Face2Face and Archon Each Win $15,000 in 2012 Business Plan Competition

The Face2Face team, which offers an interactive communication platform for physicians and patients to communicate, won the Campus Wide Division of the 2012 Business Plan Competition. The Archon Medical Technologies, LLC team, which is developing a low-cost mechanical suturing device that decreases healing time and reduces the risk of infection, won the Life Science Division of the competition. Both teams will take home $15,000 each in cash along with other in-kind prizes. The Archon team has also qualified to compete in the statewide California Dreamin’ Competition for awards totaling $100,000. Members of the winning teams included:

Face2Face Team	Archon Team
Lisa Cilbourn Marissa Green Nima Amipour Christopher Viveiros	Summer Ko Derek Wong Sohail Zahid Daniel Peng Stephen Van Kooten Leslie Myint Ang Andy Tu Anvesh Annandanam Luis Herrera Haley Huang

"This Business Plan Competition featured the strongest field of competitors we have had in the history of this event,” said Charlie Baecker, administrative director of the Merage School’s Don Beall Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “The level of entrepreneurial talent was incredible and we saw some amazing new technology, business models and “go-to-market” strategies which point to why UC Irvine is the business innovation powerhouse that it is."

Sponsored by Source Scientific, Fort Ashford, UC Irvine Environment Institute, Experian, Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth Attorneys at Law, and Bingham, the five-month-long Business Plan Competition came to a close April 27 with 20 teams competing for the attention of a judging panel of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, and for a portion of the $70,000 in cash prizes. Winners of the 2012 competition included:

Campus Wide Competition

First Place ($15,000 + $3,600 in kind from Tech Portal Calit2): Face2Face, coached by Alvin Viray

Second Place ($7,500): Syndesis Health, coached by Ralph Stern

Third Place ($2,500): BlueVortex, LLC, coached by Paul Donahue

Best Concept Paper: Deco4Life.com, coached by Susan Ellis

 

Undergraduate Competition

First Place ($2,500): StreamFair, coached by Doug Pennington

Second Place ($1,500): Spawnd, coached by Ash Kumra

Third Place ($1,000): CrowdScholar, coached by Kirsten Mangers

Best Concept Paper: StreamFair

Life Sciences Competition

First Place ($15,000 + $6,000 in kind from Tech Portal Orange): Archon Medical

Technologies, LLC, coached by Judy Stechert

Second Place ($7,500): Impetro Technologies, coached by Mike Mesenbrink

Third Place ($2,500): CircuSonic Therapeutic, coached by Gary Sanders

Best Concept Paper: ValveStrong, coached by Stanton Rowe

Special Awards

Vator.tv People's Choice Poll Award ($1,500): CrowdScholar

Fort Ashford InfoTech Innovation Award ($2,500): IMPower, coached by Demetri Andrikos

UCI Environment Institute Clean Tech Award ($7,500): BlueVortex, LLC

Legal Venture Counsel, Inc. Award ($5,000 in kind): Spawnd

California Dreaming Award: Archon Medical Technologies, LLC

The Business Plan Competition is hosted each year by the Don Beall Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and is one of the premier university-run business plan competitions in the United States. For more information visit merage.uci.edu/go/BPC.