Business competition held for start-ups

By: Joshua Kurtz

Posted: 7/3/09

The Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship held their annual Business Incubator Competition June 4, in which startup businesses compete for funds and a designated space in the Baiada Business Incubator. Stabiliz Orthopedics, a company designing a new fracture fixation device to help trauma patients, won first place in the event.

Stabiliz is made up of Doug Cerynik, CEO; Michael Adelizzi, CTO; Brad Grossman, COO; and Mark Seltzer, CFO. All four members are MBA candidates studying business administration in the LeBow College of Business.

The company received $12,000 in start-up funds and more than $35,000 in in-kind support for finishing in first place.

"The Stabiliz team was very strong, very experienced," Mark Loschiavo, executive director of the Baiada Center, said.

The competition provides students with relevant experience in entrepreneurship.

"It is important to us that the students get the opportunity to really understand the process [of entrepreneurship]," Loschiavo said.

Stabiliz's product was innovative, and it clearly met an unmet need, Loschiavo added.

Susan Harding, an employee at Hahnemann Hospital, originally thought of the idea that became Stabiliz. She then worked with Cerynik, who also works at the hospital, to refine the concept.

Cerynik said the Stabiliz business team then picked up on the idea, and just started to run from that point. Stabiliz is currently continuing to organize their business and have had discussions with outside consultants in order to procure additional funding. Cerynik said the product should be released on the market approximately two years after the business achieves full funding.

"[Stabiliz] is definitely going to continue to be intertwined with Drexel," Cerynik said.

He said the business plans to work with Drexel professors and others in the Baiada Center and medical school.

Ranter, a simplified social networking Web site, won second place in the Incubator competition. Second place includes $8,000 in seed funding and $14,000 in in-kind support. ''

Loschiavo said one aspect of Ranter that stood out was the fact that the concept should allow the team to develop the product and get it to market with very little capital required.

Konnect.me, a new kind of business-to-business Web portal, won third place, which includes $4,000 in seed money and over $6,500 in in-kind support. Konnect.me plans to make a portal for green business, an industry in need of better organized information, Loschiavo said.

All three start-up businesses that placed in the competition receive space in the Baiada Center as part of their prize.

Previous businesses to receive prize money from the Incubator competition include Ompay, which developed the parking meter Smart Card, and Renaissance Scientific, which is hoping to produce a gel made from an ingredient in toothpastes and other consumer products that can kill HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Other businesses include Lymphedivas, which has designed fashionable medical garments for cancer survivors, particularly female breast cancer survivors with lymphodora, a condition that can cause swelling in the arm or other body parts; Connexus, which developed a Web portal where people can pray for and support others online; and Crossrate Technology, which created an enhanced GPS system that is more reliable for use on boats.

The Baiada Incubator Competition featured presentations from the start-up businesses, a panel discussion, and other activities, as well as had the theme "from blues to prosperity," in reference to the current economy. Blues music was played during the event to highlight the theme.

The Incubator competition entrants were determined in the previously held Baiada Business Plan Competition. The Baiada Center also holds a Business Concept Paper and Pitch Competition, which includes teams that do not plan to start a company.

The vast majority of the prize money in the competitions comes from the Baiada Center, according to Loschiavo, while some money also comes from sponsors and other donors.

The Baiada Center has no immediate plans to institute new competitions, though they are open to new events.

"We're always looking at the possibility of new competitions and new twists," Loschiavo said.

The award ceremony was held at World Cafe Live.