Although not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of ways to raise money, business plan competitions are how some inventors and entrepreneurs have funded the startup stage of their company. And these contests aren’t just for college students anymore. In fact I read an article the other day, how more and more non-student business plan contests help potential investors sort the good investments from the bad.

If you’re a student, the biggest competition is the University of Texas’ Moot Corp competition, where students from around the country compete for hundreds of thousands of dollars of prizes + the chance to meet investors.

Microsoft did their own small business plan contest and were giving away $100,000 last year. If you’re a non-student and in Texas, I’ve heard of the Research Valley Partnership contest. Just in some quick google searches I saw the state of Wisconsin has it’s own business plan contest.

So if you think you have a good product or idea, have time to invest in writing a contest-worthy business plan, and would love to present your business to investors, then give these contests a second look.

If you missed the Colorado Inventor Showcase this year, hosted by the Da Vinci institute, don’t miss it next year. Although it was a relatively small event with 30 exhibitors, many of the judges were venture capitalists, bankers, product development companies, and entrepreneurs roaming the halls. In fact, their were 45 judges. Has anyone ever seen more judges than participants?! It spelled only good news for the exhibiting inventors.

They also had some speakers for the Inventor Boot Camp in the morning. Speakers included an attorney that specializes in licensing, John Funk from Evergreen IP licensing firm, and the keynote speaker of the evening, US Patent Office Commissioner, John Doll. We recorded Commissioner Doll’s keynote speech and you can listed to it in our Education section, under Audio Downloads.

Here are some notes from John Doll’s first speech (not the keynote):

• [attorneys cover ears] Inventors don’t need a lawyer because the USPTO is trying to make the patent process easier
• 95% of patents never sell a single item (one of the reasons we stress testing the marketability of an invention)
• Design patents, although often used by scam companies to give inventors a false sense of protection, can actually be used wisely. Here are some companies that use design patents: Nike on their shoes, Corvette’s bumper
• To avoid getting ripped off by scams, check references. Patent office actually gives an accused company a chance to defend themselves, but they rarely response to written inquiries.
• Public disclosure before patent application - don’t worry so much about telling your neighbors or family about your invention. It’s very unlikely it will backfire and void your patent. Instead, worry about disclosing your invention at trade shows and in publications. He made a joke that even when he tries to help some inventors, they refuse to tell him their product for this unreasonable fear. They’re afraid to tell the US Patent Commissioner, a government employee trying to help!
• Says google patent search okay, but gives inconsistent results compared to USPTO patent search.
• You can patent a use of a product. For example, Rogaine started out as a medicine to reduce blood pressure, but another person got a patent on its ability to grow hair on bald heads. Bald men of the world rejoice
• Future changes at the Patent office: more congressional oversight, peer to patent public reviews of prior art, talking to industry leaders about what they want, encouraged sharing between various patent offices in Europe, Canada, Japan, etc.

Those are the highlights. Be sure to listen to Commissioner Doll’s, at times humorous, keynote speech. You can also listen to the Invention Contest Winners on StartupStory.com.

Bryan Daigle

Well, the title says it all. Today we walked away with the top honor given at the Rice Alliance Information Technology & Web 2.0 Investor Forum. Essentially the investor audience voted us one of the “Most Promising” companies.

Our award is largely in part to Lisa Lloyd, who gave a fantastic elevator pitch to a crowd of 300 at Rice University, in Houston, TX.

Not to put all the spotlight on ourselves, several other innovative companies also walked away with the award. Notable standouts were opmom.com, a social networking website that connects and organizes Moms. Another good presenter was podcastready.com, a service that simplifies creating, listening, and subscribing to podcasts. Typically Apple has dominated this space, but podcastready is hoping to simplify the podcast process even further.



The headline speaker was Jeff Henley, Chairman of Oracle. Here are some notes from the talk (we’ll have an audio link up here tomorrow).

• Worked with successful entrepreneurs i.e. Larry Ellison
• Oracle has $5B cash flow
• Larry didn’t want to dilute, wanted control
• Software can do it with little capital.

Steps for successful startup
-Need a good idea
-Need smart people, don’t forget to look overseas
-Work hard & fast

• Google monetized existing technology
• Bill Gates bought IP
• Larry Ellison borrowed (legally) ideas
• Oracle wants niches or way to scale up
• No VC Oracle fund anymore

You can find more notes from the event in my Inventing Blog. Or listen to some recordings from the event. For more information, check out the Houston Startup Blog at www.startuphouston.com.

Happy Startup-ing!

Bryan Daigle