University of Chicago Booth

History

NVC in the Beginning

In 1997, when students came to professor Steven N. Kaplan with the idea of starting a business plan competition, Kaplan gave them the green light by providing support and coaching for what they dubbed the New Venture Challenge.

"I wanted them to take some ownership, so I told them they needed to do some of the work and I would find judges and some prize money," Kaplan says.

Together they pulled off their first successful competition; however, students felt they needed more time to cultivate their business plans. In order to increase the effectiveness of the business plans and provide the budding entrepreneurs with a network of mentors, professor Kaplan built an innovative course around the competition to make it a process of creating a viable business rather than a day-long event.

​NVC Winners

Today, the NVC has led to the creation of more than 50 companies which have gone on to raise more than $100 million and create hundreds of jobs. Below is a listing of the NVC winners by year since 1997.

 

2008-09

On May 28, 2009, 10 teams presented their businesses to a panel of distinguished judges.

First
(Tie) Bump Technologies, LLC: David Lieb, Jacob Mintz, Dominic Hofstetter, Lars Bergstrom, Andy Huibers and Nine Naturals: Nicole Shariatzadeh, Grace Lee, Umar Haider, Rebecca Wenngatz ($25,000 each)

Second
Mercardi: Eric Etu, Benny Joseph, Jennifer Varela, Eileen Buenviaje, Raina Bijlani
In Context Solutions: Bob Gillespie, Kanika Agarwal, Jeb Ory, Kristine Wexler
Masala Wala: Rohini Pandi, Julian Portillo, Ravi Jolly, Aditya Gupta, David Yi
Virtual Lab: Puneet Jaralapudi, Srinivas Kodali, Kunal Nagpal ($7,000 each)

Finalists
Auto Planet (Global NVC winner): Pankaj Kundra
Optometra: Greg Foster, Alex Bovee, Russell Stewart
Renovatio Labs: Troy Baltic, Scott Giles, Sean Barnes, Anne Wong
Vital Approach: Benjamin Cheng, James Madine, Helmuth Mayer, Ravikant Atreya

 
​2007-08

On May 29, 2008, nine teams presented their businesses to a panel of distinguished judges.

First
(Tie) CaptainU LLC and Cure Particle ($25,000 each)
CaptainU:  Michael Farb, Saad Haider, Paul Hamilos, Mike Pilat, Nicole Shariatzadeh, Avi Stopper, Bryan Wetta
Cure Particle: Rui Hong, Naonori Kurokawa, Isamu Oh

Second
Nursync ($15,000)
Tracie Clisby, Brad Helfand, Amy Karfeld, Gretchen Speakman, Jessica Volk

Third
SoCore Energy LLC ($10,000)
Eric Bielke, Peter Kadens, and JS Roy

Global NVC Winner
eSpace ($5,000)

Finalists
Berlin Döner
Bryon Boone, Jasper Platz

Etoh Pharmaceuticals
Steve Fausch, David Martinelli, Murray Propes

MBA Nexus
Kozue Chiba, Tetsuo Kondo, Shingo Sato, Jan Smith, Teppei Tsutsui

ProOnGo LLC
Scott Hall, Philip Leslie, Lee Womer

ReTel Technologies
George Aspland, Ulrika Haug, Scott Roberts, Adam Rodnitzky

​2006-07

On May 24, 2007, nine teams presented their businesses to a panel of distinguished judges.

First
Braintree Payment Solutions
Bryan Johnson, Chris Kaltenbach, James MacEachern, Wes Thompson

Second
The Perfect Dinner
Karen Gruber, John Jasper, Chetan Joshi, Sue Klaus, Sara McVey, Mike Sorrentino

Varna Research
Richard Jenkins, Derek Robinson, Vikram Vuppala

Fourth
Peekaboo Intimates
Ryan Blask, Carrie Chan, Nida Kamal, Rachel Williamson

Finalists
HydraStats
Luis Carlos Gonzalez-Rosas, Martin Garcia, Koichiro Nakamura, Jonathan Allan

Albion Software
George Aspland, Phil Schwarz

Jaya
Vinod Kesavan, Brad Romney

Catalogic
Ben Abelson, Jesper Andersen, Vijay Gautam, Doug Kohen, Adam Rodnitzky

Septet Systems
Alexandre Brown

For short descriptions of the teams above, please turn to page 3 in the printed program (pdf).

​2005-06

Of the 55 Feasibility Summaries submitted for the 2006 New Venture Challenge, 24 teams advanced into Phase 2 of the competition.

On May 25th, nine teams presented their plans to 19 distinguished judges.

The winners were:


The finalists were


​2004-05

Of the 59 Executive Summaries submitted for the 2005 New Venture Challenge, 31 teams advanced into Phase II of the competition.

On May 26th, 9 teams presented their plans to 19 distinguished judges.

The winners were:


The finalists were:


​2003-04

Of the 51 Executive Summaries submitted for the 2004 New Venture Challenge, 28 teams advanced into Phase II of the competition.

On May 26th, 10 teams presented their plans to 19 distinguished judges.

The winners were:


The finalists were:


​2002-03

Of the 59 Executive Summaries submitted for the 2003 New Venture Challenge, 27 teams advanced into Phase II of the competition.

On May 28th, 9 teams presented their plans to 18 distinguished judges.

The winners were:


The finalists were:


​2001-02

59 Executive Summaries were submitted for the 2002 New Venture Challenge. Of these summaries, 31 teams advanced into Phase II of the competition.

On Thursday, May 22nd, 13 teams presented their plans to 16 distinguished judges. These teams consisted of 8 finalist teams and 5 runner-up teams that competed in a lightning-round competition.

The winners were:

 
The finalists were:


The lightening round participants were:


​2000-01

57 Executive Summaries were submitted for the 2000-2001 academic year, with 31 teams advancing into Phase II of the competition.

On Thursday, May 24th, ten finalist teams presented their plans to 21 distinguished judges.

The winners were:


The finalists were:


​1999-2000


30 teams advanced into the second round.

The winners were:


The finalists were:


​1998-99

The winners were:


19 teams advanced to Phase 2, of which the following 8 teams competed in the finals:


​1997-98

Among 33 teams, over 94 people competed in the 1997-98 NVC (34 second-year Chicago Booth, 28 first-year Chicago Booth, 12 Evening, 1 Weekend, 18 outsiders, and 1 JD/MBA)

On Friday, May 26, 1998, at Gleacher Center, six teams presented to a panel of nine judges (four successful entrepreneurs, four venture capitalists, and one Bain & Company consultant). The six teams included four from the full-time campus program, and one each from the evening and weekend programs.

The winners were:


​1996-97 

The winners were: