Congratulations to the 2013 Winners

1st Place: Health Care Originals - Sharon Samjitsingh ’13 (MS), Prinson Dsouza ’13 (MS), Ran Gao ’13 (MS), ChenChen Qu ’13 (MS)

2nd Place: SMP MicroStamps - Megan DeWitt ’13 (MS), Andrew Durney ’16 (PhD), William Finnie ’13 (MS), Kwaku Owusu ’14S (MBA)

3rd Place: Ovitz - Joungyoon “Felix” Kim ’14, Gyeonghun Lee ’13S (MS), Hyieop Lim ’13S (MS)

Finalist: SixFold Equity - Alicia Henn ’13S (EMBA), Martin Birmingham ’13S (EMBA), Anthony Froix ’13S (EMBA), Nancy Sutton ’13S (EMBA), Michael Van Meter ’13S (EMBA), Marcos Rodriguez ’13S (EMBA)

Finalist: Formation 3D - Steven Trambert ’13, Alex Feiszli ’14, Eric Frank ’13


View the photo gallery from the 2013 competition.


2013 Mark Ain Business Model Competition: Full Video



2013 Mark Ain Business Model Workshops and Competition

Mark Ain Workshop Series
All workshops will be held from 4:00pm-5:15pm in Gleason Hall, Room 318/418. Refreshments are served at all workshops.

Tuesday, January 29: 4:00-5:15pm
Ain Workshop 1: “Overview of the Competition and Idea Thickening”
Instructors: Entrepreneurs Association; and Mark Wilson, Lecturer, Simon School and Founder, Initiatives Consulting, LLC
Gleason Hall, Room 318/418 (3rd and 4th floors)
Register online.


Tuesday, February 26: 4:00-5:15pm
Ain Workshop 2: "Developing a Business Plan"
Instructors: Dennis Kessler, Edward J. and Agnes V. Ackley Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship, Simon School and Co-Owner, Friendly’s and Burger Kings
Gleason Hall, Room 318/418 (3rd and 4th floors)
Register online.


Wednesday, March 27: 4:00-5:15pm
Ain Workshop 3: "Financing and Pitching"
Instructors: Simon School Venture Capital Fund; and Rami Katz, Chief Operating Officer, Excell Partners, Inc.
Gleason Hall, Room 318/418 (3rd and 4th floors)
Register online.


Mark Ain Business Model Competition

Wednesday, April 17: 4:00pm
Submissions for Competition Due: Executive Summaries ONLY
Hard copies to: Center for Entrepreneurship, 1-211 Carol Simon Hall

Wednesday, April 24
Semi-Finalists Announced via Email Notification

Thursday, April 25
Semi-Finalists Business Plans Due
Hard copies to: Center for Entrepreneurship, 1-211 Carol Simon Hall

Wednesday, May 1
Semi-Finalists’ Presentation Slide Decks Due

Thursday, May 2: 4:00pm
Semi-Finalist Presentation Round
Gleason Hall, Room 318/418 (3rd and 4th floors)

Friday, May 3
Finalists Announced via Email Notification

Wednesday, May 15: 12:00pm
Mark Ain Business Model Competition Finalists' Presentations and Judging
Eisenberg Rotunda, Schlegel Hall
Register online.

Need an idea? Try contacting Patrick Emmerling (pemmerling@ott.rochester.edu) at the Office of Technology Transfer. The OTT has several interesting and viable patents that can be used as the basis of a business idea.

Important Information

2013 Competitors Guide - PDF

Competition Rules and Guidelines

Business Feasibility Outline Resource Guide - PDF

Business Model Canvas - PDF

Ain Workshop 1 PowerPoint - PDF

Ain Workshop 1 - Prelude Pro Forma Template

Ain Workshop 2 PowerPoint - PDF

Ain Workshop 3 PowerPoint - PDF


2013 Workshop 3: Video


2013 Workshop 2: Video



2013 Workshop 1: Video


Congratulations to the 2012 Winners

1st Place: LighTip - Cristina Canavesi (PhD), Nebiat Kidane ’12 (MBA), Cheng Shu ’12 (MS), Luis Soto ’12 (MS)

2nd Place: Mono-Mano - Travis Block ’12 (BS), Sara Hutchinson ’12 (BS), Dominic Marino ’12 (BS), David Narrow ’12 (BS), Martin Szeto ’12 (BS)

3rd Place: TrueSeal - Shaojie Liu ’12 (MS), Rachel Rakvica ’12 (MS), Sijia Sun ’12 (MS), Ethan Williams ’12 (MBA)

Finalist: Kukla Tea Company - Clarissa Perkins ’12 (BA)

Finalist: Poseidon - Nicole Varble ’12 (MS), Christopher McLane ’12 (MBA), Laurana Ryback ’12 (MS)

View the photo gallery from the 2012 competition.



2012 Mark Ain Business Model Competition: Full Video



2012 Workshop 3: Video


2012 Workshop 2: Video


2012 Workshop 1: Video


Congratulations to the 2011 Winners

1st Place: Maravilla - Henry Eshenour ’11 (MBA), Tim DeGrave ’11 (MBA), Christopher Larsen ’11 (MBA)

2nd Place: TaaDoo - Kevin Beavers ’11 (EMBA), Chad Carta ’11 (MBA), Brennan Mulcahey ’11 (MBA), David Reiner ’11 (MBA)

3rd Place: OmNeo, LLC - Benjamin Freedman ’11 (BS), Johanna Kelly ’11 (BS)

Finalist: MRSA - Boris Alvarez ’11 (MS), Daniela Santibanez ’11 (MS), Sergio Toloza ’11 (MS)

Finalist: VendiCab - Seth Hauben ’11 (MBA), Alex Sylvester ’11 (MBA), Maya Boyd ’11 (MBA), Deirdre Corbi ’11 (MBA), Stanley Cheung ’11 (MBA)


2011 Mark Ain Business Model Competition: Full Video



2011 Workshop 2: Video


2011 Workshop 1: Video


Congratulations to the 2010 Winners

1st Place: MediTel Health Solutions - Benjamin George '13 (MD) and Jason Reminick '13 (MD and MBA)

2nd Place: QMD Biosystems - Christophe Dorrer'11 (MBA), Soumya Mitra '10 (MBA), and Jie Qiao '11 (MBA)

3rd Place: I-Squared Materials - Sriram Atchutuni '10 (EMBA), Pankaj Gupta '13 (PhD), Nitin Tyagi '11 (MS), and Weston Wicks '11 (MBA)

Finalist: Oregano.com - Byron Barnes '10 (MBA), James Hart '10 (MD and PhD), Brian Jenssen '10 (MD), Jason Morrow '10 (MBA), and Alexander Pearson '10 (MD and PhD)

Finalist: Arm EmBrace - Sara Ripp '10 (BS) and Kerry Wang '10 (BS)


2010 Mark Ain Business Model Competition: Full Video


2010 Workshop 3: Video


2010 Workshop 2: Video


2010 Workshop 1: Video


Congratulations to the 2009 Winners

1st Place: CustomEyes - Melissa Chow, Ying Geng, Rodrigo Mancilla, Abbie Tippie

2nd Place: MCH Management - Christopher Czarnecki, Jeffrey Haniff, Brian Mirochnik

3rd Place: Polynet Technology - Cheryl Blechman, Woojin Han, Alvin Lomibao, Charity Wallace

Finalist: Brightwave Solar, Inc. - Eric Christensen, Xinye Lou, Jonathan Sherwood, Raisa Velthuis

Finalist: Target Waveform, Inc. - Prashant Baveja, Shih-Shuan (Sean) Hsu, Matt Piede, Christy Sheehy


2009 Mark Ain Business Model Competition: Full Video


2009 Workshop 3: Video

Workshop 3: Financials, Cash Flow, Balance Sheets

Instructor: Gina Mangiamele, Assistant Director of Education and Counseling, Simon Graduate School of Business


2009 Workshop 2: Video and PowerPoint Presentation

Workshop 2: Competitive Analysis, Customer Identification, the 4 P's

Instructor: Kara Painting, Managing Partner/Creative Director, Dixon Schwabl Advertising

Workshop 2 Powerpoint Presentation by Kara Painting - PDF



2009 Workshop 1: Video

Workshop 1: Market Need, Opportunity, Idea Formation

Instructor: Dennis Kessler, Edward and Agnes Ackley Professor of Entrepreneurship at the

Simon Graduate School of Business and co-owner of Friendly’s and Burger Kings across upstate New York


2008 Mark Ain Business Model Competition: Full Video


2007 Workshop: Video

Workshop 1: Articulating your business idea



Watch Workshop 1 video separately