The first ever Business Model Competition at the Telfer School of Management took place Wednesday, March 14th, 2007. Contestants were selected from the Seminar in Administration ADM 3396, Entrepreneurialist Culture, offered by Bruce Firestone, as well as top participants from the Entrepreneurs Club Elevator Pitch competition.

 

Contestants were asked to present their business model in five minutes in front of three judges. At stake was cash for the top three contestants and entry into the University of Ottawa Wes Nichol competition the following week for the top six contestants.

 

Competition organizer Dr. Bruce M. Firestone said: We had thirteen terrific entries this year, some of whom had passed through the fire and brimstone of the Entrepreneurs Club Elevator Pitch competition. Now the top six teams will get a chance to compete in the University of Ottawa Wes Nichol competition for $10,000 in prize money. It should be an intense and exciting next step.

 

After deliberating, the judges finally returned and stated that had more time been given, they would have continued arguing placements. Judge Fayez Thawer said of the competition: It was nice to see young entrepreneurs in action, well done across the board.

 

 

The top teams in order of placements were:

 

  1. Gaming Flicks, (Mike Stewart, Osh Mendis and Matt Karam) an online forum where gamers may share tricks, videos, and information. Users post information or videos, and other users rate how useful this information is, flicking it to the top or bottom of the page. (Business Plan, Financials, Slide Presentation, Sample Video.)
  2. Image Search, (Chris) a software application that allows searching by image, and grouping like images.
  3. Online Sales Force, (Andrei Z., Adam Moede, Celine Tacniere, Kristaps Kuplais) is a website that allows companies to attract the public to sell their products/inventory online. Individuals sign up to become the selling force and earn a commission from the sales. The companies would earn money from the sales. The website would allow anyone to earn extra income.
  4. Boite a Pizza, (Niroshan Rajakone) which introduces advertising capabilities to the inside of the pizza box. Because the boxes are being sold at a cheaper price than the market, the profit made will be double as compared to a usual pizza box retailer. Selling this concept to advertisers and marketing companies greatly increases the profit of this project. (Power Point, Plan D’Affaire, Modele Enterprise, Value Proposition, Spreadsheet.)
  5. Ready Rice (David Dao and Billy Santoso) is a food chain which will begin operations in Vietnam selling rice pasta dishes as a street vendor. It will provide a special kind of rice pasta to sell to individuals as a ready made meal.
  6. Connections Accounting, (Steve Mitchell, Geoffrey Scoates, Dan Racicot and Mary Ellen Matsui) is a human resource company that connects small businesses with accountants and bookkeepers. It provides the small businesses with professional work at a lower cost than our competitors; while, giving the accountants access steady work and higher pay. Our business will be focused in Ottawa to start, but easily expandable in the future.
  7. Innumerous (Jasmine Campbell, Jasmine Sultan, Andrew Colautti and Di Kou) is a website with natural language question and answer capabilities.

 

Judge Robin Chahal said: The University of Ottawa business model competition is a fantastic idea cutting straight to the heart of what makes a business work.  The intelligence, ambition, and drive of the contestants were inspirational.

 

The panel of judges consisted of:

 

  • Robin Chahal, Software Consultant
  • Dr. Bruce M. Firestone, B.Eng. (Civil), M. Eng.-Sci., PhD., Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa
  • Fayez Thawer of the Day’s Inn Ottawa

 

 

 

Liz Mainwaring

University of Ottawa Business Model Competition media representative

(613) 286-1051

 

http://www.dramatispersonae.org/BusinessModelCompetition/DescriptionUOBizModelCompetition.htm