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2013 Finalists

Congratulations 2013 Finalists!

Great job everyone! There are many exciting things happening in entrepreneurship in and around the University, and the 2013 Sontag Entrepreneurship Competition was the epicenter on Wednesday the 12th of December. Between now and February 22nd, 2013, five finalist teams will be competing for the top winner-take-all prize of $50,000 and a second place prize of $5,000. But the big surprise of the evening's events in the Great Room of the Joe Crowley Student Union, was the announcement that each of the five finalist teams will receive $1,000 to prove their concept, validate their market and build prototypes over the next two months!

Judges

This year we had a huge outpouring of support from the entrepreneurial community. Thank you so much to the judges of the 10-page Preliminary Overviews. Every judge reviewed 2-3 plans in a ten day period. Thank you, judges!:

Teams

This competition would go nowhere without all of the participants; we were excited to have 24 teams submit many great and novel ideas through their 10-page Preliminary Overviews this year. Thank you, participants!

Congratulations Finalists

And finally, congratulations to our five finalist teams (listed in alphabetical order):

ElectroVentures, Inc.

ElectroVentures, Inc. (EVI) is a company that specializes in products for the $4 billion electronic dance music industry. EVI currently operates an ecommerce site that sells clothing and accessories for music festivals, concerts and raves. The company plans on being the number one company in the electronic dance music market by having the freshest product offerings and multiple revenue streams including an ecommerce site, scaled vending operations selling products at events across the nation, and a complete media department to create original content.

• River Jangda, Senior, Management & Marketing
• Brad Cabanilla, MBA
• Richard Corn, Junior, Accounting & Finance
• Hayreddin Ceker, Masters in Computer Science

Envirohaven

Envirohaven manufacturers a self-sustaining, efficiently designed permanent home; easily assembled anywhere. Our simple structural design solves extremely complex problems for people who are required or desire to live without access to public utilities.

• Clint Borchard, Senior, Business
• Vicki Bischoff, Senior, Communications
• Mallory Fisher, Senior, International Business
• Farahida Jamaluddin, Grad Student, Accountancy
• Adair Melendez, Senior, Mechanical Engineering

EscaZyme Biochemicals

EscaZyme Biochemicals is a specialized chemical company that manufactures component chemicals for use in the insect control industry. EscaZyme produces through a new process discovered by researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Because of this new process, the chemicals are produced faster, cheaper and with higher purity than processes currently in use.

• Jennifer Ott, Grad Student, MBA
• Rubi Figueroa-Teran, Ph.D.
• Claus Tittiger, Ph.D.

The Mental Health Hub

Mental health care plays a large role in the promotion of an efficient health care system and has been trailing behind primary care in promoting quality care. Currently, an internet-based electronic resource that provides the tools necessary to promote quality mental health care to both the public and provider does not exist. This business' objective is to build a website that will allow access to evidence-based mental health information, that directs the public towards electronic health treatment information, provides a directory and rating of therapists, and also supplies an electronic heath record for providers.

• Cassandra Snipes, Doctoral Student, Clinical Psychology
• Olga Cirlugea, Doctoral Student, Clinical Psychology
• Alexandros Maragakis, Doctoral Student, Clinical Psychology

TERRANAMIC

TERRANAMIC is a cutting edge mining consulting start-up equipped with innovative tools and a dynamic team to improve overall mine employee safety and health while reducing operating costs. Ten years of development and millions of dollars of investments in our advanced Integrated Parameter Computational Fluid Dynamics (IPCFD) modeling algorithm has allowed us to view transient simulations of air flow systems and contaminant dissipation of turbulent flow in any confined environment or underground openings in a great deal of accuracy. Our algorithm improves efficiency by up to 35% measured in cost reduction while increasing overall employee safety.

• Pedram Rostami, MS Mining Engineering, Ph.D. Candidate Geo-Engineering
• Christian Theumer, Graduate Student, MBA
• Jon Fox, MS Mining Engineering, Ph.D. Candidate Geo-Engineering
• John Miller, Freshman, Applied Mathematics