Moot Corp Celebrates 25 Years

Universities have a reputation for being a breeding ground for innovation, and with good reason. Google, Dell, Yahoo! and Facebook are just a few of the companies that got their start on college campuses. This year the McCombs School celebrates a quarter-century of business innovators, as Moot Corp, the world’s first business plan competition, marks its 25th anniversary.

MBA students Steve Mailman and Barbara Oppenheimer conceived the idea for Moot Corp in 1983. The following spring, 11 teams from the university competed in the first annual Moot Corp competition. Twenty-five years later, more than $1 million has been awarded to innovative new ventures, and nearly 1,500 students from 16 countries have competed in front of 873 judges. The competition has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and BusinessWeek dubbed Moot Corp the “Super Bowl of World Business-Plan Competition.”

Moot Corp combines elements of traditional business case competitions with law school moot court competitions, in which law students try fictitious cases. Moot Corp competitors craft and refine business plans for months, conducting extensive research on markets, licensing, patents and legal concerns. The winner of the Texas round earns consulting services, mentoring and office space, and then advances to the global round, where the champion earns a package worth $100,000, including $25,000 cash.

“Moot Corp is very, very close—if not identical—to the real process of starting a business,” says Rob Adams, McCombs management lecturer and Moot Corp director.

Merely participating in Moot Corp can be a huge boost to students. The competition allows teams to hone presentation skills, receive critical feedback and connect with judges who can serve as mentors or even investors. Four of the last five teams who won the Texas round have received funding and successfully launched their businesses, Adams says. Texas caught up with some past McCombs teams:

uShip

uShip is an online shipping marketplace with more than 90,000 transportation companies bidding for the more than 1,000 shipping jobs that users post daily. uShip offices in Austin and has more than 25 full-time employees. Moot Corp team members Matt Chasen, MBA ’04, Jay Manickam, MBA ’04, and Mickey Millsap, MBA ’04, remain as active managers with the company.

Bigfoot Networks

Founded by Harlan Beverly, MBA ’04, Bob Grim, MBA ’05, and Mike Cubbage, MBA ’05, Bigfoot develops technologies that help online games run faster. Powered by its LLR™ Technology (patent-pending), the flagship Killer™ Network Interface Card is the industry’s first such product designed to improve PC game network performance. Killer earned an “Excellent” award from PC Gamer and the Networking Product of the Year award from CPU Magazine.

Phurnace Software, Inc.

Phurnace Software, Inc., founded by Daniel Nelson, MBA ’06, helps companies install, configure and update software running on web application servers. Phurnace originally hoped to land small accounts within larger North American companies, but demand for their configuration management software grew at a quick pace, and they now work with large companies across the globe. The company is expanding sales and development activities for its patent-pending products.

MacuCLEAR

MacuCLEAR, Inc. is developing eye drops to treat certain age-related diseases, including some causes of blindness and vision impairment. MacuCLEAR is progressing in efficacy-testing programs that are being funded from the money they raised in April 2007, and they remain on target and on schedule with the overall development plan for their compounds.

- Tracy Mueller