Congratulations to Melissa Carrier, our Director of
Venture Investments and Social Entrepreneurship, for
her new position as the Executive Director of the
Center for Social Value Creation at the Smith
School! We will miss Melissa but wish her the
best.
Dingman Day Lunch featuring Allen Wolff
Date: April 3, 2009 Time: 12:00 - 2:00 p.m. Location: 1511 Van Munching Hall Register:
Website
Come enjoy a catered lunch while learning of
entrepreneurial success from the EVP & CFO of
PaySimple, Allen Wolff!
Allen
Wolff co-founded and currently serves as Executive
Vice President of PaySimple, which began as a wholly
owned subsidiary of the Conclave Group, where Allen
served as President. At PaySimple, Allen is
responsible for new business development and
strategic financial planning with a primary
objective of working in conjunction with customers
to design customized PaySimple solutions that
optimize business efficiencies. Prior to his time
with the Conclave Group, Allen participated in more
than a dozen private equity transactions
representing more than $40M in invested capital
during his tenure at SpaceVest, a Washington DC
based Venture Capital firm. Allen began his career
in the restaurant industry and still owns a BD’s
Mongolian Barbeque franchise in Bethesda, MD. Allen
received his B.A. in Organizational Studies from the
University of Michigan and his MBA in
Entrepreneurship and Finance from the University of
Maryland.
HCIL &
Dingman Seminar Series
Date: April 13 & 27,
2009 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: 2119 Hornbake Library (South Wing)
On Monday, April 13th and Monday, April 27th, the
HCIL, in partnership with the Dingman Center, will
be having two great Seminar Series Speakers:
April 13: Mary
Czerwinski from Microsoft Research will be
joining us to give a talk on Computing
Everywhere: Visualization and Interaction
Research at MSR
April 27: Joe Marks
from Disney Research will be joining us to give
a talk on The What and How of Technological
Research at The Walt Disney Company
For more information
including abstracts and bios, please visit the
website.
Congratulations to
FlexEl
Congratulations to FlexEl, one of fifteen teams
selected for the semi-final round of the 2009
Global Venture Challenge!
MBA student Danielle Safran and M.S.
Telecommunications student Jose Kuttan came together
at the
Dingman Center Start-Up Bootcamp
over winter
break. They are now preparing a five-page
commercialization plan for the final round which
will be held on March 25-28th in Oak Ridge National
Laboratory in Tennessee. Good luck!
Alumnus Goodman
to Serve on Maryland Clean Energy Board
Dan Goodman (B.S.E.E., ’87), a Clark School of
Engineering alumnus and Smith School of Business
senior fellow for renewable energy, was confirmed
recently by the Maryland Senate as one of nine Board
members of the Maryland Clean Energy Center.
Goodman was appointed to the
Board by Gov. Martin O’Malley in October. He serves
as the Board’s Treasurer and Chair of the Finance
Committee.
The full press release can be found Clark School's
website.
The competition was tight and the
judges were unable to award the full $2500 to
only one team, but they did choose a top winner
to receive $1750 in seed funding. The judges
agreed to award the top prize to Varnika Roy, a
University of Maryland graduate student, for her
business concept entitled “Callinix.” Callinix
represents an evolution of drug screening in
support of the pharmaceutical development
process by making it more streamlined,
effective, and profitable. Callinix achieves
this efficiency by reducing the attrition rate
of candidate chemical formulations in order to
unlock the positive potential of discovered
formulations. Callinix also won the $250
Audience Choice Award.
Happy Healthy Snacks ($375 Award):
Farnaz Daryan tied
for second place with her business proposition,
“Happy Healthy Snacks,” an all natural, healthy
alternative to current snack choices that are
full of fat and sugar. With delicious samples
to woo the judges and current orders from well
known retailers such as Whole Foods and
Balducci’s, Farnaz is well on her way to a
successful business.
Inari ($375 Award):
Benjamin Kubic’s
“Inari” is a mobile advertising platform to
augment print advertisements in newspapers,
billboards, periodicals, signs, etc. A large
and growing market, mobile marketing represents
an attractive industry with a lot of potential
for big profit, a portion of which Benjamin
plans to capture through Inari.
The next Pitch Dingman Competition will
be held on Friday, March 27, 2009, 11:00 - 12:00 p.m. in
1520 VMH.
"In the world of Valentine's Day gifts, three
students hope to relegate candy, chocolates and
flowers to second-string status.
Seniors Matt Stein and Igor Geftman and graduate
student Jared Ablon recently started the
Fan of the
Month Club, a business that sells three-, six- and
12-month packages of sports merchandise of various MLB, NCAA and NFL teams. They're marketing the
product as a gift for women to give men for
Valentine's Day...
Stein, Geftman and Ablon launched Fan of the Month
Club in the second week of
January as part of the Dingman Center for
Entrepreneurship's first winter break start-up boot
camp. The Dingman Center, based in the business
school, initially invested $2,300 in the company,
with the possibility of more money in the future,
said Asher Epstein, the center's managing director.
For three weeks in January, 28 participants spent
about 100 hours brainstorming ideas, developing a
business plan and networking with investors. Epstein
organized the winter break boot camp in December
after multiple students asked him how they could get
business experience. Students welcomed "a head start
in creating new opportunities for themselves,"
Epstein said..."
"Persuading 120,000 students at nine
different college and university
campuses to pick up and read any
publication is a daunting task,
especially when the aspiring
persuader is a 23 year old
entrepreneur.
But Amanda Nachman,
a University of Maryland, College
Park, alumna, has her sights set
even higher for her
College
Magazine. Focused
entirely on students and campus life
and ranging in subjects from student
nudists to the future of financial
aid, the free publication combines
the resources of 45 student writers
and one lecturer to offer a spectrum
of information with both local and
universal appeal.
College Magazine runs quarterly
and can be found at six Maryland
campuses and three in Washington,
D.C..."
"...In
the meantime, in these
penny-pinching times, it seems
logical enough that more
cost-conscious customers would
consider turning to used games
offered at GameStop or through
services like
Goozex.
While Goozex launched a few years
ago aimed at hardcore gamers,
co-founder Mark Nebesky says a
fast-growing segment of its
membership is parents getting games
for their kids.
Though
relatively small, the College
Park-based Goozex is growing
quickly. The start-up makes a buck
off each trade, and users conducted
160,000 trades in 2008, up 300
percent from the year before..."
The Dingman Center's Capital Access
Network (CAN) connects regional start-up companies
seeking early-stage funding with the angel investor
community. CAN is pleased to report significant
progress made by the group last month:
B4Health
presented to CAN investors in September 2008,
and a result, received $350,000 in funding in
February ($100,000 – indirect funding). B4Health
provides the tools hospitals need to reduce
staffing agency expenditures and nursing vacancy
rates. The B4Health solution gives hospitals the
power to control staffing efficiently and
effectively by streamlining the communication of
shift opportunities, identifying the best job
candidates, and providing the real-time ability
to fill vacancies. The solution also automates
agency communication, scheduling, time
management, skills inventory and credential
monitoring.
mySBX also
presented to CAN investors in September 2008,
and a result, received $150,000 in funding in
February. Ken Tighe, CAN angel investor, joined
the mySBX Board of Directors. mySBX is a
professional network where businesses exchange
opportunities, resources, and information, to
win more business, expand capabilities, and
increase profitability.
Zymetis, CAN
portfolio company, was named to the 2009
GoingGreen East 50 Top Company List. The
GoingGreen East 50 Award is given to private,
emerging companies creating new green technology
businesses. Zymetis was selected by the AlwaysOn
editorial team and KPMG, based on demonstration
of growth, market opportunity, quality of
innovation and customer traction.
The CAN Program, sponsored by Morrison
& Foerster and Silicon Valley Bank, brought the
following exciting start-up companies to the
February Investor Breakfast:
AutoMedx: The
mission of AutoMedx is to improve the survival
rate of individuals requiring respiratory
support by providing unparalleled access to life
saving mechanical ventilation during the first
critical minutes of distress. The company offers
a FDA-approved hand sized simplified automated
vent which requires very little training and
delivers an American Heart Association compliant
tidal volume at a fixed respiratory rate.
Senior-Living
is a referral based service for the Senior Care
industry (similar to Apartments.com, or
Hotels.com). Our sales team adds Senior Living
Facilities to our affiliate network via inside
sales. The Facilities get free leads from us in
exchange for agreeing to pay a finders fee when
the resident moves in. In addition to the search
engine, we have developed (150) local sites to
capture keyword traffic at the local level.
The next CAN Breakfast will be held on Wednesday,
March 11, 2009.
Date: March 24, 2009 Time: 7:00 - 10:00 a.m. Location: ESSIC @ M-Square Campus (5825
University Research Court, 4th Floor) Register:
Website
The Maryland-Asia Environmental
Partnership (MD-AEP) is pleased to announce its
third Environmental Leadership Series Forum on March
24th, featuring Earth System Science
Interdisciplinary Center, or ESSIC. As governments
and corporations search for new ways to plan for the
impact of climate change, the University of
Maryland’s ESSIC Center provides scientists and
decision makers with the critical observational data
and predictive tools needed to help adapt to future
climate change. Such predictability will help save
lives and provide governments and the opportunity to
plan for future contingencies related to a changing
climate.
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 Mr. John LaPides, Chairman of the Board and Entrepreneur-in-Residence
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Allen
Wolff co-founded and currently serves as Executive
Vice President of PaySimple, which began as a wholly
owned subsidiary of the Conclave Group, where Allen
served as President. At PaySimple, Allen is
responsible for new business development and
strategic financial planning with a primary
objective of working in conjunction with customers
to design customized PaySimple solutions that
optimize business efficiencies. Prior to his time
with the Conclave Group, Allen participated in more
than a dozen private equity transactions
representing more than $40M in invested capital
during his tenure at SpaceVest, a Washington DC
based Venture Capital firm. Allen began his career
in the restaurant industry and still owns a BD’s
Mongolian Barbeque franchise in Bethesda, MD. Allen
received his B.A. in Organizational Studies from the
University of Michigan and his MBA in
Entrepreneurship and Finance from the University of
Maryland.
"Persuading 120,000 students at nine
different college and university
campuses to pick up and read any
publication is a daunting task,
especially when the aspiring
persuader is a 23 year old
entrepreneur.
"...In
the meantime, in these
penny-pinching times, it seems
logical enough that more
cost-conscious customers would
consider turning to used games
offered at GameStop or through
services like
