by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
UNM students can compete for more than $100,000 to fund their own businesses.
The Anderson School of Management hosted an informational event for its Technology Business Plan Competition on Wednesday.
For the competition, students write a business plan and present it to be judged by two panels of venture capitalists.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
"They're learning and doing," said Sul Kassicieh, chairman of the economic development program. "This really adds to the learning process."
First prize is $25,000. The second-place team gets $10,000 and the third-place team, $5,000.
This year, vSpring Capital will provide between $50,000 and $100,000 to fund the winning team's business plan.
Teams must submit their intention to present by Jan. 30.
The competition is open to students of all majors, Kassicieh said.
"The combination of people that have technology experience with people that have business experience really moves the business plan forward," he said.
Kassicieh said students who don't have a team can be matched up with other students to be in the competition.
Venture capitalists are investors who help people turn ideas into a viable business, said Gavin
Christensen, a principal with Spring Capital.
"It's a high-risk investment," he said. "Venture capitalism is really just the science of moving an idea or concept through the execution phase into a real business."
Christensen said his company invests in similar programs at Bringham Young and University of Utah.
He said vSpring Capital chose to work with UNM because there is a lot of opportunity in the
region.
"We see a ton of promise in the University and the labs and the quality of the students," he said. "The business plan competition is the furthest along in the state."
Student Pete Mertens, who was on last year's winning team, said the competition is good because it is realistic.
"All the people you'll have to confront in the business world were the judges," he said.
Student Kevin Stevenson said he is planning on competing this year.
"The opportunity to pitch an idea to people in the industry is something that doesn't come along often," he said.
Stevenson said his team would present a business plan that is being written for a class.
It uses technology that is being developed in the pharmacy college, he said.
The plan is to develop a test for tuberculosis that would be noninvasive and more accurate than the tests being used now, he said.
He said tuberculosis tests show positive for inactive cases of the disease.
"What this allows you to do is test for an active TB culture," he said. "They don't really do widespread vaccinations in the U.S. because it would result in a positive test."
For more information or to be matched with a team, e-mail Jennifer Bayley at Bayley@mgt.unm.edu.
