Judging
Judging Guidelines
The 2008 Mid-Atlantic Business Plan Competition is intended to simulate the real-world process of entrepreneurs soliciting start-up funds from early-stage investors and venture capital firms. The judges function as venture capital investors deciding on which business venture they would most likely fund. The quality of the idea, the strength of the management team, and the clarity and persuasiveness of the written plan and oral presentation, all influence the judges' decisions.
Consistent with real life investment situations, early-stage companies can be in very different stages of development. To compensate for this, we would expect that an early stage investor would require the potential for higher investment returns for an earlier stage company which has a higher level of risk involved. We assume, in general, that this would be true for the judges in The 2008 Mid-Atlantic Business Plan Competition.
Teams are not required to reveal the exact desired terms of the deal (i.e., their proposed company valuation and percentage of company being offered to investors). However, some investors prefer to have this information upfront, (while some investors feel that it is not as important until later). We recommend that teams be prepared to address questions about their terms, but it is up to the team to decide how they want to answer these questions.
Unlike many venture capital funds, judges in this competition should not restrict themselves to investing in only certain types of new business ventures (such as biotechnology or information technology). Judges in this competition should assume that they would be open to investing in any type of new business venture, assuming that other criteria such as those mentioned above, are met. Ultimately, the winning team should be the team in which the judges would most likely invest their money.
2008 Judging Panel
- Jonathan Aberman
- F.C. Thomas Allnutt, Ph.D.
- Kris Appel
- Errol Arkilic, Ph.D.
- Greg Bardwell
- Ann Bernard
- Wagish Bhartiya
- Rob Finn
- Paul Joegriner
- Eric Koefoot
- Nick Magliato
- Christopher R. McCleary
- William A. McComas
- Andrew J. Polcha
- Larry Roshfeld
- John Starke
- Jai Sudharsan
- Andrew Tussing
- Steven Woda
Jonathan Aberman, Amplifier Ventures
Mr. Jonathan Aberman is the founder of and Managing Director of Amplifier. Amplifier is composed by Amplifier Ventures, a group of early stage venture capital funds, and Amplifier Network, an online social community that provides educational content, relevant news and business advice to a growing community of entrepreneurs and selected investors and service providers in the Mid-Atlantic market. Amplifier is currently focusing on open source, Web 2.0 and Wireless communications.
Prior to forming Amplifier, Mr. Aberman was a venture capital attorney who, as Partner in three top-tier law firms, mentored the formation and growth of over 60 promising emerging technology companies and represented over 15 venture capital funds in transactions with an aggregate value in excess of $1 billion. Prior to his time as a venture capital lawyer, Mr. Aberman was mergers & acquisition attorney in New York and an investment banker and arbitrage trader in London, England.
Mr. Aberman serves on boards and committees of the Virginia Biotechnology Association, the Governors Commission on Biotechnology for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Northern Virginia Technology Council, the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association and George Mason Intellectual Properties. He is an advisor to the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (“MTECH”); the Technology Advancement Program at the University of Maryland, College Park; the Hinman CEO Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Maryland, College Park; the Mason Enterprise Center at George Mason University; and the Entrepreneurship Program at the George Washington University. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, the University of Maryland where he teaches courses on Venture Capital and other topics. He is a frequent writer on venture capital topics for regional and national publications.
Mr. Aberman was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of The George Washington University. He holds a Masters in International Economics with Distinction from The London School of Economics. Mr. Aberman is the recipient of Bachelors and Masters of Law degrees from both Cambridge University and New York University School of Law.
F.C. Thomas Allnutt, Ph.D., National Science Foundation
Dr. F. C. Thomas Allnutt is a Program Director and Biotechnology Cluster Leader in the SBIR/STTR Program (Small Business Innovative Research/Small Business Technology Transfer) at the National Science Foundation. The SBIR/STTR program provides grant funding to small businesses on commercially relevant projects in Information Technology, Biotechnology, Electronics, Chemical Technology, and Advanced Materials research. A goal of the program is to leverage governmental funding to facilitate the development of high impact and commercially viable products that might otherwise not be attempted due to the level of risk required by the small business.
Dr. Allnutt comes out of the small business community where he spent over seventeen years. He was the 21st employee of Martek Biosciences Corporation where he served as a Research Director for twelve years and helped develop a business group that later was eventually spun out of Martek. Prior to that spin out he moved to Advanced BioNutrition Corporation, a start up company as the third employee and Vice President of Research & Development.
He joined the National Science Foundation in 2006. Dr. Allnutt’s area of expertise is algal biotechnology but he has acquired broad knowledge of related areas and the business of science as he worked to commercialize algal products in a variety of fields. He is an inventor on over 17 patents filed or pending and has published over 25 papers in peer reviewed journals.
Kris Appel, Encore Path, Inc.
Kris Appel is the founder and President of Encore Path, Inc., created in 2006 to commercialize new, research-based stroke technologies developed at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. From 2003-2006, she was the VP of US Operations for e4e, a global technology services company. Prior to joining e4e, Kris spent 17 years at the National Security Agency in various operations and management roles. She served as internal communications director for the Director of NSA, as well as the director of operations policy.
Kris holds a Master's Degree in Romance Linguistics from the University of Michigan, and is a 2006 graduate of the ACTiVATE women's entrepreneurship program at UMBC. She was also the winner of the 2007 Mid-Atlantic Business Plan Competition.
Errol Arkilic, Ph.D., National Science Foundation
Errol Arkilic joined The National Science Foundation in October ’03. He is one of ten program managers in the SBIR/STTR Program at NSF. He leads the Software and Services as well as Security Technologies efforts.
Before joining NSF, Dr. Arkilic was President and CEO of StrataGent Life Sciences – a venture-backed startup in the San Francisco Bay area. Prior to StrataGent, he was Manager of Product Engineering at Redwood Microsystems, also in the Bay area. He holds a Ph.D. from MIT.
Greg Bardwell,Cognitive Technology Corporation
Greg Bardwell is currently building his second software and web applications company focusing on information visualization, search support, collaboration and eDiscovery.
Additionally, he founded, grew and managed a software and web application company through three industry trend shifts, serving as President and CTO. This entailed developing and executing a business plan and strategy from startup through twelve years of operation. This particular company develops and distributes K-12 learning software and web applications, utilizing a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery model through multiple channels including eCommerce, retail, regional and national distributors, and internal sales staff. As a founder, Greg was involved in and managed all aspects of the business, including product development, customer service and P&L responsibilities.
Before founding his own business worked for NASA in mission management and before that as a spacecraft engineer as the Naval Research Laboratory.
Greg earned a BS in Computer Engineering from Boston University and an MS in Applied Physics from Johns Hopkins University.
Ann Bernard,WhyGoSolo
As a young teenager, Ms. Bernard fell in love with the Marine Corps and enlisted as soon as she turned seventeen. She celebrated her eighteenth birthday at Parris Island, North Carolina while going through the arduous molding process of earning the elite title of Marine. Four years later, she was going through other grueling challenges at the Officer Candidate School, Quantico, after being selected for the Meritorious Commissioning Program. As a Marine, as a Communication Officer and through a tour in Iraq, Ann gained, developed, and fine-tuned her survival skills, life skills, and leadership skills. She also discovered her power to inspire and motivate, as well as the drive and ambition to follow and realize her dreams.
As the founder and CEO of WhyGoSolo, Ann continues to grow as an entrepreneur and is loving it. WhyGoSolo is the ideal solution of tools, features and technology to create one-on-one to small group connections for active participation in offline activities. With WhyGoSolo there is now a way to easily bridge from your online worlds to actual real world interaction, networking and socializing.
Wagish Bhartiya, Grotech Ventures
Wagish Bhartiya joined Grotech Ventures in 2006 and focuses on investments in enterprise software, business services, consumer applications, and wireless technology companies. Prior to Grotech, Wagish was with McKinsey & Company where he advised telecommunications, consumer, and high tech clients on strategic and operational issues. Before McKinsey, Wagish provided quantitative and analytical expertise with the economic consulting firm of Bates White.
Mr. Bhartiya graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from Duke University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics. He is also a member of the Center for Innovative Technology’s (CIT) Investment Advisory Board and on the GAP Tech Investment Committee.
Rob Finn, Edison Venture Fund
Mr. Finn is an Associate with Edison Venture Fund, an expansion stage firm investing in IT. As part of the analysis team, Rob focuses on evaluating Edison's investment opportunities. His activities include conducting financial analyses, assessing technologies and development efforts, interviewing references, and researching markets for companies under evaluation. Rob has followed and sourced hundreds of opportunities for Edison including investments in Blue Cod, Neat Receipts and Sonicbids. Rob blogs at Ventureblogalist.
Rob was previously with GTSI, a government technology contractor. He earned a Six Sigma Green Belt certification, improved supply chain and sales procedures and developed new processes to leverage technology implementations. He has built English Trunk Show Company’s e-commerce site, enterprise feedback management software, project management software, hedge fund information visualization software and wealth management dashboards. Rob has held various roles at Kozmo.com, Campus24.com, Leerink Swann Retail Brokerage group, Helios Trading Group and MIT's Laboratory of Financial Engineering.
Rob has BS in Management Science (Finance, Operations Research, & Marketing) from MIT.
Paul Joegriner, Equity Corps
Paul Joegriner is the Executive Director of the Financial Institutions Group for Equity Corps, LLC. Equity Corps is an interim executive consulting firm. The Financial Institutions Group focuses on commercial and saving banks, credit unions, mortgage lending and other financial services companies.
Joegriner, formerly Chief Executive Officer for American Partners Bank, a $130 million federal savings bank headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland has expertise in strategic planning, operations and financial management, consumer, commercial and mortgage banking. Joegriner is experienced in business turnarounds, launching new businesses, and growing businesses internally as well as through acquisitions and successful post-acquisition company integrations.
Joegriner has over 20 years of experience in the banking and financial services industry. Joegriner led the bank through a $20 million acquisition and recapitalization to become a wholly owned subsidiary of major financial services corporation.
Joegriner served in the United States Marine Corps and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management with a double major in accounting and economics from the University of Maryland.
Eric Koefoot
Eric is an experienced software executive and an Internet pioneer, having either founded or served as a senior executive for early-stage Internet companies since 1996. He was most recently the founding CEO and Publisher of U.S. News Ventures, a branded internet publishing company funded in part by U.S. News & World Report. Prior to that role, he was co-founder and CEO of Five Star Alliance, a successful eCommerce startup in Alexandria, which became the largest independent booker of luxury hotels worldwide and was sold in 2007 for over a 10X return to investors in less than 3 years.
For almost 7 years before that, Eric served in various executive roles at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI), including CFO, VP of Business Development, VP of Strategy, VP of Operations and Technology, and then quite successfully as the VP of Sales for the division. Prior to WPNI, he worked for 9 years as a financial executive in product development at Ford Motor Company, consulted at Deloitte Consulting, and founded a startup company, PrimeSource, which provided financial and strategic consulting services to Fortune 500 clients. Eric has an engineering degree from MIT and an MBA from the Sloan School at MIT
Nick Magliato, TrustDigital
Nick Magliato is CEO of TrustDigital, a leading provider of enterprise mobility management software for government organizations and Global 2000 companies. Prior to Trust Digital, Nick Magliato was an entrepreneur in residence at Venrock Associates, the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller Family. Nick transitioned to Venrock from USinternetworking, Inc., where he was Executive Vice President, Global Services Platform Technology with responsibility for the creation of the Enterprise Messaging Business Unit and later gaining responsibility for all the technology and customer operations of the Company.
Before USi, Nick was the General Manager of the Private Networks Group at DIGEX. As founding member of the division and an officer of the company, he developed and managed the evolution of DIGEX from a regional Internet service provider to a national Internet carrier. Additional achievements at DIGEX included an IPO and a successful sale of the Company.
Additional professional experience include: Director of Land Mobile Product, Sales, and Distribution at American Mobile Satellite Corporation (AMSC) and Accenture. Nick earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer and Information Services with a minor in Mathematics, from Syracuse University.
Christopher R. McCleary, Blue Chip Venture Company
Chris McCleary currently serves as Executive Chairman of the Board of Radware (NASDAQ: RDWR), having previously served as a Director and Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors. In his present role he works closely with the company's board and management focusing on corporate strategy and external relations. He also serves as Chairman and a Director of both JackBe, Inc. and SaaS Capital, Inc., and is on the board of The State of Maryland Venture Fund and the City of Baltimore Emerging Technology Center.
Prior to this, he was a Partner at Blue Chip Venture Company and, earlier, the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Evergreen Assurance, Inc. Before this venture, Chris founded USinternetworking (USi) where he began as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer before becoming the non-executive Chairman of the company. Prior to his tenure at USi, he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DIGEX, Inc., one of the first national ISPs.
Earlier in his career, he served as Vice President and General Manager at Satellite Telephone Service at American Mobile Satellite Corp. Chris is a recipient of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for software services and the Washington Post/Newsweek Corporate Citizen of the Year Award and was nominated by Forbes Magazine as one of the E-Gang Leaders of Change. He holds a bachelor’s degree in general studies from the University of Kentucky.
William A. McComas, Shapiro Sher Guinot & Sandler
William A. McComas, a partner at Shapiro Sher Guinot & Sandler, counsels clients ranging from entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 corporations on commercial transactions across all industry sectors. He concentrates on assisting companies in creating, protecting, acquiring, developing, and commercializing technology, as well as in distributing, servicing, and marketing products and services.
Mr. McComas represents clients on complex business transactions such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, research and development, electronic commerce, complex procurement, outsourcing, and the general management and disposition of intellectual property. An experienced corporate attorney, Mr. McComas also counsels clients on financing, mergers and acquisitions, sales of assets, venture capital investments, and other general corporate matters. He frequently advises early stage technology companies on the full spectrum of legal challenges commonly faced by start-ups.
Andrew J. PolchaSNAPP Technologies Corporation
Andrew is a high tech entrepreneur focused on emerging markets such as IPTV, NGI/Web2.0, digital securities, and biometrics. Andrew is currently CEO & co-founder of SNAPP Technologies Corporation (STC). STC is an OEM solutions and firmware company offering a scalable processing architecture for Next Generation Internet Devices. STC is commercializing technology it has licensed from The George Washington University.
Andrew also serves as Chairman of the Board and is co-founder of Personal Identity Solutions, Inc. (PISI). PISI is an OEM solutions company developing Bio-ID (BID) management products that integrates recoverability and privacy to biometric data. Andrew is also founder of an IPTV service company called Planet Web Entertainment Inc. (PWE). PWE is (in alpha) and is launching its Internet based video service in the summer of ’08.
Andrew has 16 years experience, many successes, and achievements in solution development, new product development, development of product specifications, pilot/prototype development, business development, business plan development, and corporate construction. Andrew is also an expert in patent development (IP management) and technology licensing.
Prior to STC, Andrew served as VP of Business Development for IQ Biometrix, Inc. (OTC BB:IQBX). Other roles for Andrew include serving as president of VPN Solutions, Inc., a VPN technology and IP development company and president of ACS (a network installation and services company) based 10 years in Rockville, MD.
Larry Roshfeld
Larry Roshfeld has more than 20 years of experience in creating and growing innovative, market-leading software businesses. He is currently working as a consultant advising a number of early stage software companies.
Larry has served in executive roles in a range of highly successful software companies. Mostly recently, he has been involved in building and scaling software start-ups in the collaboration market and in the compliance market.
Previously, he served as Senior Vice President of Software Products at Aether Systems, and Vice President of Product Development at Manugistics. In addition, he served in a number of key roles at Lotus Development Corporation and IBM, including Director of Product Management, General Manager of Lotus 1-2-3, and General Manager of Internet Applications.
Larry holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Clark University and a Master's degree in Consulting Psychology from Harvard University.
John Starke, Job Access Network
John Starke is managing director of Job Access Network, a consultancy focused on virtual presence technologies that deliver faster time-to-market and reduce risk. He also has held executive positions in several entrepreneurial firms and government.
He previously was president of First Service Capital, an investment company; Chairman of Electronics Development Corporation, an engineering firm; President of the Telework Consortium, a research lab; and is an advisor to the MIT Enterprise forum.
Mr. Starke is an the author of many articles on banking and a book, Mortgage Lending and Investing, Understanding Risks in a Changing Market. He has BS and MS degrees in engineering from The George Washington University, and SM in management from the Sloan School at MIT.
Jai Sudharsan, Booz Allen Hamilton
Jai Sudharsan currently leads the commercial IT and Network Infrastructure practice at Booz Allen Hamilton. In this role, he serves as a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 CXOs on critical IT and Network Infrastructure topics such as Design, Engineering, Operations and Sourcing. Mr. Sudharsan is also responsible for acting as the firm’s principal thought leader on these subjects, developing in-depth perspectives and communicating them both to clients and to industry as a whole.
Prior to joining Booz Allen Hamilton, he served as a Managing Director at Perot Systems Corporation (NYSE: PER). He also has significant entrepreneurial experience, leading Bulwark Technologies, a networking software venture through the entire start-up cycle: From ideation and capital raising to product engineering, validation, market development and strategic exit.
Mr. Sudharsan holds a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Bangalore University. He also completed graduate coursework in Software Engineering at the University of Georgia. He received an MBA in Marketing & Finance from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. He is associated with numerous industry and charitable organizations, including the IEEE Computer Society, TiE, the India-China-America Institute, Greater DC Cares and ByteBack.
Andrew Tussing, Vaccinogen
Mr. Tussing has been involved in the founding and building of businesses throughout most of his career. As Co-Founder and COO of Vaccinogen, he raised the needed capital to launch the company. Mr. Tussing has also been leading the effort of launching Vaccinogen’s operations and is preparing the company for its upcoming admission to the PLUS Market. Most recently, Mr. Tussing has been active in investment banking activities at 1st BridgeHouse Securities and as Managing Director of Growth5 – a venture capital marketing strategy firm that helps companies maximize their growth potential.
Prior to that, Mr. Tussing was a co-founder of Milestone International Asset Management which developed hedge-fund-related solutions for financial advisors. He raised capital for firm operations and established key relationships for Milestone both on the customer and strategic partnership levels. Previously, Mr. Tussing served in senior roles at Pershing, a division of the Bank of New York, and Deutsche Bank’s Alex. Brown division where he was Director of Strategic Development, Marketing & Sales for its Correspondent Services business.
He co- founded TM Resources, which provided strategy, management and marketing consulting services for a variety of securities brokerage firms and clearing/custody banks. Early in his career, Mr. Tussing had the rare opportunity to help develop a completely new and autonomous business within America’s oldest investment bank - Alex Brown Incorporated – and was key to growing it to over $60 million in revenues within eight years.
Steven L. Woda, buySAFE
Steve fell victim to ecommerce fraud in 2000 when he purchased a PDA on eBay that never arrived. Recognizing the need for a better trust and safety model for online shoppers, Steve turned his frustration into inspiration by founding buySAFE, marking the first time surety bonds would be successfully used for e-commerce.
Today, buySAFE is a leading e-commerce trust and safety company having bonded more than 15 million online transactions. buySAFE enables online retailers to display a powerful trust signal (the buySAFE Seal) backed with a broad guarantee (a surety bond of up to $25,000). The buySAFE service in available on eBay, Overstock.com Auctions, and thousands of e-commerce storefronts. The company's mission is to make every online transaction trusted, reliable and risk-free.
Steve is responsible for leading buySAFE’s business intelligence, strategic planning, professional services, and product management teams. He is a recognized expert and regular public speaker on the subjects of e-commerce, Internet safety and information economics, and he was appointed to the Virginia Joint Commission on Science and Technology’s Cybercrimes Advisory Committee in 2006. Steve is also the inventor on two pending patent applications.
Prior to founding buySAFE, Mr. Woda was both a Vice President of Assurance Capital Corporation and a director of the Financial Risk Solutions practice within the Rutherford Companies. At USF&G, he managed a $1.5 billion portfolio of surety bond guarantees and built the business from $3 million to more than $12 million in annual revenue in two years. He began his career at Travelers Property & Casualty and also worked at PayMyBills.com. Mr. Woda earned his Master of Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Florida Southern College.