This past Friday, I attended a competition worth $50,000. In short, five entrepreneurs had been selected as finalists in a business plan competition. Each had 3 minutes to present their business plan and then do a 1 minute Q&A session. Targeting about :30 for all 5 to present, it actually took just shy of 40 minutes.
Here were the five companies:
- Data center cooling solution
- Sign language system (for the deaf)
- Coffee shop point of sale (POS) system
- Diesel/Ethanol hybrid fuel system
- Pre/Post conception gender determiner
Of all the companies originally submitting it is hard to imagine a more diverse group of finalists.
Question is, if you were being asked, as an investor, to pony up $50,000 based on a 4 minute discussion, how would you decide? Surprisingly, keeping this frame of thought in mind, it became very clear, very quickly, who I would put my money behind.
At a very high level:
- Data center
- Pro – Very promising solution. Industry stats suggested good-size target market
- Con – Plan not well thought through, unclear what was being asked of an investor
- Sign language system
- Pro – Very good presentation manner, addressed most investor-oriented concerns.
- Con – Very small target market, competition not well identified for investors
- Coffee shop POS
- Pro – Most articulate presenter of group, motivated, with very sound business plan
- Con – Unclear what would make this solution good enough for existing shops to switch
- Diesel/Ethanol hybrid system
- Pro – Presentation addressed the right audience, solid field testing done, in-use currently
- Con – Too complicated to comfortably discuss in 3 minutes, concerns about taking a foreign solution and being viable domestically
- Pre-Post conception gender determiner
- Pro – 70% of the 90 million/annual parents-to-be want to know baby’s gender before birth; well tested clinically.
- Con – Needs larger scale field testing, uncertain how product would go to market in a highly competitive arena (e.g. pharmacy shelves)
After listening too all five, it became clear as a bell which two I would lend or give money to. Tied for first would be the coffee shop POS and the Diesel/Ethanol hybrid system. Why? For the coffee shop presenter, he had worked in the field and knew, first-hand, of the problems these businesses face—particularly as they moved beyond a single store—knowledge, combined with first-hand experience and quality of presentation. The Diesel/Ethanol system got my vote because the solution exists in Australia and has a wealth of field data to support the claims. Nothing like betting on an established business—the only one of the five.
Alas, it wasn’t my money and neither of my finalists were selected. The winner, Jason Gilbert with the sign language system: Mobile Sign Language Systems LLC. And, to Jason, Congratulations:)!
(photo credit: Thomas Picard)
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