What began as a learning experience ended with a first-place
finish for UCLA Anderson School of Management students at the Rice
University Business Plan Competition in Houston, Texas, earlier
this month.
The event is the “largest intercollegiate business plan
competition in the world,” according to an Anderson press
release.
UCLA’s team, composed of graduate business students
Nicholas Seet and Johanna Wright, entered the competition
originally as a means to get feedback on a business plan that they
ultimately wanted to enter into the Knapp Venture Competition,
Anderson’s business plan contest.
Rice’s three-day competition is intended to simulate the
experience everyday entrepreneurs might go through when they try to
sell their ideas to venture capitalists or a bank to gain start up
funds.
“It was a great networking opportunity,” Wright
said. “And then we were announced as finalists.”
The UCLA team received the grand prize of $100,000, to go toward
investing in its company, $20,000 in cash, round-trip tickets on
Continental Airlines, one year’s worth of office space and
services from Houston Technology Center and qualification into the
international finals of another corporate business plan
competition.
“We’re going to spend (the $20,000 cash prize) on
our company,” Wright said.
Furthermore, as a result of the duo’s win in Texas,
venture capitalists have asked for private follow-up meetings with
Auditude, a company Seet founded prior to the competition.
Auditude, named to imply auditing with attitude, is a digital
media technology company that has a patent which allows advertisers
and broadcasters to monitor ads on broadcast radio and
television.
The technology developed is a way for companies to check if
commercials have been played properly.
Currently, there is no proof in broadcast television or radio
that the correct commercials are played on air. For example, a
commercial for a Christmas Eve Sale may be played after Christmas
and neither the advertiser nor the broadcaster may be aware.
“This has been a long-standing problem that’s been
around for almost 100 years. The advertisers have always just
trusted the broadcasters,” Seet said.
The former chief executive officer of Saatchi & Saatchi, the
world’s largest advertising firm, reports that approximately
10 percent of ads are not what the advertisers ask for or are
incorrectly played by the broadcaster, Seet said.
Out of 130 teams chosen to attend the competition for the
weekend, seven teams were picked to be finalists.
“It was a wonderful experience. The level of competition
was so high, we had no idea and were totally shocked that we won.
We were blown away by the feedback from the judges,” Seet
said.