University of Texas Business School team wins first place in sixth annual North American Business Plan competition

Business Wire, May 3, 1995

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 3, 1995--For the third consecutive year, a team of MBA students from the University of Texas at Austin has won the North American Business Plan Competition, sponsored by San Diego State University's Entrepreneurial Management Center. The competition, now in its sixth year, provides a forum for graduate students throughout North America to showcase their business plans before professional entrepreneurs and potential investors. The UT Austin team beat twelve teams fielded by other business schools, including Indiana University, The University of Georgia, and ITESM (Monterrey, Mexico), to win the $5,000 grand prize.

The winning team's company, PantherJaw Technologies, was founded by the students in Fall 1994 during their participation in an entrepreneurship class at UT Austin headed by Dr. Gary Cadenhead. PantherJaw Technologies won the competition with an innovative dental mirror called ClearStrike , a self-cleaning, disposable dental mirror to combat the buildup of fog and debris, the idea for which came from

Dr. Edward Tarr, a Tulsa, Oklahoma area dentist who is team member Steve Tarr's father. Other members of the winning Texas team, in addition to Tarr, include Tina Dees and Sean McDonald. PantherJaw Technologies will use the $5,000 prize as seed capital to launch their business and to help complete the development of a working prototype of the ClearStrike technology.

In announcing the winners, Alex DeNoble, Co-Director of the Entrepreneurial Management Center at San Diego, referred to "the Texas Dynasty," noting that UT Austin teams have placed number-one for three consecutive years and number-two for two consecutive years. The number-two winner representing UT Austin at the competition was a company called True Dimensions.

The winning team will compete again in the upcoming International Entrepreneurial Challenge of MOOT CORP , a venture competition in which graduate business students develop a detailed business plan and match their efforts against other top business schools. This competition will take place May 5-6 in Austin, Texas. For more information, contact Steve Tarr at (512) 371-1621 or Dr. Gary Cadenhead at the University of Texas at Austin at (512) 471-5289.

CONTACT: University of Texas at Austin

Steve Tarr, 512/371-1621

Dr. Gary Cadenhead, 512/471-5289