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The Entrepreneur Center @NVTC Co-hosts First Venture Capital Entrepreneur Challenge of 2008

NVTC Member Company Wins $10,000 Seed Prize

(l-r) Kristin Seitz, The Entrepreneur Center @NVTC;
Katherine Magalif Thomas, TiE-DC; Steve Thomas,
TiE-DC; Phil Brown, Conflicts Authority; Holden
Hoofnagle, Conflicts Authority; Ila Talwar,
The Entrepreneur Center @NVTC; Manoj Ramnani,
DubMeNow; and Emily Campbell, TiE-DC

The Entrepreneur Center @NVTC and TiE-DC co-hosted the first Venture Capital Entrepreneur Challenge of 2008 March 6 at the Tower Club in Vienna. Building on a series of private VC "Elevator Pitch Dinners," also co-hosted by the two organizations, the Challenge was the first business pitch competition of the year held before an audience of more than 80 entrepreneurs and investors.

Five out of the 10 early-stage entrepreneurial companies chosen to compete for a $10,000 seed prize and test their "elevator pitches" before a panel of judges were NVTC members. And the first-place seed prize of $10,000 was awarded to Phil Brown and Holden Hoofnagle of NVTC member company Conflicts Authority.

In addition to Brown and Hoofnagle, the following entrepreneurs presented their business plans during the evening:

Greg Alexander of e210 (an Entrepreneur SOLUTIONS Participant)
Jay Amirmokri of Ultracomm
Dede Haskins of InTouch Systems (NVTC Member Company)
Chris Hopkinson of TaxScan (NVTC Member)
Daniel Odio of Maptimizer (NVTC Member)
Joe Ordia of Ordia Solutions (NVTC Member Company)
Ranjan Pant of BPL Products
Manoj Ramnani of DubMeNow (awarded second prize of airfare and complimentary admission to a TiE conference of his choice to be held either in Boston or Silicon Valley)
David Sherbow of MPTrax (Entrepreneur SOLUTIONS Participant)

The judges included Melissa Carrier, Director, Venture Investments and Social Entrepreneurship, Dingman Center of Entrepreneurship; Rajesh Rai, Principal, New Markets Growth Fund; Bill Watson, Director, Investments, CIT Gap Fund; April Young Managing Director, Comerica Bank; and Jonathan Wallace, Partner, WWC Capital Group.

The competition was kicked off by 17-year-old Aaron Sacks, winner of the 2006 National Foundation of Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Regional Business Plan competition, who provided a special presentation about his company, You're On Deck.

The Entrepreneur Center @NVTC congratulates the winners and the other participating entrepreneurs!

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