Congratulations to our Semifinalists!

We had a tremendous turnout for the 2008 NU Venture Challenge and are inspired to see such a show of entrepreneurial spirit throughout Northwestern. We had 60 submitted entries with team members representing every Northwestern school.

Please click here for a detailed schedule of the Semifinal Round taking place on April 26.

Please join us in congratulating the 30 semi-finalist teams in this year’s NU Venture Challenge!

Eyes on Campus

Team Members

  • Sendhil Jayachandran - Kellogg
  • Abhishek Goswami

Business Idea

Eyes on Campus (EOC) is an online information hub that aims to serve as the "ultimate insider's guide to campus life". It will allow applicants, current students, and alumni to build content regarding student culture, classes, campus facilities, and points of interest. Rather than basing their impressions of a campus on a single visit or a biased school website, users can learn from a limitless number of students through Eyes on Campus.

True Yardage

Team Members

  • Kevin Van Culin - Feinberg
  • Jonathan Miller - Kellogg
  • Tim Schlueter - Alumni

Business Idea

True Yardage combines the power of a golf GPS system with the convenience of your mobile phone Using GPS technology and a proprietary software, True Yardage provides the user with the exact distances to all major objects on a golf course in real time True Yardage provides a full color graphic display of the hole and the green that you are playing

Keenan Telegraph Co.

Team Members

  • Garrick Merlo - Law
  • Michael Fotopoulos

Business Idea

MyNewsie is a Facebook application aimed to mainstream RSS news articles and content. Using their existing social networks, users will be able to view, share, and discover content while promoting their favorite feeds through their profile pages. For content providers, the application creates a "word of mouth accelerator" with notifications spreading popular articles through the Facebook news-feed much faster than one-to-one recommendations. MyNewsie will provide value to advertisers because it will allow them to target potential customers based on psychographic data based upon their media consumption.

NUtronics

Team Members

  • Alexandar Vayman - Kellogg
  • Ekaterina Ptouchkina - Undergrad
  • Daniel Gofman

Business Idea

According to the CME’s CEO, Terry Duffy, the Eurodollar is traded in roughly the equivalent of a trillion dollars a day! This is the Eurodollar alone. Imagine how much money passes through the markets daily in terms of options, futures, and any other type of contract. A smartphone allowing an investor to trade derivatives contracts anywhere in the world would have a dramatic impact on the derivatives market, which is worth trillions of dollars. Websites like EBay and Craigslist allow consumers to sell and purchase items with private parties. These websites do not take into consideration that individuals are also willing to trade goods instead of selling or buying with money. TradeThings.com would allow a secure way to commence long-distance trade, where individuals can exchange goods at minimal cost.

Energy3D

Team Members

  • James Wilson - McCormick

Business Idea

Hydrogen fuel cells remain a large key to the ever-growing worldwide effort to develop clean, efficient, and renewable energy. Simultaneously, in the field of microscopy in materials science, a movement from classical two-dimensional imaging towards advanced three-dimensional characterization is taking place on the scale of the advent of the MRI in the medical industry. In combination, the founder of Energy3D, James Wilson, along with collaborators, demonstrated in 2006 for the first time in the world, the full 3D reconstruction and quantitative analysis of the nano-scale structure of a fuel cell electrode. Energy3D represents the transfer of this technology to a company that would serve as an outsourced diagnostics firm to the worldwide R&D efforts of the fuel cell industry, a market of $800M in 2005 with a growth rate of 11%.

Passaggio

Team Members

  • Louis Giam - McCormick
  • Blake Levine - McCormick
  • Varun Kshettry - Feinberg
  • Amy Ng - Kellogg
  • Brian Flyg - Kellogg

Business Idea

Tunneling is used to create a pathway under the skin for passing a wire, catheter, or shunt from one area of the body to another. It is a common procedure performed daily at hospitals everywhere. Our product, NeuroPass, is a disposable tunneling device that gives surgeons better maneuverability and reduces complications due to its novel tip and handle designs.

Sri Pathshala

Team Members

  • Himanshu Aggarwal - Undergrad
  • Trilokesh Kidambi - Undergrad
  • Rahul Kataria - Undergrad
  • Eric Yoo - Undergrad
  • Ryan Perumpail - Undergrad

Business Idea

To address the vast disparity in literacy rates between girls and boys in Indian society, we have developed an incentive structure to encourage rural Indian families to provide equal opportunities for their female children. Building on a micro-credit based model, we propose an innovative credit based education system that will increase the longevity of girls' enrollment in school and provide social and economic opportunities that will stem the tide of gender bias in Indian society.

15 Minutes

Team Members

  • Aziz Gilani - Kellogg
  • Kari Wilson - Kellogg

Business Idea

The professional art world is very intimidating, especially for customers unfamiliar with its idiosyncrasies. Many would-be art collectors never acquire their first piece due to the inaccessibility of traditional art galleries. 15 Minutes creates a consumer friendly introduction to the art world by providing a low cost entry point coupled with education services designed to empower the consumer and connect them to artists.

OtoFlo

Team Members

  • Michael Scheirey - Kellogg
  • Jodie Zimmerman - Kellogg
  • Sarah Ruderman - McCormick
  • Nicholas Deep - McCormick
  • Christina Yang - Feinberg

Business Idea

The OtoFloTM product suite aids physicians in diagnosing acute otitis media (ear infections). Through use of OtoFloTM products, doctors can more quickly and accurately diagnose ear infection; we estimate that OtoFloTM can improve diagnostic accuracy by 30% and ultimately reduce wasteful spending by $490M. OtoFloTM products will enable physicians to more frequently use pneumatic otoscopy – a test strongly recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics to diagnose ear infections. The suite of products include an otoscope handle with integrated insufflator pump, a speculum seal designed to prevent air leakage during the exam, and a replacement bulb.

The Next Big Sound

Team Members

  • Alex White - Undergrad
  • David Hoffman - Undergrad
  • Jason Sosnovsky - Undergrad
  • Samir Rayani - Undergrad

Business Idea

The Next Big Sound shifts the current music industry model on its head by allowing ANYONE the chance to play the role of an record executive, predicting which bands they think will become superstars. Listeners go to The Next Big Sound to hear the best unsigned music in the country. When they find a band that they believe could become the next big sound they are able to register for the site (free) and "Sign" the band to one of their limited roster spots. Once a band reaches 500 signings a music store opens where they sell their digital music. Once a band reaches 10,000 signings a full store opens online where bands can sell customizable merchandise (i.e. t-shirts, posters etc.) to the fans that pushed them to popularity and the general public.

Februus

Team Members

  • Michael Beltran - McCormick
  • Sam Pickerill - McCormick
  • Amy Helenbrook - Kellogg
  • Arjun Venkatesh - Feinberg
  • David Rosenthal - Feinberg
  • Xiaolei Zhang - Kellogg

Business Idea

Februus has prototyped the HandiBand Antisepsis Delivery System which will revolutionize hand sanitation in healthcare environments. Proper hand hygiene is proven to reduce infections and costs to hospitals, yet nationwide compliance is still ~50%. Our product is an inexpensive, disposable, user worn bracelet which distributes hand sanitizing gel, incorporating the activity directly into normal workflow for simplified hand sanitation.

Embrace

Team Members

  • Fabio Tran - Kellogg
  • Ricardo Morikio - Kellogg
  • Rahul Panicker - Graduate (Stanford)
  • Jane Chen - Graduate (Stanford)

Business Idea

Imagine preventing the deaths of four million premature infants every year while developing a financially sustainable business - this is the goal of Embrace. Our mission is to improve the health of low-birth-weight and premature babies in resource-limited settings through a low-cost infant incubator, with a price point of less than 1% of the average cost of a commercial incubator.

Growth For Food

Team Members

  • Thien Nguyen Trung - Kellogg
  • Seung Chul Seo - Kellogg
  • Robert Albright - Kellogg
  • Keita Suzuki - Kellogg
  • Woojin Kim - Kellogg

Business Idea

Growth For Good provides innovative financial services that will revolutionize the way investment resources are allocated to social enterprises (mission-oriented for-profits and entrepreneurial nonprofits). GFG enables investors to lend money to social enterprises in need of growth capital. GFG seeks to transform "feel-good" philanthropy by incentivizing investors to judge enterprises based on social value creation performance.

Facebook Flower

Team Members

  • John Gomes - Kellogg
  • Francisco Sanchez Ruiz - Kellogg
  • Eloit Hodges - Kellogg
  • Jordi Palau - Kellogg

Business Idea

Have you ever had your books and DVDs lying on your shelf? Have you ever wondered whether you are getting a return on your investments on books/DVDs? Now, with FLoWeR (Facebook Library fOr WorldwidE Readers) you can open your library to other Facebook friends and allow them to rent your books at a minimal price thus generating revenue from your personal books/DVD collection.

Kulaplace.com

Team Members

  • Kevin Leland - Kellogg
  • Nikhil Marath - Kellogg
  • Vijay Adapala - Kellogg

Business Idea

People spend a majority of their waking hours at home or at the office. However, there is no website that connects people who share this same environment nor is it easy for local businesses to reach them. Kulaplace harnesses the untapped potential for people living or working in the same building to uniquely satisfy each other's needs and wants by virtue of their shared location. Within each online building community, users can instantly communicate with fellow residents, conduct trusted transactions and learn about valuable offers from nearby businesses.

Gyan

Team Members

  • Ramya Singh - Kellogg
  • Pavan Singh - Kellogg
  • Supina Mapon - Kellogg
  • Tiffany Urrechaga - Kellogg
  • Jay Almaula - Kellogg
  • Navin Advani - Kellogg

Business Idea

Gyan is a for-profit education franchise empowering rural and semi-urban populations in India through vocational English instruction. Gyan will provide a unique business-in-a-box offering that teaches business skills to would-be education entrepreneurs and enables them to generate income through vocational English instruction to their rural communities. The business-in-a-box is an interactive education platform using laptops, wireless technology and the most effective English content to provide cutting-edge vocational training to Gyan's students. Our rural students will have Higher social and economic status from more lucrative job opportunities – tourist guide, tourist taxi driver, store manager etc. In short, our idea is: business skills + technology + English education = sustainable profitability + rural development

Mikhu

Team Members

  • Enruque Stinglich - Kellogg
  • Steve Brechner - Kellogg

Business Idea

Mikhu will be a social network service based around restaurants and their dishes. Food lovers will get descriptions, ratings and reviews from friends, people with similar tastes, neighbors and the whole community. Additionally, an algorithm will provide them with highlighted suggestions, based on ratings from similar users. This platform will also be a great opportunity for restaurants to accurately target potential customers.

Element Bars

Team Members

  • Jonathan Miller - Kellogg
  • Jonathan Kelley - McCormick
  • Kristen Laursen - Kellogg
  • Maria Sutanto - Graduate (UChicago)

Business Idea

From non-fat, no foam soy Ventis at Starbucks to computers built by Dell, Americans are increasingly demanding customized product. At the same time, the majority of Americans care about nutrition, but are looking for convenient solutions. Element Bars meets the intersection of these two trends by offering custom energy/protein bars. With a simple, yet fun web interface, users can select ingredients from soy protein, to dried fruits and nuts to include in their own custom energy bar that meets their individual tastes and nutritional needs.

Wocle.com

Team Members

  • Vipin Bothra - Kellogg
  • Sajay Kumar - Kellogg

Business Idea

Create a job search engine that focuses on achieving most optimized search result with state of the art search functions while searching every available online employment data base and achieve highest user satisfaction. Conversion of our satisfaction to economic value is done by charging potential advertisers for specific position and accurately targeting the user by maximizing profiled data.

TalktheTalk: Mandarin

Team Members

  • Li Jiang - Undergrad
  • Abby Goldman - Undergrad
  • Josh Brower - Undergrad
  • Zack Baer - Undergrad
  • Matt Spector - Undergrad

Business Idea

TalktheTalk will be the overarching idea for language education for people who travel while TalktheTalk Mandarin will be specific for Olympic travelers and China tourists in the future.

Cali Hoodie

Team Members

  • Apitana Jirawongkraisorn - Kellogg
  • Ravi Itiravivong
  • Hiroshi Ogino - Kellogg
  • Piyaja Wibulswasdi - Kellogg
  • Mikio Wamashita - Kellogg

Business Idea

A winner of Reddot Award 2007, Cali Hoodie is skaters' apparel of the future. Combining two important aspects of skateboard apparel – safety and fashion – Cali Hoodie is the only hoodie in market that protects street skaters of all ages from minor injuries while maintaining the stylish vibes that skaters seek. With the innovative design architecture, Cali Hoodie seamlessly integrates advanced-design removable protective pads on shoulder, elbow, and both palms, making it truly fashionable and versatile.

Biotic Laboratories

Team Members

  • Craig Lan - Kellogg
  • Makiko Yamashita - Kellogg
  • Andrew Chen - Kellogg
  • Dean Ho - Faculty
  • Eric Pierstorff - Faculty
  • Edward Chow - Faculty (UCLA)

Business Idea

Biotic Laboratories presents PromericOnco, an innovative implantable patch, to improve cancer survival following tumor removal surgery. Due to the high rate of tumor reoccurrence following cancer surgery, currently chemotherapy is delivered intravenously to minimize tumor re-growth. PromericOnco offers a new chemo-eluting platform to attack tumor residual in a more direct and efficient method.

TV-ME

Team Members

  • Andrew Towarnicky - Weinberg
  • Nicholas Castronovo - Undergrad
  • Kevin Koch - Undergrad
  • Brad Kolsky - Undergrad

Business Idea

I, Andrew Towarnicky, can recite three of the "FreeCreditReport.com" commercials by heart, actually, I've developed harmonizations for their catchy jingles. Thanks to these commercials, people can log onto the internet and discover if their identity has been stolen yet or realize that they cannot afford the financing on the new BMW 7 series. My credit is fine. Yet, it's been estimated that 4% of my entire life will be claimed by such commercials. This is unacceptable. The present idea is to offer a service that rivals what we all wish TiVo could do: eliminate commercial interruptions.

CareerNancy.com

Team Members

  • Hye Sun Yang - Medill
  • Min Young Cho - Medill
  • Paul Sturm - Medill

Business Idea

Do you remember your college career services' adviser? We do! Her name is Nancy. She provides guidance, comfort and advice while we struggle through the process of getting a job. Today the recruiting marketplace is flooded with job postings websites, but retirees are left to their own limited devices to sort through mounds of information. We want to bring back the comfort and advice of these advisers for the retirees in a comprehensive, full-service online consultancy called CareerNancy.com.

Opthometrics

Team Members

  • Evan Meagher - Kellogg
  • William Thorpe

Business Idea

Opthometrics, Inc. ("OI" or the "Company") is a medical device development company based on proprietary technology that enables precise measurement and analysis of a subject's eye movements. This platform technology allows screening for a variety of medical conditions, starting with the detection of amblyopia ("lazy eye"). Management estimates the total addressable market for this platform technology to be between $2 and $4 billion. Management anticipates that the Company will reach breakeven performance and will not require further external funding after completion of a $3.5 million Series A financing.

Team Emergency Response

Team Members

  • Anuj Kadyan - Kellogg
  • Aftab Alam - Kellogg
  • Megha Punreddy - Kellogg
  • Indraneel Ganguly - Kellogg

Business Idea

Indian metropolitan cities are overwhelmingly overpopulated with inefficient road networks. An average ambulance call takes more than 1 hour. Unmet need exists to improvise the ambulance services on a commercial scale as there is no efficient means of routing of ambulances for medical emergencies. Our value proposition is to provide patients with a three digit, easily recallable number and ensure that the ambulance reaches within 10 minutes to provide Advanced Life Support, if needed and further takes the patient to the hospital of his liking.

DigitalResume

Team Members

  • Garima Sethi - Kellogg
  • Gautam Lunawat - Kellogg
  • Salil Pande

Business Idea

Despite rapid globalization, recruiting has continued to be a local, at best a regional phenomenon leaving a wide gap between available talent and opportunities. DigitalResume aims to revolutionize the traditional recruiting paradigm by empowering a candidate with the right toolbox to truly showcase her personality not highlighted by current static one-page resume. DigitalResume promises recruiters access to unexplored talent outside their target schools and geographical boundaries in a cost-effective manner.

Reallycoolsite.com/.net/.org

Team Members

  • Derek Liu - Undergrad
  • Carissa Black - Undergrad

Business Idea

The power and marketability of social networking has been demonstrated by Facebook and Myspace. Our business aims to apply social networking to the adult market by providing means for adults to connect and share information important to them, such as who should I have cut my grass, plow my driveway or fix my computer. Essentially, How can I best connect with those who I can exchange information and or services with?