'Developing Minds' wins Bard Center 7th annual Business Plan Competition
(June 13, 2008) Six new businesses from the University of Colorado Denver’s Bard Center for Entrepreneurship competed for money and start up support in the Bard Center 7th Annual Business Plan Competition on June 11. After a morning of presentations followed by an inspirational keynote address from Bradley Feld, managing director of the Foundry Group, the finalists were ready to get down to the business of the Bard Center awards, which celebrate and promote new businesses and entrepreneurs—the lifeblood of Colorado.
A panel of judges found that Developing Minds Software stood most deserving of the $10,000 first prize. The software offers unique web-based services designed to address the needs of families and educational institutions challenged with serving the developmentally disabled. Their product, DDtrac, is a Web 2.0 application that allows for the efficient capture and analysis of special education data.
“We are so grateful to the Bard Center and for the opportunity they provided us to grow and to help children,” said Lynn Sargent, a Developing Minds Software cofounder and student at the UC Denver Business School. “We are thrilled and honored to be presented with first prize,” said Dawn Gregg, a Developing Minds Software cofounder and assistant professor of Information Systems at the UC Denver Business School.
However, no finalists go away empty handed. The 2nd place prize of $5,000 went to Gobai Culturally Inspired Cuisine and the 3rd place prize of $2,500 went to Snoasis Medical Inc. Fourth through sixth place awardees received $1,000 each: Healthy Travels, Robotics Assisted Gait Training and Tissue Genetics.
Special awards this year include the Bioscience prize of $5,000 which went to Tissue Genetics; the Nonprofit prize of $5,000 which went to Robotics Assisted Gait Training and the new International prize of $1,000 which went to Healthy Travels.
Each business also will receive in-kinds awards including legal support, PR, web-design, real estate and venture capitalist advice.
These high caliber start ups presented their plans to a panel of Denver business leaders including Chris Onan, managing director of Appian Ventures; David Gold, venture partner of Access Venture Partners and Mark Mondry, managing director, Phronesys LLC. The competition was designed with the goal to support commercialization of promising ideas and the development of new ventures. The annual event serves as a catalyst for economic development and new business growth in Colorado.
Photo: Winners included, bottom left to right, James Bowman, Tissue Genetics, and Robert Tofe, Snoasis Medical. Back Row left to right, Raj Joseph, Healthy Travels, Kaidan Nguyen, Gobai, Timothy Nicklas, Robotics Gait Training, Dawn Gregg, Developing Minds Software.