Thirteen UNC Teams Complete 2006 Launching the Venture Program

Chapel Hill, N.C. — The Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative's (CEI) Launching the Venture Program concluded its year-long series of classes and activities Feb. 27 with 13 new ventures pitching their ideas before a panel of judges.

The ventures, created by teams of UNC faculty, staff and students, include a wine bar, upscale garden center, elderly assistance center, freight shipper, emergency response device maker, several software companies and two nonprofits.

"Learning through the experience of others is very helpful," said Ned Wheeler, a student entrepreneur who is developing 4 Corners Wine, a proposed chain of wine retail stores and wine bars. "It was very beneficial to have people help push me in the right direction."

Dr. James Loeher, member of the UNC Medical School faculty and president of Icardiogram, agreed.

"As a physician but not a business man, I am here to make my business more successful," he said. "The feedback from this program and suggestions from the faculty coaches were very valuable."

Launching the Venture is a year-long course and a series of workshops designed to help seriously entrepreneurial faculty, staff and students at UNC gain the knowledge, skills and connections they need to launch a business or social venture. The program, a joint initiative of UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School and the Office of Technology Development, combines lecture, functional workshops, lab sessions and hands-on expert coaching to help teams of aspiring entrepreneurs develop their business plan and launch strategy.

The first semester helps participants determine the feasibility of their commercial or nonprofit idea. Those considered viable proceed to the second semester to develop comprehensive business plans for their ventures. Teams in the final launch program event on Feb. 27 pitched their plans to panels of judges, who offered constructive feedback on all aspects of the ventures, from financing to marketing to operations.

Launching the Venture, now in its fifth year, is quickly becoming a recognized tool for turning entrepreneurial ideas into reality.

"The program has allowed us to think through every element of starting a business," said Ben Redding, UNC student and co-creator of Premier Club, a non-residential center that provides elderly people with assistance in daily living, including entertainment, shopping, exercise, spa services, meal preparation, financial planning, long-term health-care counseling, in-home concierge and home maintenance.

"The program gives us an inside perspective on the rigors an entrepreneur must go through to launch a venture," said Redding's partner, Jimmy Rosen.

This year, 98 teams submitted entries to participate in the launch program. Thirty-two were admitted into the feasibility phase of the course. Thirteen proceeded to the launch phase.

"The interest in this year's program indicates to me that the CEI is having tremendous positive bearing on the culture of entrepreneurship at UNC," said Ted Zoller, executive director for UNC's Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, who co-teaches the launch program with UNC Kenan-Flagler Professor of the Practice Randy Myer. "I expect great progress from these ventures over the coming months and anticipate at least one blockbuster from the group."

The 13 ventures that completed the 2006 Launching the Venture program are:

• 4 Corners Wine - a chain of wine retail stores and wine bars serving the 25-39- year-old professional market.
• Garden Living - a boutique garden center offering garden design and consultation services.
• Hamilton Educational - a course management software solution for students and faculty that allows them to quickly reference digital course materials, share notes and integrate existing university systems in a cost- effective way.
• HERO (Honor Emergency Response Object) - a cellular module unit designed to facilitate a direct link to emergency E911 facilities.c
• Icardiogram - developer of a digital echocardiography system that transmits information using T1 or ISDN lines to share and view results from multiple locations, integrated with local intranet storage for backing up data.
• Lewis Transportation Company - a sea-shipping operation offered as an alternative transportation mode to move freight trailers over the long-haul portion of their journey.
• New Worlds Through Literature - a nonprofit that promotes literacy by providing donors the opportunity to donate a library or libraries to a nonprofit organization of choice.
• Nourish International - a grassroots student organization working to alleviate poverty and establish relationships with nonprofits and identify fundraising and resource needs for sustainable development.
• NOVAN - a company that is developing a technology to treat a host of disease states, such as wound healing and immune system responses.
• Phorcast - a software package that provides computational chemistry analysis services for firms interested in discovering new compounds.
• Premier Club - a members-only, non-residential center that provides elderly people with assistance for daily living, including entertainment, shopping, exercise, spa services, meal preparation, financial planning, long-term health-care counseling, in-home concierge and home maintenance.
• SAAPORT - a portable unit comprised of a perfusion device and a disposable specialized balloon-catheter that aids trauma centers and emergency rooms in the treatment of cardiac arrest patients.
• Se7enth Swan Publishing Group - an e-commerce Web site that produces and sells educational material for youth, ages 3-18, in the African, Hispanic and Latino American communities.

For more information on the Launching the Venture program, contact Ted Zoller at (919) 962-3103, zoller@unc.edu, or Randy Myer at (919) 843-6124, randy_myer@unc.edu.