Brad Bernthal of the Silicon Flatirons Center began the Championships with an introduction of New Venture Challenge partners including the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, ATLAS, the Entrepreneurship Center for Music, e-Ship and e-Space, the Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program, and the Center for Education on Social Responsibility. He also thanked sponsors such as Zayo Group and First Western Trust Bank, and introduced the judges for the finals including Nancy Pierce of Keld, LLC,; Tim Connor, a partner of Sequel Venture Partners and chief financial officer and vice president of business strategy of Boulder Wind Power Inc.; Ken desGarennes, chief financial officer of Zayo Group; and Nathan Seidle, CEO of SparkFun Electronics Inc., an online-retailer of electronic components.

Following the first team presentation, Beth Hartman of Silicon Flatirons presented the “Almost Alumni Awards” to a few business leaders who were involved in the New Venture Challenge without officially entering the competition and then went on to become successful entrepreneurs. These prizes were designed to recognize the idea that whether or not a team wins a prize, or even decides not to officially submit a business plan, the important part of the CU New Venture Challenge is to learn more about the process of starting a business and get involved with entrepreneurship in the local community! The awards went to Nate Abbott and Natty Zola of Everlater, a travel blogging company that they developed with the support of TechStars, and Nick Little of Forge Aeronautics, which focuses on providing customers with the ability to easily access spatial information in real-time using the web-browser and manned and unmanned aircraft systems.

Before the final presentation, Jacqui Dietrich of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship presented the “CU Alumni Awards” to two university graduates who both started their own companies while they were still students. Sarah Schupp launched University Parent while she was still a freshman, and Nathan Seidle maxed out his $2,500 student credit card to start SparkFun out of his college apartment. He later moved to a bigger house but decided that they would probably need to transition from a house to an office when using the printer one day, in addition to all the other electronic devices they were experimenting with, caused the entire basement to plunge into darkness. The company now has almost 100 employees and is well known for creative marketing, interesting projects, and fun events.

The event concluded with a keynote address from Ryan Martens of Rally Software, the presentation of the awards, and a reception in the new Center for Community building. Congratulations once again to everyone who got involved this year with the CU New Venture Challenge! We are already looking forward to another exciting competition next year.

This week alone, President Obama announced the launch of Startup America, a national campaign to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship across all corners of the country based on Boulder’s own TechStars Network. At the same time, NBC did a series called Opportunity USA featuring Boulder as a center for entrepreneurship, including a piece highlighting Brad Bernthal of Silicon Flatirons and a segment on Nate Abbott and Natty Zola of Everlater, a company they started after participating in the first New Venture Challenge and then continuing on with TechStars (the good part of the video starts at around 4 minutes in). Finally, NVC partner eSpace was featured on TechCrunch for making aerospace a start-up friendly industry, and web-based companies in downtown Boulder are organizing to work with the city on internet tax issues.

The next NVC workshop is for finance at 6pm in ATLAS 100 on Wednesday, February 16th, followed by the final workshop on pitching the following Wednesday, February 23rd at the same time and place. Both of these workshops will feature an opportunity to receive individual feedback on business plans from business professionals, mentors, and MBA students, so bring your drafts if you’ve got them! You can also submit your draft for feedback here.

Finally, remember to save the date for the final competition on the evening of Thursday, March 10th in the Wolf Law Building!

Almost 20 mentors specializing in fields as diverse as law, finance and technology shared their time and expertise with more than that many teams hoping to start businesses ranging from financing solar panels in India to creating business cards with flash memory. Mentors involved with projects like providing internet on airplanes, publishing multiple books on marketing, and financing ventures that went on to successful IPOs connected with teams to provide guidance on topics such as taking a successful local business like Hangover Helpers to the national level, increasing retail sales with real-time data analysis, or creating an Angie’s List in Brasil.

The business plans that these teams and others are creating with the help of their mentors and the guidance provided by a series of workshops will certainly present the judges with challenging choices to make for the finals on March 1oth. The most important part of the competition, however, is not who wins but how many people gain valuable experience for the future. We look forward to seeing you all again soon and we’re planning to make this year’s final event the biggest one yet, with hundreds of people from the campus and the community coming together to recognize dynamic entrepreneurship in our city, our state and our country.

For those who weren’t able to make it in the snow, check out Frank’s PowerPoint slides at the bottom of the Resources page here. You can also review these business plan tips and these guidelines to help you get started on your own plan.

Finally, make sure to mark your calendar for next Wednesday, January 26th, again at 6pm in ATLAS 100 for a mentor matching event that you won’t want to miss! If you don’t have a mentor yet, this mini-pitch night will give your team the chance to present your idea to a room full of experts who want to help you, not only to develop a great business plan, but also to make valuable connections for your future career. Even if you already have a mentor, this is a great opportunity to network, find more people for your team and practice your pitch!

Join us to learn more about starting your own company, connect with local business leaders, and compete for over $25,000 in prizes! Register for the event on Facebook.

All-star roster for one-on-one business plan guidance includes:

Frank Moyes, Renowned Entrepreneurship Instructor, CU-Boulder
Lindsay Brust, Social Media Guru, Room 214
Kaj Gronholm, Owner, Full Cycle Bikes, CU MBA Alum
Tim Falls, Marketing/SendGrid, Advisor/TechStars, CU MBA Alum
Jay Wilson, Product Manager/Photobucket, Former NVC Winner
Ryan Broshar, Entrepreneur/Renewable Energy, Former NVC Winner

Sign up now to receive guidance! Finally, view a schedule of all upcoming events and make sure to save the date for CU NVC Finals on March 10th!

After receiving his first shipment, Nate started taking pictures of all the components and offering them for sale on the internet, figuring that his own frustration with the lack of visual guidance available for purchasing electronic parts online meant that others could be experiencing a similar problem. It was when his third order came in from France that Nate realized he might have “grossly underestimated the market.” He also realized that he was going to need a box in which to ship the order, so he went out back to the recycling bin behind his apartment to find one.

From realizing he needed a box Nate went to realizing he needed an IT department when his company had grown to about 10 people and their search field was hacked by a Spanish soccer site redirecting traffic in order to generate click-through revenue. This helped him to recognize the dangers of trying to stay too lean as a company rather than hiring to accommodate growth. In a similar way, they decided that they would probably need to transition from a house to an office when using the printer one day, in addition to all the other electronic devices they were experimenting with, caused the entire basement to plunge into darkness.

SparkFun’s creative culture and dynamic website are regarded by some as examples of brilliant marketing, but Nate describes them more as simple solutions to document problem-solving and highlight interesting projects. For example, he once created a tutorial on how to build a portable rotary phone that was so popular the website crashed. Interesting projects are encouraged with events like the Antimov competition, which awards prizes for robots that complete trivial tasks in a highly inefficient way while destroying themselves in the process.

Another event that encourages creative projects is Free Day, when the company gives away up to $100,000 in products to their customers. Nate came up with the concept mostly because he dislikes the complexity of discount codes, but the event also happened to serve the dual purpose of testing the company’s IT infrastructure and providing great viral marketing. “The first Free Day was on a Thursday, but the site broke on Tuesday because the traffic was already way too high with people pre-loading their cart. I guess it went a little viral. We did our best to patch the holes and then went for it. That week, Google had just announced the Nexus One, which was a Twitter trend. SparkFun was also a trending topic on Twitter on Free Day. We were also the number one search term on Google.”

Congratulations to SparkFun on all their success and best of luck to everyone with CUNVC!

The panel of judges included Jeff Nytch from the Entrepreneurship Center in the Music School, Meg Ambrose from ATLAS, Frank Moyes from the Business School’s Deming Center, and Brad Bernthal of the Silicon Flatirons Center at the Law School. Presented with such an overwhelming selection of brilliant ideas, these judges were hard-pressed to choose winners, but they did their best to give recognition to some notable pitches and thank everyone for participating.

Winning for most original idea was Louis Dankovich, who presented a plan to develop bedbug traps based on CO2 management. Best pitch went to Felipe Recart for his charming presentation about providing Chileans with delicious kettle-baked potato chips instead of the thin, oily product that always leaves him with “a profound sense of remorse.” The wild card winner, Hamed Yazdi, presented his entire pitch in poetry, and the overall prize went to Sean Baxter for his online fashion game for Tween girls.

In addition to these outstanding presentations, there were many other compelling pitches throughout the evening, ranging from an actual working model of a carbon sequestration box and an app that lets people pay their friends by smart phone when dividing a big bill, to healthy beer, cool chicken coops, and covered wagon campers. Themes of the evening included a passion for social justice, community, and volunteering, an interest in health and the environment, and solutions to improve efficiency for a wide range of people.

Congratulations to everyone who got this year’s New Venture Challenge off to such a great start at Pitch Night! Remember to join us for Mentor Speed Dating Night on Monday, November 15th starting at 6:15pm in the Wolf Law School, with an Entrepreneurs Unplugged presentation followed by the opportunity to network with a wide range of business leaders. Let the games begin!

The panel discussion featured Nate Abbott and Natty Zola of Everlater, Sarah Schupp from University Parent, and Daniel Epstein of the Unreasonable Institute. After giving a short pitch about each of their companies, they discussed the challenges and rewards of starting a business, with the uncertainty of success and the long hours contrasting dramatically with the sense of ownership and excitement of being an entrepreneur. Members of the audience listened attentively and asked great questions, getting motivated to start their own ventures. Check out more pictures here!

Next week same time same place is Pitch Night, when ideas will fly and teams will form! See you there: ATLAS 100 at 6pm on Wednesday, November 3rd. Register to attend here and click on the email icon at the top right of this page if you’d like to pitch a business idea!

Now in its third year, the CU New Venture Challenge is an established part of the vibrant Boulder start-up community, helping connect students with the resources they need to become successful in the entrepreneurial world. Join us for our kick-off event on Wednesday, October 27th at 6pm in ATLAS 100 to find out how you can be a part of it.

-          Learn how to write a successful business plan

-          Meet mentors with deep expertise in your area

-          Connect with students across campus to form a team with diverse skills

-          Compete for over $25,000 in prizes

-          Increase your ability to find jobs in the Boulder start-up community

Participants like Streat Chefs, last year’s winner, and Everlater, whose founders went on to become TechStars graduates and receive an initial round of funding, got some of their first lessons in entrepreneurship with CU NVC. Other teams also gained valuable insight into the start-up process and made great connections with mentors in their field of interest, leading to enhanced job opportunities after graduation. While not everyone can be the next Mark Zuckerberg, everyone can gain experience with entrepreneurship and apply that knowledge to future career opportunities in a dynamic industry!

Register for the kick-off event on Wednesday, October 27th at 6pm in ATLAS 100 to take the first step on an exciting path.

Silicon Flatirons 10th Anniversary from Kendall Media Group on Vimeo.

If you’re looking for more information about the annual conference, check out some of the footage NextGenWeb captured this year. The first panel of the conference, moderated by Phil Weiser, included some snappy comments from local legend Brad Feld: