Direct Marketing Idea Wins Business Plan Contest At the University of Chicago.

Business Editors/Education Writers

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 30, 2003

Two M.B.A. students who are developing a software system for direct marketing in the dental industry and similar industries won the 2003 Edward L. Kaplan New Venture Challenge at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Michael Moyer, 31, and Alyson Tesler, 28, will share the $25,000 first place award. Their business plan for Vicarious Communications, Inc. beat 58 other plans submitted this year.

The Vicarious plan is for a new marketing software system to help manufacturers and suppliers of dental products such as teeth whitener or invisible braces more effectively target market their products through dentists.

The program matches patient profiles created in the dentist's office with specific marketing programs set up by product manufacturers. Dentists then select the campaigns they are interested in and Vicarious sends patients a customized version of the manufacturers' promotional material on behalf of the dentist.

Although the plan is being applied first to the dental profession, the software can be adapted for use in other fields such as optometry or veterinarian recommended pet products.

"The Vicarious plan is creative, attempts to solve a real problem, and has a genuine shot at working," said Steven Kaplan, Neubauer Family Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at Chicago GSB and faculty director of the school's Michael P. Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship.

Green Hedges, a company that plans to provide insurance against declining home values, shared second place in this year's business plan contest with Iterative Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company that develops antibody therapeutics. Iterative Therapeutics' first application targets the multiple sclerosis market. Each second place team will receive $12,500.

Business plans submitted this year ranged from software and biotech companies to retail products and homeland security.

"Some of this year's teams were so committed that they put up their own money or raised research grants in an effort to get their businesses started," said Ellen Rudnick, clinical professor of entrepreneurship at the GSB and executive director of the Polsky Center.

A group of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs served as judges for this year's contest. Founder and primary sponsor of the event is Edward L. Kaplan, founder, chairman and chief executive of Zebra Technologies. Other sponsors this year were the Altheimer & Gray law firm, Fred Dotzler, managing director of De Novo Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank Chicago office, and Amanda Peak, associate at Silicon Valley Bank Chicago office.

"The quality of the thought process in the business plans has clearly improved," said Edward L. Kaplan, founder of the contest. "Critical issues were addressed, the presentations were crisp, and the Q&A sessions were very effective," he said.

The annual business plan contest started in 1996 as a way to encourage M.B.A. students at the University of Chicago to put their entrepreneurial vision into practice. In addition to instruction from top entrepreneurship faculty, students receive training and feedback on their business plans from industry professionals.

Since the New Venture Challenge was founded, 20 teams have gone on to become viable, operating companies.

The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business is a leader in entrepreneurship education. It offers 15 primary courses in the field to expose students to the breadth of start-up issues. The school's Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship coordinates research, teaching, entrepreneurial experiences, and outreach to the business community.

Chicago GSB offers five full-time and part-time M.B.A. programs in addition to open enrollment executive education, custom corporate education and a Ph.D. program. Many of the world's leading executives are graduates of the school, including Philip Purcell, chairman and chief executive of Morgan Stanley, James Kilts, chairman and chief executive of The Gillette Company, and Joseph Neubauer, chairman and chief executive of ARAMARK Corp.