Office of Public Relations — Newsroom
News Release
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Jacque Montgomery, cell: 303. 928.9093, Jacque.Montgomery@uchsc.edu
Developing Minds Software Wins University of Colorado Denver's Bard Center 7th Annual Business Plan Competition
DENVER (June 11, 2008) - Six new businesses from the University of Colorado Denver's Bard Center for Entrepreneurship competed for money and start up support in today's Bard Center 7th Annual Business Plan Competition. 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.
Only one business could win top honors and a panel of judges found that Developing Minds Software stood most "eserving of the $10,000 first prize. Developing Minds Software offers unique web-based software 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.
UC Denver's Business School is the largest accredited graduate school of business in Colorado with more than 18,000 alumni. The school serves more than 1,200 graduate students and 1,400 undergraduate students each year. Students and faculty are involved in solving real-world business problems as they collaborate on more than 100 projects with area businesses every semester through classroom work, guest lectures and research projects.
The University of Colorado Denver is one of three universities in the University of Colorado system. Located in Denver on the Downtown Campus and at Ninth & Colorado Blvd., and on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo., University of Colorado Denver offers more than 100 degrees and programs in 13 schools and colleges and serving more than 28,000 students in Metro Denver and online. For more information, visit the UC Denver Newsroom.
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