The Bob Mark Elevator Pitch Competition was held this Saturday, Oct. 7 in the Van Pelt and Opie Library.
The competition saw entrepreneurs from almost every school at Michigan Tech competing for $25,000 worth of prizes, with pitches ranging from dog tracking collars to vaccine storage innovations. Winners received prizes including “Silicon Valley Experience” tickets, varying cash prizes, office space and patent discovering consulting.
Teams of students received coaching from business professionals and worked extensively prior to the competition to improve their business ideas and practice their pitches. Their preparation was then put to the test with 120 seconds to sell their concept to a panel of judges and an audience, similar to the amount of time one would have to explain their business to a stranger in an elevator.
“We had a lot of work that went into this competition,” said Dr. Andre Laplume, Associate Professor of Management for the School of Business and Economics. “We had nearly 40 teams sign up; they came for coaching, they practiced hard, in the end, we had to cut it down to 25.”
The Elevator Pitch competition is held as a tribute to Professor of Practice within the School of Business and Economics, Bob Mark, who ran the competition in its first four years.
Mark started the competition to help student entrepreneurs get comfortable presenting their ideas in front of a large audience, and as a way to bring attention to their businesses. Entrepreneurs can win prizes for Most Actionable Business, Best Elevator Pitch, Best Technological Innovation, Most Disruptive Technological Innovation, Best Green Innovation, Best Social Innovation, Most Economic Impact on the Upper Peninsula, Best Lifestyle Business and Audience Favorite.
This year’s Most Actionable Business winner was Suhel Shaikh with ICanID, a screening device that can distinguish between cancerous, precancerous, and normal cells. “I’d like to give credit to my professors,” said Shaikh, “Dr. Marina Tanasova owns the patent, but my advisor Dr. Smitha Rao had confidence in me and got permission from Dr. Tanasova so that I could use the technology.”
“I’m always amazed, for students from engineering disciplines that are supposedly so introverted they always do a fantastic job with the actual presentation of their ideas and their business plans,” said John Diebel of Innovation and Industry Engagement, “as far as the judging goes…One of the most difficult things is trying to discern what’s really actionable from a business standpoint and particularly from a technology standpoint, a lot of people have fun with it, they do a good job with the presentation, but we really don’t know how real the technology is in a two-minute presentation…That makes it tough because you want to reward somebody who really can carry forward and really turn their ideas into a real business.”
