Welcome to the 2007-2008 Business plan competition

And the Winner is...

The 8th Annual Big Bang! Business Plan Competition came to an exciting conclusion last evening with the Final Presentations and Awards Ceremony at the UC Davis ARC. Our finalist teams presented five innovative business pitches to an (unofficial) record audience of nearly 250 people. To view the official press release for the final event, click here.

Please read below for final announcements from this year's organizing committee. Feel free to pass this email onto contacts outside of the GSM.

Congratulations!

The 2008 Big Bang Organizing Committee (BBOC) would like to congratulate the winner (AEC) and runner-up (ARCUS) of this year's Big Bang! Business Plan Competition. AEC will compete in the prestigious Draper Fisher Jurvetson Venture Challenge next week in Menlo Park. Good luck!

Winner: Advanced Enological Closures (AEC) Diana Mejia, Tim Keller, Kevin Chartrand (photo: Nicole Starsinic)

Runner-Up and People's Choice: ARCUS Davin Hsieh, Jamie Kitano, Alan Szmodis, Matt Vogel, Matthew Hoopes (photo: Nicole Starsinic)

The BBOC also like to acknowledge the efforts and accomplishments of all of the participants who competed in the Big Bang! this year, including the three other finalist teams who presented last night: PuriTea (David Wong, Soyen Shih, Dr. Michael S. Wong), CEDR (Joel Snook, Siva Gunda, Emine Gunhan, Kevin Chartrand), and WicKool (Richard Bourne, Siva Gunda, Emine Gunhan, Kevin Chartrand).

Thank You!
The 2008 Big Bang Organizing would also like to acknowledge the members of the GSM and local community who have contributed their time and efforts to this year's competition. We thank you for the role you took in making this year's competition a success!

We would like to extend a special thank you to the following individuals:

Roger Akers
Tim Akin
Meg Arnold
Dean Nicole Biggart
Collin Casper
Kevin Chartrand
Kevin Coyle
Steven Escobar
Ryan Evans
Joe Filstrup
Dr. Barbara Grant
Professor Andrew Hargadon
Becky Heard
Cassie Hilder
Noreen Johnson
Dr. Jacob Jorgensen
Dee Dee Kitchen
Harry Laswell
Iain Mickle
Lee Oerding
Anya Reid
Nicole Starsinic
Ingrid Some
Dania Stotts
Charles Tyler
Brian Woodall
Eric Wu

.....and all the other faculty, staff, judges, mentors and affiliates who were instrumental to our success. Thank you!

We would also like to thank our 2008 sponsors and partners:

PLATINUM
DLA Piper US LLP

GOLD
DFJ Frontier
UC Davis Health System

SILVER
Clean Start
American River Ventures
SARTA
Velocity Venture Capital

BRONZE
Akers Capital LLC
Boutin Gibson Di Giusto Hodell, Inc.
LPL Financial Services
Central Valley Fund - Gael Partners, LLC
Wavepoint Ventures
Silvers HR LLC
Javed Iqbal/Intel

PARTNERS
UC Davis Innovation Access
UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship
UC Davis Graduate School of Management

'08 STATISTICS AND BIG BANG FACTS
2008 CONTEST STATISTICS
- Executive Summary submissions: 28
- Business Plan submissions: 18 (includes 10 entries from the Little Bang)
- Finalist: 5
- Judges: 70
- Mentors: 17
- Participants: over 100

BIG BANG FACTS
- The first Big Bang! was in 2001
- This year alone, volunteer judges read 3-page executive summaries 170 times. That's 510 pages of reading. The Grapes of Wrath is 464 pages long.
- Also this year, 18 semi-finalist teams wrote business plans up to 35 pages in length that were read 111 times by volunteer judges.
- Since 2001, 43 finalist teams have pitched their businesses at Big Bang! final events
- 104 teams have written business plans for the competition since its inception in 2001
- The Big Bang! has received 204 entries from UC Davis affiliates since 2001
- The Big Bang! has awarded a total of $140,000 in prize money

*special thanks to our committee member Joe Escalada for compiling this information

2008 Finalists Announced...

Advanced Enological Closures is bringing the first 'perfect' wine closure to market. Its innovative design allows screw-cap closures for wine bottles to "breathe" in the same way that barks do.

Arcus is developing a non-invasive hand-held device that monitors blood-glucose levels using just your breath. For people with diabetes, this revolutionary technology eliminates the use of painful finger sticks and the risks of taking blood samples.

CEDR, or Cost Effective Demand Response, is a system that reduces electricity consumption of commercial buildings during unusually high demand peaks to avoid blackouts. During peak hours, CEDR enables a 50% lighting load reduction.

PuriTea is a water purification technology that offers clean, safe, and better tasting water to people. Its revolutionary Nanobeads allows portability and efficiency in removing harmful contaminants, and can be applied to various products.

WicKool is an energy-saving, easy-to-install retrofit system which reduces the costs associated with commercial roof top air conditioning units (RTUs). It operates through gravity and the wicking phenomena to improve RTU energy efficiency.

Come cheer these teams on and hear more about their innovative business ideas at the:

Big Bang! Final Presentations and Awards Ceremony: Wednesday, May 21

5-6pm (reception)

6-8:30pm (presentations & ceremony)

UC Davis Activities & Recreation Center (ARC) Ballroom A

RSVP by May 14 at (subject line: Big Bang!)

Business Plan Deadline Approaching...

To all Big Bang! Semi-Finalists, business plans are due by 8:00PM on Wednesday, April 16, 2008. No late submissions will be accepted. Please do not submit more than one copy. The first copy submitted will be the copy sent to the judges.

Please send your business plan to Joe Escalada at . A confirmation email will be sent within 24 hours. If you do not hear from us regarding your submission by Thursday at 8:00PM, please call Katherine Johnston at (415) 307-8308 to discuss the situation.

A reminder:

Business Plans are to be a maximum of 35 pages, on standard 8.5x11 paper, Times New Roman or Arial font type, minimum 10 pt font size, with 1 inch margins, Images may be included.

Congratulations on making it this far, and GOOD LUCK!

Executive Summary Round Announcement!

At this time, the first round judging is complete and we are excited to invite the following teams to participate in the 2nd round, the Business Plan round, of the competition. The teams are listed in alphabetical order below.

Advanced Enological Closures
Fast Analytics
Generize
GreenLight Organic
HID Labs
Jambakero
Jerico Energy
NeuCure
Slipkey
Wisheo
YUrban Lifestyle Inc.

These teams will join the top teams from the Little Bang! competition in the 2nd round. Business Plans are due by 8pm on April 16, 2008.

Thanks again for everyone’s participation. Please keep in mind that this is an annual competition, and we urge you to consider participating again in the future.

As the competition starts we will post articles from the many events in the competition.
We have placed articles from previous events in the archive.

Come back soon!

To view articles from the 2002-2003 events, go to this website.