K will seem like a small amount."
Michael Gallegos provided the top prize of $25,000.
Gallegos is president and CEO of American Property Management Corp., one of the nation's largest independent hotel companies. He earned his bachelor's from UNM and was student body president from 1982-83.
He said he decided to fund the grand prize because UNM had given him so many opportunities.
"I felt it was long overdue for me to give back to the University of New Mexico," he said. "I feel indebted to UNM because of the great experiences I had, because of all the people who were supportive of me when I was at the University of New Mexico, and I firmly believe that had I not had that whole team effort behind me, I would not have been able to achieve anything."
Gallegos said he wants to make his donation a yearly contribution.
After winning the top prize, Lovald said he and his teammate would continue working on the idea.
"This might just actually pay our living expenses for the summer, so we can work full time on this," he said.
But he said most of the money would probably be used to get patents.
