December 6, 2002
'Green' MOOT CORP Winner Cleans Up
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Austin, TX - A graduate school business plan that converts organic material into natural gas used to power environmentally friendly energy systems was named the winner of the 2002 fall MOOT CORP® competition.
The competition, sponsored by the McCombs School of Business, means Organic Energy Systems receives the $100,000 grand prize and an opportunity to bring the MBA student venture to market.
“This competition is a launch pad for new ventures,” said Dr. Gary Cadenhead, the competition’s director. “The team will use the $100,000 grand prize as an early stage bridge loan, keeping the venture afloat until it can raise a more substantial investment via its first financing round.”
Organic Energy System’s plan capitalizes on the global initiative for clean energy by making and marketing economical and environmentally friendly distributed energy systems using next-generation biomass fuel technologies.
The three McCombs MBA team members, Tamara Young, Andy Rose, and Ted Calvin, said their plan entails use of a five-megawatt gas turbine system that will convert organic materials into natural gas that could be marketed “in a $40 billion market that will also serve to make the world a better place.”
The MBA student team was chosen from among four finalists competing Thursday out of a group of 12 that initially competed last month.
The competition is a real world simulation of how venture capital is raised. Judges, themselves prominent venture capitalists, act as an investment group seeking consensus on the business venture they would most likely fund. Teams are judged based on their idea’s quality, strength of the management team, and the persuasiveness of the written plan and oral presentation.
In addition to the funding, the winning team receives one year’s free rent in the Austin Technology Incubator and a spot in the prestigious global MOOT CORP® competition in the spring.
Conceived in a dorm room in 1983 by a pair of McCombs MBAs, MOOT CORP® has grown from a UT-only business plan competition to become the oldest and most lucrative prize of all university-based competitions. BusinessWeek has termed it the Super Bowl of business-plan competitions.
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
