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The MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition season got an early start this year with the first-ever Elevator Pitch Contest (EPC). Held October 13, the EPC gave would-be entrepreneurs the chance to test the polish of their pitches before a panel of esteemed judges and share over $10,000 in prize money — including $2,500 to the grand-prize winner.
Long believed to be an essential element of an entrepreneur's toolbox, the 60-second elevator pitch can garner the attention of critical contacts and be the first step toward turning an idea into a business. EPC competitors were encouraged to structure their pitches around five concise sentences: First, state the problem; second, state your solution; third, state who you are and why you're the one to solve the problem; fourth, state the value proposition; fifth, state the call to action.
What else makes a great pitch? According to Gaetan Bonhomme, MBA '08, one of the EPC organizers, a perfect pitch is one that not only conveys the essence of an idea in simple and direct terms, it is tailored to the specific audience you are pitching to.
The EPC also offered competitors an important opportunity to network with fellow entrepreneurs and exchange ideas, ideas that may evolve into $100K competition contenders.
Next up in the $100K cycle? December's $1K.
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Once a laudable goal, Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is now a growing force across global markets. A recent tally found $4 trillion in such investments worldwide. One in eight investment dollars in the U.S. is connected to environmental, social, and governmental factors.
The time is ripe for analysts to help their clients make a profit while making a difference, says Graham Sinclair of KLD Research and Analytics in Boston. Sinclair made this case during a morning-long presentation to MIT Sloan students in March 2007 as part of the Sustainability at Sloan Speaker Series.
An excerpt of Sinclair's presentation is featured in the MIT Sloan Podcast this month. Student interest in SRI reflects widespread adoption among students of the larger goal of sustainable business.
An increasing number of students come to MIT Sloan with sustainability in mind. The Non-Profit Internship Fund has enabled dozens of students to spend their summers applying business knowledge for social causes.
This past academic year teams of students helped small and large ventures across the globe advance sustainable practices, as part of S-Lab, a first-year course modeled on curriculum staples G-Lab and E-Lab.
Taught by seven prominent faculty members, S-Lab represents a uniquely MIT Sloan opportunity to put theory into practice for the sake of making a difference in the world. For students, the course proved a vehicle to meet Sinclair's clarion call that business as usual has failed and it's time for business unusual.
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The irrational exuberance of the dot-com era has yielded a wave of social activism, and many now see business education as a means for improving the world.
Corporate responsibility and sustainable business are foremost on the minds of many MIT Sloan students, alumni, and faculty members. And they are resolute that social responsibility should — and does — make good business.
In an MIT Sloan In Depth report, we highlight this increasing sense of social responsibility and how it is influencing the practice of business.
The experience of Jeremy Hockenstein, SM '00, illustrates the power of applying business innovation to social issues.
Determined to expand the horizons of young people in Cambodia and Laos, he began Digital Data Divide (DDD), a nonprofit venture, five years ago. Today the company has 200 employees in three offices.
DDD employs disadvantaged and disabled young people in the two countries. The employees work half a day on data entry projects for U.S. companies and go off to DDD-financed school for the second half of the day. In three or four years they graduate and, with their enhanced education and experience, are able to land better jobs.
While Hockenstein is making a difference through entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer Otto Scharmer says socially responsible business is an emerging career path for B-school graduates joining established ventures.
NGOs and nonprofits are beginning to pay competitive salaries, he says, and an increasing number of corporations are making social responsibility central to their business model.
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Biotech and housing innovations win MIT $100KTwo life-changing inventions took the top prizes at the 2006 MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition during a ceremony at Kresge Auditorium on May 18.
The start-up SteriCoat won the MIT Business Venture Robert P. Goldberg Grand Prize for a revolutionary antibacterial coating that significantly reduces the incidence of infection in patients using catheters.
The other top honor — the new MIT Social Impact Prize — was awarded to CentroMigrante Inc., which integrates architectural innovations and a versatile self-help business model to provide clean, safe, affordable housing for indigent job hunters in developing urban areas.
This year marks the evolution of the MIT $50K, the world's preeminent business plan competition, into the MIT $100K. The additional funds make possible the new MIT Social Impact Prize, which recognizes the business plan that best serves low-income communities.
More than 164 teams entered the competition, the largest number of entries “since the peak of the dot-com bubble,” says Lawrence Walmsley, an MIT $100K organizer. Fifty-five of those teams competed for the Social Impact Prize.
Read more about this year's MIT $100K contest.
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MIT Sloan students use their power for goodIf Net Impact isn't on your radar screen, it's time you were introduced. An international network of 10,000 MBA students and professionals, Net Impact harnesses business to build a better world. The MIT Sloan chapter is led by Dina Goldstein, MBA '06.
Using a highly collaborative model to effect change where change is needed, Net Impact helps its members integrate their skills and knowledge to make a tangible impact on quality of life around the world. At the same time, members build a working network of colleagues that will serve them throughout their careers.
Net Impact chapters host a variety of events throughout the year from business plan competitions to speaker series to career panels. In Net Impact's Service Corps, nearly 400 volunteers have completed projects with 110 nonprofit organizations.
Founded in 1993, Net Impact has 100 chapters worldwide. Twenty-nine of the top 30 MBA schools have active chapters. Thirteen of the chapters have more than 50 members — MIT Sloan's fast-growing organization among them.
“The year ahead will offer many opportunities for MIT Sloan students to get engaged," says Goldstein. "We are planning volunteer events supporting local nonprofits, a trip to the national Net Impact conference, networking events, several industry speakers, and support for business plan competitions.”
Find out more about Net Impact.
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Balance in biotech's favor at MIT $50KA company marketing a device to help people with a balance or vestibular disorder was awarded the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition's $30,000 grand prize in a ceremony at MIT's Kresge Auditorium Monday, May 9. The victory for the privately held company, Balico, marks the fourth year in a row a medical device company has taken the top honor at the oldest and best known among university business plan competitions.
The Balico business team includes Baruch Schori, a participant in the MIT Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership.
The company reports that at least half of the U.S. population suffers from a balance or vestibular disorder sometime during their lives. It will develop and commercialize a wearable vibrotactile balance aid that accurately senses and displays body tilt to help reduce the risk of falls.
Balico was chosen from seven finalist teams, each of which presented its business plan to an audience at the ceremony that included venture capitalists and business leaders.
The $50K judges awarded first runner-up honors to Nanocell Power, which has a manufacturing process that provides efficient distribution of expensive catalyst and carbon nanofibers in the fuel cell membrane. The second runner-up was Vacuum Excavation Technology, which offers an excavation device that works with existing machinery to enable efficient operation without risk to utilities or operators.
Learn more about the MIT $50K winners.
Photo: Business team members of Balico, winner of the 2005 MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition.
Photo by Justin Allardyce Knight
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No business is an islandMIT Sloan's Global Entrepreneurship course (G-Lab) can take an MBA student just about any place on the planet where business is transacted. For Justin Steinman, MBA '04, and his G-Lab team, it was New Zealand.
The team researched the country's information and communications technology firms, then headed for New Zealand where they set up shop at Hi-Growth 100, a high-tech incubator in Auckland. Hi-Growth's goal: to build 100 companies with revenues of $100 million by 2012. Steinman and the team talked strategy with CEOs of the top 25 portfolio companies and produced a 50-page "Entrepreneur's Handbook" to give entrepreneurs solid practical advice on how to grow their businesses. Then the team presented a set of macroeconomic recommendations for the future of New Zealand's IT industry to an audience of 150 entrepreneurs, investors, and government officials.
New Zealand embraced the G-Lab team and its tactical recommendations, as did the media. Steinman and his colleagues were interviewed by the New Zealand Herald and the National Business Review. Steinman also appeared on Breakfast, the New Zealand equivalent of the Today Show, and recounted the team's findings in a ComputerWorld magazine piece.
Photo: Associated Press
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Energizing the Exercise MarketHarris Rabin, MBA '04, thought it was high time that somebody energized the exercise market. On a stationary bicycle "people don't like to see '15 minutes' flashing at them," says the MIT Sloan MBA alumnus. The key, he says, is distraction. Rabin is a member of a team of students from management and computer science that researched the psychology of exercise to create a video exercise game called CycleScore. The aim: to make aerobic exercise motivating and fun.
To create CycleScore, Rabin and his teammates integrated an electronic game into an exercise bicycle. As the rider pedals, a hot air balloon rises into the air and floats along over mountaintops. If the rider loses momentum and pedals too slowly, the balloon loses altitude and crashes into the virtual mountain.
A prototype of CycleScore is up and running at MITÕs Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center, constantly being evaluated by the MIT community.
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