Posted on March - 30 - 2010

Capital ad-venture: Start-ups pitch for seed cash at UE competition

Discussions about video games are normally conducted in hushed tones inside the lecture halls at the University of Evansville, but Friday was an exception.

Nathan Bachus and Jinson Jose, stakeholders in Ready Up Technologies, Inc., a server service for professional online video game competitions, won first place in the Evansville New Venture Creation Competition.

Now in its fifth year, the competition was hosted by the Institute for Global Enterprise at UE.

RIGHT: Joe Wallace, second from left, questions the ActivityBored group at the competition.

BOB GWALTNEY / Courier & Press ABOVE: From left, Josef Salami, Alex Pritchett and Danny Olinsky make their presentation Friday at the Evansville New Venture Creation Competition.

Winners received seed money for their business ventures. First place got $10,000, while second and third were given $2,500 and $1,000 respectively. A fourth award, based on audience responses, was also given for the crowd’s favorite presentation.

Of the 14 teams that electronically submitted business plans for the competition, eight were invited to present live. The teams, all affiliated with a university, came from all corners of the United States and as far as British Columbia, Canada.

Each group had 10 minutes to present its business and another seven to field questions from the judging panel.

Double win for Ready Up

Ready Up, of the University of Texas at Dallas, won not just first place but also the crowd favorite award for its presentation.

The win, their second at a venture-funding competition, affirmed the validity of the concept, said Nathan Bachus.

“The win means our product is proving itself, and that others feel it is working, too,” he said.

Bachus said the prize money will go primarily toward travel expenses related to the competition and an expansion of the server system, allowing the company to handle larger online competitions and begin a video feed.

Second-place finisher Satellite Connect, affiliated with the University of Houston, was represented by James Wilson and Andrew Jobe.

Jobe said their prize money will go toward travel expenses this summer as the company presents its battery-powered satellite video feed, oriented for first-responders in emergency situations, to private equity groups.

Bobby Matson, of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, won third place for his presentation of MyBandStock.com, a Web site giving exclusive access to digital content from musicians.

The site, already partnered with acts including Grammy-nominated rockers Underoath, intends to monetize the access-based content.

UE senior Reggie Edu, more commonly known for his role as a midfielder in Aces soccer, presented the Unfluence Society Clothing Co.

It is a venture started by Edu and several friends from high school. He hopes to continue the venture after graduation. Though a management major, Edu taught himself the design aspect of the business and is now responsible for much of the art appearing on the company’s shirts, hats and wristbands.

High-quality presentations

Brian Bohrnstedt, director of the Global Assistance Program at the Institute, said the quality of the plans was excellent.

“I was surprised at the caliber of the teams,” he said.

“I thought all of them had commercialization potential.”

Bohrnstedt said the Institute, and by extension UE, benefitted from the competition, as well.

“This shows that entrepreneurship is just as important at a small school like UE as it is at a larger research university,” Bohrnstedt.

Randy Moore, an anchor for WTVW-Fox 7 and moderator of the competition, said the city can only gain from the contest.

“In Evansville, we suffer from brain drain, so if this inspired a few local start-ups that would be outstanding,” he said.

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