Oxford@MOOTCorp

2003-05-06T12:24:00.000Z

Back home

After another 17 hours we're back home safe. We got a warm welcome from our classmates who asked us how we did and whether it was fun. The time in the plane was spent reading, sleeping, and congesting everything we learned in Texas. This results in a few remarks about how the competition can improve.

First of all, the absence of VC's on the social events was strange. Even on the Venture Showcase, no VC's were present so we ended up presenting our plans to eachother - fun, but useful? I'm not so sure. So it was less of a networking opportunity than would be expected from such a high profile competition.
Secondly, the rules of the game: officially, teams were not allowed to have sales already and no investment other than private was allowed. I guess only about 50% of the teams complied with that rule.
Thirdly, it was a bit strange that our feedback was not solicited at all. So I'm posting it here.
And lastly, it was very much a one-man's show. And the one man who's show it is coaches the team from the University of Texas every year - who apparently are in the top 3 every year. The competition would, in our view, benefit from engaging more people in the process and from some controls on executing the rules (see point 2).

Are these sour grapes? No. We had a great time and learned a lot. The teams in the top 3 outclassed us on a number of points so the fact that we did not win is justified. But that does not mean the competition is perfect. If this competition wants to grow further in prestige, number of universities and countries participating, and quality we believe it should make a few changes and we hope to be constructive.

We'd like to end this blog with a big thank-you to the Said Business School who supported us, especially Stephan Chambers, and to our classmates, and to the organization and all the other participants. It was great. We will continue building our new venture and we hope the other teams will as well.

2003-05-06T12:05:00.000Z

Last evening in Austin

KidSmart, a company making smoke detectors on which parents can record a customized message for their kids telling them to get up and leave the house, has won the competition. Congratulations! I hope they do well.

The last evening in Austin consisted of a formal dinner in which the awards were handed out. Mobius won in their final group which is, in our view, justice at last. We did not win anything, but the fact that we've learned so much in a few days and have had such a great time makes it worth every minute of it. Congratulations to the organizers on pulling off such an event.

The last evening was spent going out in town. It concided with the Austin art festival so the town was humming with activity. We explored some more bars and I ended up at 3 AM discussing whether the war in Iraq was justified with people from Australia, South Africa, and England. It was absolutely great.

2003-05-03T19:10:00.000Z

Feedback, Night out, and Challenge round

The feedback we got yesterday was very helpful. The judges had read our plan very well, and we found out that many of the questions they had asked earlier were based on the business plan rather than on the presentation. Some of the issues they brought up were wording issues that require only cosmetic changes, and some were actual content issues we should address: we should rethink our revenue projections and lower the risks associated with the plan. We feel good about the feedback because it gives us clear directions what to change. And, they even gave us feedback on how to deal with VC questions.

After that, we had a wine & cheese reception in the cafe of a grocery store. Spencer's parents had travelled all the way from Portland to see us in action here in Austin. They joined the reception and after that took us out to a great steakhouse downtown. Thanks again! After that, Daniel, Spencer and I went out with some other teams for music, drinks, and a few rounds of pool. Austin is a very vibrant, friendly town and the evening was well spent - lots of bands playing, crowded streets, great atmosphere.

This morning we had an interactive half-hour "challenge round" - with 2 judges who on purpose had not read our plan. We talked mostly about the product, decided to let them lead with questions rather than formally present, and again used the prototype to show how it works. Spencer's parents were in the audience. Tonight we'll hear how well (or how badly) we did.

The next posting will probably have to wait until we're back in Oxford, as we will travel back tomorrow morning.

2003-05-02T19:28:00.000Z

Not in Finals

SoftStitch made it to the finals. Apparently they had very good market sizing figures - I'm saying apparently because they presented before we did and therefore we were not allowed to see their presentation. First runner-up was ED Protocols. We were very surprised that Mobius didn't get any further (or we, for that matter: one of the fellows approached us and said he was surprised we didn't come in first or second). So, the 2 teams that scored high were the 2 software development teams. In the other groups, mostly software and biotech scored high. In an hour we'll have a feedback session with the judges and then we will know more. We are quite disappointed, of course, but as one of the PlasVacc guys said (who also didn't get through): now at least we can really party tonight!

2003-05-02T17:28:00.000Z

Venture Showcase and First Round

Yesterday, after an off-the-record presentation with feedback, everyone presented themselves in the Venture Showcase. We could take a good look at the competition: many biotech, a truck that eliminates mines, a dog daycare (outsourcing dog operations, so at the end you have a dog and all it does in your house is sleep. Feeding, walking, etc is all done at the daycare center), and many others. And for us: Texas is full of people who like to meddle with cars so we had lots of informed questions, and the prototype was taken apart on numerous occasions. Our demo that small droplets burn better than big droplets attracted lots of attention and worked very well (beautiful blue flame front traveling through a transparent tube), although Spencer almost set the faculty advisor of another team on fire...

Today is the first round, where we're competing against 5 other teams. Our competition is elederm (anti-aging stuff), SoftStitch (software for consumer needlecraft patterns), Latech (removing allergenic proteins from rubber), ED Protocols (software to automate emergency department observation centers) and Mobius Microsystems (electronic clocks for microchips, replacing the current crystal based clocks). We just did our presentation and got some pretty tough questions. "So, if you need to get OEM approval anyway and they see your product, why bother selling to the retrofit market?" "Why do you think you can out-innovate Ford?" Our plan is rather big, so of course people want to drill down. And we almost ran out of time but Kelum managed the time constraint brilliantly. But on the whole, it was a lot of fun, we managed pretty well I'd say and very soon we'll hear how far we got. The no's 1 in each group go to the finals, the no's 2 to the "Murphree Venture Partners Challenge", and the others to the Money rounds. We'll keep you posted.

2003-05-01T16:12:00.000Z

Welcome reception

Austin here we are! After 4 hours sleep and a grueling 18 hours travel, we had 45 minutes to get ready for the welcome reception. We met most of the contestants, most of whom are doing really interesting projects from wrinke reduction pads to CRM software. And for the first time in my life, my table manners were inadequate: in Texas people are apparently so used to eating with only a fork that the hotel staff didn't bother giving us knives (and most things were too big to stick into your mouth at once). My skill in using the side of a fork as a knife while standing up networking was severely tested. But then, when in Rome...

And we found out that we're up to very, very tough competition on Friday: we're in a group with the winners of the local competition in Silicon Valley. Who, of course, circumvented telling us what the were about. And only the no 1 of every group gets to the finals on Saturday. But, as Spencer pointed out, better to take the competition on right from the start.

Today we're in "feedback rounds", where we can test our presentation and hear back from local investors what to to better tomorrow. And tonight is the venture showcase, a kind of fair where we present our business. So this afternoon we'll be shopping for materials for our demo (bringing isopropylalcohol, >90% pure, on a plane is not the best of all ideas).

2003-04-29T20:28:00.000Z

The Night Before

I am packing my suitcase. We have to be at the bus stop by 5:00 AM (which I am not looking forward to!). I feel pretty good about our preparations. We've printed the brochures and copies of the plan and practiced the pitch and presentation.

We'll be missing multiple days of classes, so we are taking lots of reading material for the plane ride.

2003-04-29T12:49:00.000Z

Who we are

In all the work to get ready for the competition we haven't yet explained who we are and what we do. So that's for today's entry.
So far you've heard of 5 students going to Austin. But the 5 of us are by far not the whole of the company we represent: in fact, we joined the 4 founders and a group of high-caliber researchers of an existing start-up in Salt Lake City, Utah.

What our company does

Our company has invented a fuel delivery system that increases fuel efficiency and lowers emissions in an internal-combustion vehicle. The fuel delivery system is a device that sits between the fuel tank and the engine. It is thus an add-on to the engine, and that's a major advantage: other attempts to either increase fuel efficiency or lower emissions usually require significant engine rework. One of the engineers of our company drives his pick-up truck with one of these devices and can bolt it on in 10 minutes only.

Why that matters

Higher fuel efficiency is of major importance to truck owners, for whom it represents 30% of operating costs. Our device can cut off 1/3 of those costs. In a fragmented industry like the transportation industry, any savings counts.

How the Said Business School fits in

Our MBA program requires us to write a business plan. For us, that was a major opportunity: we were already going to write the business plan for our company, and now we could make our plan double up for an academic requirement. And from the 35 or so business plans that were written, ours was selected to represent the Said Business School in the MOOTCorp competition.

What's next

As we are truly starting the company, and much more testing needs to be done before we can commercialize the product, we are also in the process of securing venture capital. The world is tough out there nowadays: the holy grail is apparently found every day and VC's are careful. But then, if I may quote Utterback: 'Radical Innovation never originates with the market leader'... Ford, GM, Cummins are looking for the same thing that we have found. But should we be surprised they haven't found it? Anyway, progress with VC's is slow but steady. The competition is a great opportunity to move things forward.

2003-04-27T15:33:00.000Z

Pitching

Finalizing the presentation, practicing the elevator pitch. It is amazing how time flies with little practice sessions like these. Perhaps the greatest advantage of practicing is confidence: knowing what you want to say, being familiar with every single slide. And we need to prepare for the Venture Showcase, a fair where every team presents itself. It would have been nice if we knew about that more than 5 days in advance, but I guess we just have to be flexible. We have the prototype and will try to set up a demo how our product works. And some posters and stuff.

The school had a networking skills workshop scheduled last Saturday so that came in very handy as well. It's not rocket science, but knowing some do's and don'ts doesn't hurt.

Just read an article that was less than comforting: apparently a BusinessWeek columnist sees a trend that business plans - and with the plans also the competitions - are becoming less important as vehicles to attract venture capital. Check it out here.

2003-04-24T12:50:00.000Z

Practicing the presentation

So now we're practicing on video. We've run through the presentation a couple of times, were all embarassed to see ourselves on video, and dealt with the major struggle of explaining with 5 people in 15 minutes how our device works, how we are going to bring it to market - which market, for that matter - and who we are and what the profit potential is. We don't want to cut back too much on the product section because we believe it is the product that will sell us to investors, yet the competition puts quite a bit of emphasis on operations. And current common thinking about VC's is that they only look for the right team, more than product or market. So we try to cover everything. And furthermore: some of us need to move around more, some less, some should stop stumbling over their words but the outlook is good.

2003-04-22T09:51:00.000Z

8 Days And Counting

Next week Wednesday we'll fly off to Austin for the MOOTCorp business plan competition. Who's "we"? Well, we are Damian, Daniel, Spencer, Kelum, and Maria, all Oxford MBA students at the Said Business School, Oxford University, UK.