Despite a slowdown in the amount of venture capital investment nationally, interest in entrepreneurship programs remains high on campuses throughout the country. Some students are taking the business plans they create in school into successful ventures in the real world.
Roving Planet, a business founded by four MBA students from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has seen success in both academic and professional environments. The team won the first place $15,000 prize in the national San Diego State University Venture Challenge 2002 Business Plan Competition, held March 27-29.
In the real world, the company operates in Boulder with a staff of six, producing software to enable locations such as airports and hotels to run multiple applications on a single wireless LAN, or local area network.听
Roving Planet recently signed a letter of intent with Concourse Communications to test the Central Site Director (CSD) Engine in the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport.
Roving Planet beat teams from 19 other schools, including Carnegie Mellon University, Duke University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The 13th annual Venture Challenge was open to students enrolled in a graduate program in 2001.
The business plan for Roving Planet was conceived while Kaj Gronholm, Kate Tallman, Seth Goldhammer, Chris Gray and Derek Kumm were graduate students at the Leeds School. In December 2000, the team placed second at CU-Boulder's graduate business plan competition and won the $10,000 Seagate CTI (Colorado Technology Incubator) award.听
Gronholm, Tallman, Goldhammer and Gray used that money to launch their company after graduation in May 2001, along with additional funding from the Colorado Venture Management Equity Funds.
At the Venture Challenge, teams submitted their business plans, gave oral presentations to judges and participated in a question- and-answer session. The judges critiqued overall feasibility, the potential for significant capital gains, investment possibilities and actual implementation.
Gronholm, chief executive officer of Roving Planet, represented the team in San Diego. Prior to the event, he was coached by Leeds School instructor Frank Moyes and rehearsed his presentation with local entrepreneurs.
"It is a tremendous honor to have the Leeds School of Business team take top honors at this prestigious event," said Moyes. "Roving Planet did an outstanding job, and the input and advice they received from local entrepreneurs was invaluable."
Winning this competition enables Roving Planet to compete in MOOT CORP., which Business Week calls "the Super Bowl of world business-plan competitions." That competition will be held at the University of Texas at Austin on May 1-4.
The CU-Boulder Deming Center for Entrepreneurship sponsored the Roving Planet team's trip to San Diego and Bank One has funded the CU-Boulder competition for the last five years.