UH business plan contest narrows

Advertiser Staff

The field of budding student entrepreneurs entered in the University of Hawai'i's business plan competition has been narrowed to 20 semifinalist teams.

Thirty-nine teams with more than 100 members entered the contest, a first-time event created by the College of Business Administration's Center for Entrepreneurship and E-Business to inspire risk taking and business creation among students.

The best ideas stand to attract venture capital financing. Three teams will share $30,000 in cash prizes. Judges will make their next cut to five to eight teams by April 30. Finalists will present their plans to judges May 5 at Stan Sheriff Center.

The semifinalists: Aloha Aquatics (distribution of aquarium ornaments); Alohacare Intelligent Monitoring (telemedicine); CultureEasy (biotechnology); Digital Interaction (information not available); Exequor Technologies (information not available); INCA (education technology); KimcheeNet (Internet service provider); Les Gagnantes ('awa and wine bar franchise); Lynn & Cindy (tea house chain); Meira Networks (information not available); and Net Impact (agricultural waste-based building materials manufacturing).

Also, NRG Hawaii LLC (kite-surfboard manufacturing); ParcelKeeper (residential delivery system); SAS Inc (information not available); SmokedMar lin.com (smoked marlin retail); T&M Consulting (information not available); Team InfoShroud (remote network security monitoring); The Gaia Project (online education service portal); TransMedCom (online medical communications); and Webhotpotato (information not available).