30 Apr 2013

HBS New Venture Competition Finale Takes Place Today

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BOSTON—Harvard Business School will hold its New Venture Competition Finale this afternoon in Burden Hall on the School’s campus in Boston. This marks the seventeenth year of the event (formerly the HBS Business Plan Contest), which has been renamed to reflect the fact that this long-term educational process has become more focused on the active journey of building new ventures rather than simply presenting a business plan.


The event program will include a “last pitch” by the eight finalists in the student business and social enterprise tracks, a crowd vote by the audience, a “big reveal” of the student team winners and runners-up, and the presentation of awards to the winners and runners-up in the Alumni Competition, which involves graduates from HBS Clubs and Associations from around the world.

The 2013 New Venture Competition will award prizes totaling more than $300,000 in cash and services.

The eight student finalist teams are:

Business Track

  • Astoria Road – the first social wedding registry;
  • Quickstor – a mobile platform for self-storage rental that increases lead conversion and value;
  • Sensible Baby – safe and accurate sensor-based technology to monitor babies’ safety while asleep;
  • Tauros Engineering – commercializing a revolutionary technology for the detection of bridge scour, which, if undetected, can lead to major bridge failures.

Social Enterprise Track

  • Bluelight – innovative consumer finance for the base of the pyramid;
  • Good Benefits – helping companies run simple, engaging, high-impact giving programs in the workplace;
  • WAVE Hospitality Academy – empowering youth in West Africa to access employment opportunities through vocational training;
  • myProxy – A web-based platform to digitally record and make available a patient’s end-of-life care wishes.

The New Venture Competition is run under the auspices of Harvard Business School’s Rock Center for Entrepreneurship and its Social Enteprise Initiative.

Contacts

Jim Aisner
617-495-6157
jaisner+hbs.edu

About Harvard Business School

Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business School is located on a 40-acre campus in Boston. Its faculty of more than 250 offers full-time programs leading to the MBA and PhD degrees, as well as more than 175 Executive Education programs, and Harvard Business School Online, the School’s digital learning platform. For more than a century, faculty have drawn on their research, their experience in working with organizations worldwide, and their passion for teaching, to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. The School and its curriculum attract the boldest thinkers and the most collaborative learners who will go on to shape the practice of business and entrepreneurship around the globe.