For the First Time, Two Teams Named Co-Champions of New Venture Championship

Business Wire, April 14, 2008

University of Oregon's 2008 NVC Awards $30,000 to Each Winning Team

PORTLAND, Ore. -- For the first time in the University of Oregon Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship's New Venture Championship (NVC) 17-year history, two teams were named co-champions of the 2008 competition.

The University of Oregon's TakeShape and Brigham Young University's Klymit[TM] walked away with $30,000 each to invest in their businesses. The first and second place cash prizes were combined and divided equally between the co-champions.

Twenty graduate teams from universities around the world, including Hong Kong and Australia, came to Portland, Ore., to compete in the business competition. Teams presented their business plans to panels of judges in the Aequitas Capital Management Semifinal round. The top five teams moved on to the Intel Capital Final round, where they presented and answered challenging questions from the judges.

"The judges decided that there will be no second place," said Randy Swangard, managing director of the UO Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship. "The two teams presented such strong business plans that the judges were compelled to reward them both."

Klymit, including team members Nate Alder and Ben Maughan, developed a patent-pending form of adjustable insulation technology that utilizes inert, noble gases.

TakeShape, including team members Cody Stavig, Peter Vomocil, Bill Sedlak and Andrew Earle, plans to license a patented three-dimensional body scanner to sell to institutional sports teams.

"It's exciting. Both teams walked away with more money than we thought possible before we arrived," said Earle.

UO's TakeShape won an automatic berth to the 2008 MOOT CORP competition where the team will join BYU's Klymit, which also received entry from the 2008 San Diego State University's Venture Challenge. BYU will also be given an automatic berth to the 2009 NVC.

ElectriSense from Georgia Institute of Technology won $5,000 for third place. Comuto from INSEAD, a graduate business school near Paris, and COR Innovations from Stanford University each won $2,500 as runners-up.

Other cash prizes were awarded to NVC competitors including:

* Oregon Entrepreneurs Forum Lightning round - The top five teams, Advotech from University of Manitoba, Pickple from Hanyang University, Motifleet from Boise State University, MadWise from University of South Carolina, and OvaGuard from Thammasat University, each received $1,500.

* The Elevator Pitch round - Boreas Snowboard from University of Georgia won $1,000.

* Tektronix Mini-Trade Show round - Klymit from Brigham Young University won $1,000.

* Palo Alto Best Written Plan Award - Klymit from Brigham Young University won $1,500.

* IPC Best Innovation Award - Pickple from Hanyang University won $1,000.

For more competition details and to review the live blog updates from the event, visit: http://www.venturechampionship.com.

Link: Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship, http://lcb.uoregon.edu/lce.>

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