80% of finalists for regional business plan competition from UMass EI

[Paul G. Silva]

Dear friends of EI

I am proud to announce that 4 of the 5 student-companies selected for the finals of the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation's Regional Enterprise Competition are from UMass EI.  the competition was open to 13 colleges throughout Western Massachusetts.  When the competition is over, I'll share the final results with you.  If you would be interested in watching our teams in action, I courdially invite you to join us for the Finals round of the competition. 

Event details: April 9 | 3:30-6:30 pm | Holyoke Com. Col. Kittredge Ctr. (Rm 301) | Grinspoon Regional Enterprise Competition Finals

"Elevator picthes" from our teams entering the competition:

Elevator Pitch: CellAssist

Did you know that 20 million Americans are driving around with their check engine lights on…Are you one of them? The Dept. of Transportation estimates that Americans spend 20 billion dollars a year on unnecessary auto repairs. CellAssist demystifies auto diagnostics. When your check engine light comes on you have no clue about what is really the matter with your car. CellAssist allows you to wirelessly run diagnostics, view sensors, and control some portions of the vehicle with their cell phones. The auto diagnostics market is around $975 million and projected to grow to $1.14 billion in 2009. We will sell CellAssist to the 50 million AAA members and the 7,193 automotive aftermarket retail stores in the US. Also, we will create a subscription service where mechanics will be able to receive broadcasts of vehicle errors occurring in their area. These broadcasts will come from those using CellAssist. It will cost about $12 per unit to produce the hardware necessary for CellAssist system. If I sell 2 of them a week at a price of $39.99 at each of the auto aftermarket retail stores, my revenues will grow to $20 million in 2010. Once we become profitable, we will sell the company for about $30 million. We have a great, smart, excited and experienced team that is currently ironing out the legal details to become strategic partners with AAA of Pioneer Valley. We will need $100,000 dollars to perfect the CellAssist prototype and make the product ready for distribution.

Pitch – Condition Engineering

When we think about dirt, we really don't think about it hurting us; but that is
exactly what happens when mounds of dirt, like levees, collapse. Why aren't we being
warned about collapsing mounds of dirt? We are warned days in advance about things
like treacherous weather! The people of New Orleans and Fernley Nevada and the
workers in the Utah mine all needed early warning of dirt failure! We need early failure
warning systems and Condition Engineering has the solution.

Our company, Condition Engineering, specializes in all-in-one ground and
structural monitoring systems and we have developed a new product that is protected by a
provision patent to continuously monitor changes in ground conditions and communicate
in real-time any potential or imminent failure.

The market is huge. Not only are there 12,000 miles of levees in the US alone;
which is a new market, but there are also pre-existing markets such as bridges,
construction sites and land development projects which are required by regulations to be
monitored.

The edge we have on our competition is that our technology can monitor multiple
parameters in a single unit, is cheaper, and easier to install.

With Condition Engineering's team and diverse board, we have the skills,
experience and connections to put our technology in the ground. We plan to raise capital
through grants and by selling shares. Our investors will then receive annual percentage
of profits.

Disasters resulting from soil failure have been killing people and destroying
homes, businesses and entire towns for too long. Condition Engineering is asking for
$5000 to help bring our ground monitoring system to those who need it as quickly as
possible. The need for, and interest in our technology is here and now, and we are asking
for your financial support. Thank you.

90-Second Elevator Pitch: DexRex

We are a social technology company developing software to leverage the Instant Messenger Networks.

Currently privacy concerns have caused an industry-wide failure to fully monetize one of the largest communications mediums in the worlds. Current efforts are alienating users and increasing the possibilities of governmental regulation.

It turns out control is a pretty good substitute for privacy. So we are building the infrastructure to create the first opt-in user controlled ad-network and it is going to be powered by the instant messenger networks. Interestingly, in many ways IM is a much better source of market data then search queries, cookies, or even the social networks. IM can recognize how influential every individual is. Our theory is that an ad network that involves the community can address privacy concerns and unlock the hidden value of the Instant Messenger networks. It should be a real win-win scenario for users and industry.

This is not a small problem! Everyone is affected by advertising. We all get unsolicited phone calls, spam, and see irrelevant ads for things we don't want. And approximately 430 million of us also happen to be active users of the instant messenger networks. Is properly managed, the IM data from the 430 million people could improve the efficiency of all advertising to them and their peers.

As for Making Money…The Dexrex business model won't sell anyone's information. We will do the exact opposite. We will act as a personal data banking service helping users assert ownership and control their privacy. We will make money by creating the market place in which users may leverage their data for free services or reduced adverting on their terms and we will collect brokerage fees from industry side. This is similar to how credit cards companies work with merchants.

We have currently raised about 400 thousand and project that approximately 5 million could see the company through to liquidity.

This will likely come from an IPO or acquisition and ours and others projections place a successful exit valuation in the billion dollar range.

We are a company of nine talented and ambitious youths. We have a wealth of fantastic advisors from ranging from university faculty to seasoned and successful entrepreneurs. But we are still looking for some veteran management talent to help grow our operations.

We are also looking for the right financial partners.

Engineered Response

Engineered Response is a concept-stage company that is developing an emergency beacon that can be used in all helmets and activates during an accident. Imagine that your child goes out for a bike ride one afternoon and doesn't come home because they are lying injured in the woods waiting for someone to find them. Tens of thousands of cases like this happen every year where someone is stranded in a remote location hoping they will be found soon. The answer to this problem is the Wireless Impact Guardian, or WIG, because it is a helmet subsystem that will automatically send help to your exact location after an accident. There over 57 million people in America that regularly bike ride and 2.5 million that ride all-terrain vehicles, but the applications for the WIG span every activity that requires the use of a helmet. Engineered Response will license the technology to helmet manufacturers there by generating revenue through licensing fees, and the company will also have a continual revenue stream from the subscription fees that customers will pay for the location service. The total funding needed is estimated at $500,000 which will bring the business from development to market. Similar devices companies have been acquired for $6 million dollars, and if Engineered Response is acquired investors may cash out at acquisition with roughly double their initial investment within 3 years. Engineered Response is currently recruiting a team of technical experts, but we have a panel of advisors that is highly experienced in business and marketing. $500,000 is the total funding needed, but $5,000 is the funding necessary to complete the next milestone in the business.

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Paul G. Silva, Managing Partner
Angel Catalyst (www.angelcatalyst.com)
Turnkey Angel Group Management ™
w: 413-241-7285 | c: 413-585-9692
e: pa...@angelcatalyst.com
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LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/paulgsilva