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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, December 16, 2002

Startup contest luring outside interests to UH talent

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

When a Connecticut startup and a foreign aquaculture promoter recruited University of Hawai'i students to enter the school's business plan competition recently, it signaled the annual event had reached a new level.

In its third year, the UH College of Business Administration contest offering $50,000 in prize money has drawn 52 entries, up from 46 last year.

Among them are mostly Hawai'i-grown ideas, such as a gourmet coffee drive-through on O'ahu and a specialized tour business on Maui. But outside interest from experienced capitalists is sure to make the event more dynamic.

The entry deadline closed Friday. Teams will spend the next four months receiving academic instruction and coaching from corporate volunteers before plans are judged in April by business executives, venture capitalists and professors.

The goal is mostly educational — to foster business startup skills and risk-taking in students — though organizers hope it also will build entrepreneurial networks, attract investors to the state and give rise to some million-dollar companies.

Among entrants aiming for the latter are Chad Troutwine and Markus Moberg, co-founders of the Connecticut startup. Both already had experience in business and business plan competitions when they found UH undergraduate Tyler Hendricks to join their team.

Troutwine, 34, is an attorney who has dabbled in real estate development, co-founded a film and music label company and was recognized as this year's "Forbes Future Capitalist" by Forbes Magazine.

Moberg, 29, has degrees in computer science and economics, plus experience as an oil field engineer and associate investment banker.

The Yale School of Management graduates, who won two Yale business plan competitions earlier this year and were finalists in a national contest, launched their business idea, Veritas, after receiving their MBAs in May.

The New Haven, Conn.ibased company conducts classroom courses and private tutoring for students planning to take the GMAT graduate business entrance exam.

Its first class was held at Yale in October. A series of courses are scheduled at universities around the country, including UH, early next year.

Troutwine hopes the UH contest will bring Veritas "the next level of help": prize money, exposure to investors and invaluable feedback.

He said he pursued the competition because it invites existing companies that want to expand — provided they are less than a year old and partner with at least one UH student.

"With a lot of business plan competitions, if a company has already launched they are excluded," Troutwine said. "We're at an interesting stage right now. We're just starting to take baby steps."

The next step for Veritas, he said, is to offer GMAT preparation courses internationally and compete with better-established test-prep courses Kaplan and The Princeton Review. He and Moberg are considering relocating their company to Hawai'i, California or Colorado.

Others who solicited UH students to enter include entrepreneurs with plans to develop a high-tech car wash and a prototype motor to replace the internal combustion engine.

The field of competitors also includes second-time entrant EnviroNet, which is trying to perfect a biodegradable fishing net, as well as new ideas such as publishing a fashion magazine for Asian women and creating a collectible card game.

Rob Robinson, executive director of contest operator the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship & E-Business, said he is seeing more entrants using the competition to gauge strengths and weaknesses of their ideas or operations.

"It's been very gratifying," Robinson said. "We are seeing the business plan competition being integrated into the (business) start-up process in Hawai'i."

Robinson appreciates the interest from entrepreneurs outside Hawai'i because it provides opportunities for UH students.

It also could help add to the number of competition "graduates" who go on to execute their business plans, either by starting a company here or expanding an existing one — perhaps even moving a business to Hawai'i, as Veritas is considering doing.

"I hope it's getting more exposure," Robinson said. "We've kind of drained the pool (of interested Hawai'i participants). It's a small town."

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.