With potential investors and skeptical judges alike hurling questions at young entrepreneurs, Hodson Hall had the trappings of a high-powered business boardroom Friday as students traded their sandals for slacks and made business presentations aimed at earning two $5,000 first prizes.
The sixth annual Johns Hopkins University Business Plan Competition, sponsored by the W.P. Carey Program in Entrepreneurship & Management, featured three groups vying for victory in each of two categories. Stackeroo, a company aiming to rent textbooks to buyers online, won first prize in the small business category while Veinject, a company aiming to simplify the vein puncture medical procedure, earned first prize in the technology category.
Stackeroo co-founder sophomore Sravisht Iyer said that his group's victory could signal the start of a business.
"The important part is that it's validation for our business idea," he said. "It gives us the confidence to go ahead with it."
Iyer said that he and his business partner, junior Ram Chivukula, plan to start building a Web site with the intention of getting their project off the ground this summer.
Iyer and Chivukula's spirit was precisely the attitude that Hopkins officials said they hope to foster by holding the annual event.
Lani Hummel, director of Industrial Initiatives at the Whiting School of Engineering, said she hopes that entrepreneurship will become contagious.
"If we can nurture students' interest in entrepreneurship, then we can hopefully keep them here and foster a community of these students," she said.
Joseph R. Reynolds, Jr., founder and president of a company specializing in forensic investigation services and one of five judges in the competition, said that he was impressed with this year's applicants.
"The variety of this year's presentations is amazing," he said. "It's enlightening and very rewarding for us to help students open businesses."
Hummel agreed. "This is a practice run to present to venture capitalists," she said. "They've now had a rehearsal and a dry run."
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