Welcome to the 9th annual Duke Start-Up Challenge Competition!

The Duke Start-Up Challenge encourages students to plan and launch their own businesses, receiving feedback from experienced professionals and the chance to win seed capital along the way. Educational seminars are held to cover almost all aspects of starting a business. We work to pair people that have great ideas with people from across the university who have the skills and experiences to turn those ideas into successful businesses. Each phase of the competition is also designed to provide feedback from the judges so that your idea can be further improved.

If you have a business concept or a technology that could be the seed of a business, the Start-Up Challenge provides the opportunity for you to develop that concept or technology into a viable business. Conversely, if you don’t have a specific business idea but you want to experience the entrepreneurial spirit, the Duke Start-Up Challenge can match you with others who have a vision and need your drive and skills to make the company come to life.

General Information

Phase III Winners!

Saturday, April 12th was the 9th Annual Duke Start-Up Challenge Finals. Nine
teams presented their business plan proposals to a panel of judges. The
Awards Ceremony was then kicked off with an inspirational speech by Chairman
and former CEO of Red Hat, Matthew Szulik. We are proud to present the
following winners:

*Overall Grand Prize Winner $25,000 & Health Care Track
Cerene Biomedics*
Heidi Koschwanez (PhD candidate, BME), Christina Li (PhD student, BME), Carolyn
Nohejl (BME, ‘08), Vivek Sasikumar (Fuqua, ‘08), John Stroncek (PhD student,
BME)

*Overall Runner Up $10,000
WaterPLUS*
Naman Shah, Saket Vora, Joel Thomas, J.E. (Win) Bassett IV, Kari Leech, Will
Patrick (Trinity, ‘10)

*People’s Choice Trade Show Winner $1,000
Game Everything*
Ferol Vernon (Fuqua, ‘09), Mausam Bhatt (Fuqua, ‘09)

*High-Tech Track Award $5,000
A-B-Sea Research*
Al Basilico, John Galetsky, Jennifer Artabane (Fuqua, ‘08)

*Consumer Products Track Award $5,000
Visible Energy*
Luke Fishback (MEM, ‘03), Sarah Kate Fishback (Fuqua, ‘09)

*Social Track Award $5,000
WaterPLUS*
Naman Shah, Saket Vora, Joel Thomas, J.E. (Win) Bassett IV, Kari Leech, Will
Patrick (Trinity, ‘10)

Look here for more information about the teams.

Join the DSC Facebook Group!

To stay informed, subscribe to our email list, dsc-participants@duke.edu by using the Duke mailing list manager. If you are not currently affiliated with Duke, email Seth and ask to be added to the dsc-participants list.

Upcoming Events

Global Venture Challenge 2008, April 2-4, 2008 Oak Ridge National Laboratory Global Venture Challenge 2008 is a unique educational event designed to foster entrepreneurial spirit by engaging students, industry, government and the investment community in the discovery and development of innovative ideas. The ultimate goal is to encourage students to launch new technology-based businesses that can address the world’s energy crisis. Specific areas of interest include Energy Efficiency, Bioenergy, and other Renewable Energies. Look here for more information

— Calendar —

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