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APRIL 2008 |
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The Latest News
SAVE THE DATE FOR NEXT FRIDAY
Cupid's Cup Business
Competition and BB&T Business Invitational
Friday,
April 11 from 12:00-5:00 p.m.,
Register
to attend!
Frank
Auditorium in Van Munching Hall
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Cupid's Cup is an annual business competition
showcasing young entrepreneurs from the University
of Maryland. This competition is made possible by
one of UMD's most successful entrepreneurs, Kevin
Plank, CEO of Under Armour, whose generous
donation of $22,500 is awarded each year to
the top place winning companies.
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The BB&T Business
Invitational will be held in advance of Cupid’s Cup.
This will be a “marketplace" showcasing all of the
Dingman Center-incubated businesses.
Congratulations to
March's Pitch Dingman winners
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ConnectAd,
FutureInvestmentsBankers.com
and
CreateDebate,
the big winner, won the
March Pitch Dingman
Competition.
Save the date for the next $2,500 Pitch Dingman
Competition on April 25.
Don't miss your chance
to register for "Strategies for Surviving and Thriving in
2008--How to keep growing in a slowing economy"
- This conference will
cover strategies for dealing with, overcoming and
even growing in the face of an economic downturn.
Register today and mark your calendars for Tuesday,
April 8 from 8:30-11:30 a.m. Please click
here for more
information.
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Also Inside This
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Pitch Dingman News
$2,500 Pitch Dingman Competition on Friday, April
25 from 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. All are welcome to
attend and watch students pitch business ideas to a
panel of judges in hopes to win up to $2,500
CreateDebate
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Paola Nasser, a Part-Time MBA student at the
University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School
of Business, Bryan Orme, a Part Time MBA alumni
class of 2007 and their business partner, Dan
Robey, won $500 at the weekly Pitch Dingman
session with their business idea,
CreateDebate.com.
CreateDebate.com is a social networking site
based on participation and democracy. Users vote
up arguments they agree with and vote down those
with which they disagree. CreateDebate was
launched out of a Smith School Entrepreneurship
class and is now a fully functional revenue
generating site in private beta. The team
predicts by the end of the year, CreateDebate
will have an estimated 7 million monthly
page-views and close to $30,000 per month in
online advertisement revenue.
CreateDebate ($2,000 Award):
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Judges awarded $2000 to Paola Nasser, a Part-Time
MBA student at the University of Maryland’s Robert
H. Smith School of Business, Bryan Orme, Part Time
MBA ‘07 and their business partner, Dan Robey, for
their business, CreateDebate.com.
CreateDebate.com is a structured debate forum and
social debate network based on participation and
democracy. Users vote up arguments they agree with
and vote down those they disagree with.
CreateDebate.com was launched out of a Smith
School Entrepreneurship class and is now a fully
functional revenue generating site in private beta.
The team predicts 7 million monthly pageviews and
close to $30,000 per month in online ad revenue by
the end of the year.
ConnectAd ($500 Award):
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Judges also awarded $500 to Ben Brown and Dustin
Chin, both undergraduates at the University of
Maryland, for their business, ConnectAd, an
advertising agency specializing in niche media like
hand stamps, wristbands, and mobile advertising
targeting college markets. They have recently
secured two clients and six advertisers in the
College Park area.
FutureInvestmentBankers.com ($250 People's
Choice Award Winner):
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Kunal Mahajan’s business,
FutureInvestmentBankers.com, will serve as a
one-stop shop for investment banking interviews. The
site will encompass everything you need to know to
get into the industry and succeed in the
interview. Some of the key features of the site will
be a Networking 101 Discussion, Investment Banking
Overview, Financial Statement Analysis, Discounted
Cash Flow and Leveraged Buyout Modeling, Mock
Interviews with others on the site, Full Accounts of
Superdays, as well as a Message Board. The site
will focus on college students across the world as
well as high schools.
*About
Pitch Dingman |
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Portfolio
Company Updates
Having Trouble Finding
Collegiate Clothing for your Little One?
Todd Wilson, founder of Baby Fans and a Smith
alumni, drew up the idea of his company after
attending a class taught by Rudy Lamone, founder of
the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. The idea
came one day as he was shopping online for sports
team clothing for his nieces and nephews and
realized that he would have to visit several
different sites to purchase clothing from different
teams. To read the rest of the story, click
here.
Exponential Storage Aims at
Secure System for Sensitive Files
The Baltimore Sun recently covered the high
hopes of Exponential Storage,
a provider of content
storage systems that are high-performing,
massively-scalable and low-cost for large
collections of digital content for three market
segments: media/entertainment, medical/healthcare,
and surveillance/intelligence. The company's product
is a complete network data storage system that is
optimized for digital content. It delivers five
times the capacity and ten times the access speed at
half the cost of competing systems today – and they
are proving it!
Mom Made Foods' Was in the
News, Check out its New Product Lines
Chief Cook and Bottle Washer -
How did Mom Made Foods Get Started?
Mom Made™ Foods, the Mid-Atlantic's first
organically-certified producer of fresh frozen foods
for children and new Dingman Center portfolio, was
recently featured in the news. The
WashingtonPost.com
covered how Heather Stouffer started the
business.
Now widely distributed throughout the region in
stores such as Whole Foods, Wegmans and many others,
Mom Made plans to expand to freezer aisles across
the USA. For more information, visit:
www.mommadefoods.com.
Mom Made Foods, the
Mid-Atlantic's first organically-certified producer
of fresh frozen foods for children, introduces two
new product lines, Mom Made Meals and Mom Made
Munchies, that join Mom Made for Baby to create a
trio of innovative fresh frozen foods for children.
Mom Made™ Foods - choice organics for children,
is committed to providing the freshest, healthiest,
age-appropriate meals and snacks for children.
Mom Made Meals and Mom Made
Munchies will make their debut at Natural Products
Expo West in Anaheim, Calif., March 14-16, 2008 and
at All Things Organic in Chicago, Ill., April 27-29,
2008.
"Mom Made Meals and Mom Made
Munchies are a natural expansion of our brand," said
Mom Made Foods president and founder, Heather
Stouffer. "We are growing our commitment to
developing healthy eating habits in babies and young
children as they themselves grow. My own son turns
three this spring, and the recipes for our latest
items were inspired by his voracious appetite for
new foods."
*About Portfolio Companies |
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Social Venture Highlights
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CAN Companies
Hungry for expansion, Snikiddy LLC, a maker of
healthy snacks for kids, has raised up to $15
million in a growth equity line from D.E. Shaw & Co.
to beef up sales regionally.
Colin Sankey, chief executive of Snikiddy, said D.E.
Shaw's buyout and private equity unit has agreed to
allow Snikiddy to withdraw up to $15 million from a
fund for a variety of uses including growth and
possible acquisitions. Draws from the equity line
must be approved from D.E. Shaw, Sankey said.
This round, which is the first external funding for
the company, was not based on a valuation as it was
not a classic venture capital round, Sankey said.
D.E. Shaw could not be reached for comment.
Sankey said the company has withdrawn an initial
undisclosed sum from the firm. Those funds will be
used for growth, including expansion into new
retailers and regional retail markets. The company
currently focuses on health food retailers such as
Whole Foods Markets Inc. on the East Coast but has
nationwide penetration through smaller cooperatives
and markets. For more information on Snikiddy
Snacks, please visit the company's
Web site.
Widearea Systems announced that it has completed the
purchase of the operating assets of Magicsoft,
including its flagship product VC Wizard, a
multipoint video conferencing technology. Widearea
Systems plans to immediately support existing VC
Wizard customers, and plans to launch an update,
version 7.5, within two months.
Choon Shim, president and CEO of Widearea Systems,
said, “The VC Wizard
product is a strong complement to our existing video
and voice over IP technology. We have very exciting
plans for the products.”
In addition to the near-term update, Widearea
Systems has an 18-month product roadmap that will
culminate in a new version of VC Wizard that will
incorporate Widearea Systems’
leading-edge video and voice over IP technology and
solid 3-tier architecture to improve reliability,
scalability, and security. (Full
Story)
CAN Program Sponsors:
*About CAN
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Upcoming
Dingman Center Events
You are
invited: Smith School of Business Faculty
& Doctoral Students, you are invited to attend the Dingman Center
and Smith School Research Luncheon Series on April
30 from 12:00-1:25 in the third floor atrium of Van
Munching Hall. Please RSVP to
Sara Moon.
Smith CEOs, a student-run organization of the Robert
H. Smith School of Business in Maryland, is hosting
its second annual all-day entrepreneurship
conference on Saturday, April 19 at the Universities
of Shady Grove.
Generation E, a student-run entrepreneurship
conference, will define the innovative
entrepreneurial spirit through a series of speakers
and panel discussions. The conference will cater to
entrepreneurs of the new generation and focus on
prospective and future businesses in the Maryland,
Washington D.C. and Virginia areas.
The
event will feature an array of prestigious and
highly experienced speakers from various
entrepreneurial backgrounds to cover several aspects
of starting, running and expanding a business.
Topics covered will include: the future of the
economy, green businesses and basic start-up
concerns.
Now in its second year, the conference aims to
create opportunities for students and business
owners to meet, learn and expand networks. The event
is hosted by Collegiate Entrepreneur’s Organization
(CEO) and the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship.
For further information, please visit
http://www.SmithCEOConference.com.
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Last Month at
Dingman
The Dingman Center for
Entrepreneurship, in partnership with leading
venture capital firms in the D.C. Metro region,
invited MBA students to participate in Start-Up
night on Tuesday, March 4. The event connected 1st
and 2nd year MBA students, entrepreneurs in the
region and a panel of Venture Capitalists.
MBA students had a chance to meet with the
participating companies, including: Crooked Monkey,
Encore Path, Idalis Software, Inc., Inspire, Lumifi,
Mom Made Foods and Widearea Systems. The panelists
included: Kiran Hebbar, partner, Valhalla Partners;
Stephen Fredrick, principal, Grotech Capital Group;
and Scott Lincke, vice president of Product
Management, Hillcrest Labs.
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DCE
Partner Events
2008 has
started out as a year of turbulent economic
uncertainty. Now more than ever it is important for
leaders of emerging companies to understand the
dynamics, challenges and opportunities that are a
part of this volatile environment. This programs
will discuss strategies for dealing with, overcoming
and even growing in the face of an economic
downturn. The event will take place on Tuesday,
April 8 from 8:30-11:30 a.m. in
1511 Van Munching Hall.
To attend,
Register now
for only $35!
Speakers:
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Melissa Carrier, Director of Venture Investments
and Social Entrepreneurship, Dingman Center for
Entrepreneurship
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Mike Bruce, President and CEO, InScope Solution,
Inc.
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Asher Epstein, Managing Director, Dingman Center
for Entrepreneurship
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Todd Klein, Managing Partner, Legend Ventures,
LLC
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Pamela Piper, Deputy Chief Administrative
Officer for Government Internal Support
Services, Prince George's County
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Andrew Sherman, Partner, Dickstein
Shapiro LLP
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Dave Lee Tayman, Associate, Dickstein Shapiro LLP
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Steve
Thomas, Executive Director, TiE-DC
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S. Tien
Wong, Chairman and CEO, Opus8, Inc. and
Enterpreneur in Residence at the Dingman Center
for Entrepreneurship
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Congressman Albert Wynn
The Institute for Systems Research (ISR) would
like to invite and encourage you to attend our 2008
Systems Symposium, as well as to let others within
the university community know about this event. Feel
free to forward this email announcement as you see
fit.
Morning:
Keynote
address by Pradeep, Dean of the College of
Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, and member
of ISR's Strategic Advisory Committee, as well as
three technical talks by ISR alumni
Free
Buffet Lunch:
The lunch
features a panel presentation on the benefits of
collaboration between ISR, industry and government
agencies. The panel features ISR alumni working in
industry: Robert Hoffman, Metron Aviation; Scott
Selberg, Agilent Technologies; Ben Levy, Sensis
Corp.; Vikram Manikonda, Intelligent Automation,
Inc.
Afternoon:
More than
100 research posters and demonstrations covering the
breadth of current ISR research
Registration is free and online at:
http://www.isr.umd.edu/SS2008/
Apply Now:
Small Business Network Academy
The
Small Business
Academy offers a
six-month curriculum of peer- level
exchange and practical management
training for entrepreneurs. Regional
experts and executives from Board of
Trade member firms serve as faculty. A
network of alumni provide guidance and
feedback as Academy Mentors throughout
the program.
This program is targeted specifically
to 25-30 business owners located in the
Greater Washington region that have been
in business for
at least one year.
Firms that have an annual revenue of
$500,000 or less and have not been in
business for more than ten years are
encouraged to apply by April 11. For
more information, please click
here.
National Small Business Week
2008
The U.S. Small Business Administration is pleased to
announce Small Business Week
April 21-25, 2008.
Since 1963, every President has declared
National Small Business Week to formally recognize
the important role of America’s small business
community.
National Small Business Week focuses on recognition
of small business accomplishments and interactive
forums with senior government and industry leaders
about major issues facing small businesses. More
than 100 small business owners will be honored at
four major award events, culminating with the
announcement of the National Small Business Person
of the Year. The forums will focus on pressing small
business policy issues in Healthcare, Trade, Energy,
Government Procurement and Investment in Underserved
Communities.
This is a great opportunity for students, faculty,
and staff to attend the free events or catch the
webcast and learn from industry and policy experts.
For more information, please click
here.
Come Celebrate HCIL's 25th
Anniversary
Come
celebrate the Human-Computer Interaction Lab's 25th
anniversary by joining us for a very special
Symposium on May 29, 2008. Not only will you hear
talks about cutting-edge research being conducted at
the HCIL, but this year we will begin the Symposium
with a very special keynote panel, "25 Years of HCI,
25 Years of HCIL." Esteemed colleagues from outside
of the HCIL will offer their reflections.
In
addition, this year we will continue the tradition
of demos and posters following the talks, but these
will happen as a part of lab tours where you will be
able to see our new facilities. The following day,
May 30, 2008 there will be a wide variety of
tutorials and workshops that can't be missed. Be
sure to sign up early, since space is limited.
Additional anniversary activities are also planned
for alumni and special guests discussing the 25th
history of HCI and the lab.
Compete in the American Security Challenge
for a Chance to Win $100K
Across America entrepreneurs, innovates and small
businesses all know how difficult it is to launch
and sustain a successful business. However, most
innovators do not know how or with whom to talk to
in order to sell their ideas. To fill this gap, the
American Security Challenge, America's first
business plan competition devoted to our nation's
security, seeks to assure the long-term security and
prosperity of our nation.
In conjunction with the 2008 Homeland Security S&T
Stakeholders Conference East, presented by the
National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) with
subject matter supported by the Science & Technology
Directorate (S&T) of the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security, the American Security Challenge will award
$100,000 or more to the winning business.
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Date:
Thursday, June 5
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Submission Deadline: Monday, April 14
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Location: Ronald Reagan Building and
International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.
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Web site
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The Dingman Center for
Entrepreneurship
Founded by Rudy Lamone in 1986, the Dingman Center
was one of the first of its kind in the country and
has emerged as a top-ranked entrepreneurship center.
Thanks to initial funding with a generous grant from
Michael D. Dingman, founder of the Signal Corporation
(now part of Honeywell International), the Dingman Center
continues to grow as a regional and national catalyst
in the field of entrepreneurship. The Center is now
aggressively evolving, and in some areas, is expanding
its services to further its role as a leader in the
student, regional, and academic entrepreneurial communities.
The Dingman Center is currently led by:
Asher Epstein, Managing Director
Melissa Carrier, Director of Venture
Investments and Social Entrepreneurship and
Acting Director, Office of Career
Management
Mr. John LaPides, Chairman of the Board and Entrepreneur-In-Residence
Please visit our Web site at
http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/dingman.
*Past Newsletters
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