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February, 2006 |
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News
The Dingman Center for
Entrepreneurship is continuing to grow as we enter
our 20th year. We are happy to welcome
Tien Wong, CEO of Opus8, as our newest
Entrepreneur in Residence. Mr. Wong is a recognized
international expert in CRM, direct marketing, and
business process outsourcing (BPO). His experience
and knowledge will be an asset to the Center. We are
also glad to have all of our
Dingman Scholars back from their winter semester
break and back to work developing their individual
companies and assisting in making the Center
prosper. Please keep a look out on all of our
upcoming events. We would like to announce an
important event coming this May, Cupid's Cup, a ten
thousand dollar monetary award for the best
student-run business. See below for more details
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Portfolio Companies
An integral part of the Dingman Center is our
Portfolio Companies. Our portfolio shows the true
testament of what the Dingman Center is all about.
In the past 18 months we have acquired and assisted
18 companies which make up our growing portfolio.
These successful companies are living breathing
proof of entrepreneurial efforts making it in
today's business world. Portfolio Companies come to
the center for mentoring advice from our experience
Entrepreneurs in Residence, networking and
equity opportunities from our
CAN program, and any help and support that our
office facilities can offer.
Arcxis Biotechnologies Feature Article
Portfolio Companies: Where are they now?
Arcxis Biotechnologies
was co-founded in 2004 by CEO and Robert H. Smith
MBA graduate John Jansen, along with a Sandia
National Laboratories scientist, Dr. Jay West and
engineer, Kyle Hukari. The company's
corporate mission is the development of state-of-art
portable point-of-care diagnostics for biological
threat reduction in clinical and national defense
applications. The company's industrial concentration
is on the design, optimization, and fabrication of
array devices with the ability to rapidly analyze,
detect, and characterize infectious disease agents
in both multiplexed and low-density formats. Arcxis'
core technologies will include integrated
miniaturized biological sample preparation devices,
portable high-density microfluidic microarray chips
and readers; and ultra rapid low-density
point-of-care diagnostics. The company's products
will fulfill a need expressed by the defense
industry to eliminate current bio-toxin and
pathogenic organism detection limitations. The other
applications include clinical diagnostics,
institutional research, forensics, and
pharmaceutical drug discovery.
Arcxis Biotechnologies is developing product prototypes that will
be far superior to existing technologies in the
hopes of raising up to $10 million in additional
funds. Recently, Arcxis was selected by the
Department of Homeland Security for a Small Business
Innovation Research grant to be utilized to develop
a bio-detection field unit for use by first
responders. Arcxis Biotechnologies has recently
joined forces with multiple private and public
entities including the California Department of
Health Services to apply for a National Institutes
of Health grant to develop an influenza diagnostic
capable of identifying, characterizing, and
sub-typing influenza strains; USAMRIID to test and
validate developing Arcxis technologies; Sandia
National Laboratories to continue the development of
biochip fabrication; Arizona State University and
the University of California at Davis.
To date, Arcxis Biotechnologies has raised over $250,000 and has
sparked the interest of several angel and
institutional investors in the California and South
Carolina areas. They have earned the attention of
food and beverage processing companies as well as
the defense department with the hopes of ultimately
penetrating the clinical diagnostic arena. CEO John
Jansen attributes the Dingman Center's involvement
as a driving force in Arcxis Biotechnologies'
success. He states to Managing Director Asher
Epstein, “I cannot thank you enough for your
assistance and the assistance of the Dingman Center
staff in getting Arcxis off the ground.”
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Feature Event
Cupid's
Cup
Cupid's Cup is a
ten thousand dollar monetary award
given to the best University of Maryland student
operated business. The student must currently be
enrolled in one of the school's at the University of
Maryland in College Park, or have graduated within
the past three years from either a graduate or
undergraduate program.
The first annual
Cupid's Cup will be awarded by
Kevin Plank,
CEO of Under
Armour on Friday, May 12th,
2006 at a luncheon reception.
The recipient will receive a
$10,000 cash prize and possession of Cupid's Cup's
trophy for a one year period.
Stay Tuned for more details...
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Upcoming Events
Tech Visionary – Web 2.0 (invitation only)
Web 2.0
Wednesday, February 8
"Web 2.0" has popped up as one of the hottest buzz
terms in venture and entrepreneurial circles during
the past year. But what exactly is Web 2.0? And what
are its implications for entrepreneurs, investors
and the "new, new" economy? Discover which
companies, business models and technologies are
leading the way in this next generation of Internet
business.
Agenda:
8:30 Networking Breakfast
9:00 Panel Discussion
What is Web 2.0?
Web 2.0 Foundations - User and Technology
Perspectives
Web 2.0 Business Implications - Business Models and
Marketing Challenges and Opportunities
10:30: Networking
Moderator:
Adam Lehman
Founder and managing partner of Rock Ridge Ventures,
Entrepreneur in Residence, Dingman Center
Panelists:
Ben Bederson
Associate Professor of Computer Science and director
of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the
Institute for Advanced Computer Studies at the
University of Maryland, College Park
Robert Hoffer
Managing Director of San Mateo based Newforth
Partners, LLC,
Luis Derechin
CEO and Co-Founder of JackBe Corporation
Leslie A. Jump
Jump Walker International Group
Pitch Dingman Competition
This event is held monthly and is a follow-up to our weekly walk-in
Pitch Dingman held on Fridays at 11:00 a.m.
Come to the monthly competition, present your
business idea in 5 minutes to a panel of judges from
the Dingman Center, and you could win $500! For
information about the weekly Pitch Dingman sessions
on Fridays or the monthly Pitch Dingman
competitions, e-mail Derek Vlcko at
dvlcko@rhsmith.umd.edu.
Friday, February 17th, 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., 3570 Van Munching
Hall
Dingman Day Lunch
These catered luncheons are open to undergraduate and MBA students
and members of the entrepreneurial community. Two
successful entrepreneurs will talk about their
experiences and answer questions from the audience.
Founders of
Hook and Ladder and
ShopDC will talk about their
business endeavors, how they got started, their
successes, their failures, and where they plan to
go.
Friday, February 17th,
12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., Classroom 1520 Van
Munching Hall
Register online today!
Venture Capitalist Investment Competition (VCIC)
VCIC is the nation's premier strategy competition for
venture-minded and entrepreneurial MBA students.
This unique competition allows students from
acclaimed business schools a real-world venture
capitalist experience. Students are given the
opportunity to interact with real entrepreneurs from
real companies with real business plans. The VCIC
experience exposes students to an assortment of
activities that ultimately must be coordinated into
a cohesive investment strategy to be pitched to real
venture capitalists present at the competition.
Many students hail the VCIC as the most valuable
learning experience of their MBA careers.
This all day event is the internal round of VCIC which will be held
in Van Munching Hall. The winning team will get the
opportunity to go on and compete in the regional
round of the competition in Atlanta, Georgia.
Friday, February 24th, 8:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. dinner, Van Munching
Hall
Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship's 20th
Anniversary Gala
Save the date of Wednesday, April 5, 2006 for a gala celebration of
the 20th Anniversary of the Dingman Center for
Entrepreneurship. More details will be provided in
future newsletters. Many special VIP guests will be
present at this celebration; it is an event not to
be missed!
Wednesday, April 5, 2006
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TEDCO Briefing
TEDCO and Dingman
Center for Entrepreneurship to
Host Briefing about
State and Federal Funding Programs
WHAT:
The
Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO)
(www.MarylandTEDCO.org)
will present information about technology transfer
funding programs during a briefing to be held in
College Park. These state and federal funding
programs provide financial support for the
development of technologies for commercialization in
collaboration with Maryland universities and federal
laboratories.
The briefing will
provide descriptions of the various funding
programs, including eligibility requirements,
guidelines for effective proposals, proposal
submission, review processes and terms of the
agreements.
Applications for
funding programs are accepted continually and
reviewed monthly by the TEDCO funding review team,
which includes representatives from TEDCO, the
Maryland Department of Business and Economic
Development (DBED) and affiliated venture capital
groups. Applicants must submit a proposal, a
commercialization plan for the technology to be
developed, a scope of work and a budget.
COST:
The briefing is
free.
WHEN:
Friday, Feb. 10, 2006
TIME:
2
p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
WHERE:
Dingman Center for
Entrepreneurship, University of Maryland College
Park
Van Munching Hall,
Room 2517
Mowatt Lane
College Park, MD
20742
http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/about/directions.html
REGISTRATION:
Registration is
recommended. For more information or to RSVP,
contact
Henry Ahn at
410-715-4165 or email
info@marylandtedco.org
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"Back of a Napkin" Business Plan Competition
If
you have an existing business (or even just a good
business idea), a team of people ready to execute
and are simply in need of capital and marketing
expertise, you may consider participating in
MarketingExperiments.com's First Annual “Back of a
Napkin” Business Plan Competition. Although other
organizations frequently host business plan
competitions, this competition can be distinguished
from the rest in that they don't want 30-page-long
entries to be submitted. All business plan
information has to be written on a 5x7 card, or in
essence, on the "back of a napkin". The winner of
this contest will receive a business jumpstart
package worth more than $100,000. For more
information please visit:
http://www.marketingexperiments.com/napkin1-008.asp.
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Partner Events
3rd Annual
Digital Media Conference
June 23rd 2006
Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner
Don't miss the event the Washington Post calls “a
confab of powerful communicators and content
providers in the region.” This information
gathering and powerful networking event is intended
for media, entertainment and technology businesses,
educational institutions, and government agencies
involved in the digital distribution of media. For
sponsor packages, speaker information, contacts, and
additional information visit
www.DigitalMediaConference.com.
Washington DC Technology Council's 7th
Annual Early Stage Capital Forum
February 2nd 2006
Ronald Regan International Trade Cente
Register Today!
This forum is dedicated to showcasing emerging high growth
technology companies to the Greater Washington
Region. For speakers and event schedule please visit
the DC Tech
Council website. Students will need to call the office next
week at 202-637-9333 to request the student rate for
attending, we hope that many students take advantage
of this great opportunity.
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Event Summary
Back-2-Basics (“Exiting Your Business”) – December 1st
On December 1st the Dingman Center held its Back-to-Basics event at
the Robert H. Smith School of Business. Local
entrepreneurs and investors from the DC and Maryland
areas, as well as MBA students with interests
spanning from entrepreneurship to finance attended
the event. The topic for the day was "Exiting Your
Business", the final step of a successful enterprise
that entrepreneurs wish to accomplish. The panel
consisted of: Bob Baum, Associate Professor in the
Management and Organization Department at Smith
School of Business, Tien Wong, Founder and CEO,
Opus8, and Roger Hebden of Blueprint Technologies
Inc. Asher Epstein, Managing Director of the
Dingman Center was the moderator. The dream of every
entrepreneur is to build a successful enterprise and
choose the best exit strategy to capitalize on their
investment and retire young and rich. Professor
Baum opened the session with a short lecture on
available options for entrepreneurs interested in
exiting their businesses from a finance
point-of-view. Professor Baum clearly and
comprehensively discussed refinancing a business,
selling equity, performing an IPO, and all other
means entrepreneurs can use to capitalize their
investment. The panel then presented some “war
stories”. All panelists founded and built successful
companies and were able to exit their businesses
with great satisfaction. In particular, Mr. Wong
sold the IT service company that he co-founded, and
today is CEO of a venture capital firm that focuses
on investments in technology.
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THE DINGMAN
CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Founded by Rudy Lamone in 1986, the Dingman Center was one of
the first of its kind in the country and has emerged as a
top-ranked entrepreneurship center. Thanks to initial funding
with a generous grant from Michael D. Dingman, founder of the
Signal Corporation (now part of Honeywell International), the
Dingman Center continues to grow as a regional and national
catalyst in the field of entrepreneurship. The Center is now
aggressively evolving, and in some areas, is expanding its
services to further its role as a leader in the student,
regional, and academic entrepreneurial communities.
The Dingman Center is currently led by:
Asher Epstein, Managing Director
Dr. Charles Heller, Chairman of the Board and Director Emeritus
Dr. Scott Koerwer, Associate Dean,
Professional Programs and Services
Please visit our website at
http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/dingman.
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January, 2006
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