Ever hear about a company and think to yourself, “What was it like before they really hit it big?” I do. I’m always curious to hear about how a business started out. Fortunately for me, BioVenture 2009 had three such companies, all of which are just beginning to gain momentum.
BioVentures, an event hosted by Creighton University’s BioScience Entrepreneurship Program and the Halo Institute, was designed to give the aspiring entrepreneurs involved the chance to pitch their concepts to an audience of local experts. These experts then had the opportunity to vote for the pitch that they thought was best by submitting a ballot in the form of a donation. The donations were then awarded to the teams as startup capital.
I stopped by the Halo Institute the night of the event for the opportunity to see three interesting companies forming and speak with some of the presenters before the “show”. I took a little time from each of the teams to record their elevator pitches. You can see them in the video below.
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I spoke with Zach Sutton of the Rx Quote team. You may remember his teammate, Andrew McLaughlin, from a previous Cornstalks with Anne York of Creighton. Rx Quote is a website that helps users to find low-cost pharmaceuticals by comparing their cost across several insurance plans.
I also touched base with with Sam Bhatia of Guru Instruments, a current tenant of the Halo Institute. Guru produces ergonomic medical devices that make surgical instruments easier and more comfortable to use. Guru already has a number of products available, as well as a number of clients that they are working with in the area.
The third team’s product is called iDrop. I spoke with Steven Kelly of the iDrop team about their device, a glucose-reading peripheral for the iPhone or iPod Touch. Kelly, a lifelong type 2 diabetic himself, developed the concept after receiving his own iPod Touch a few years ago. To learn more about iDrop, I recommend reading Ross Boettcher’s coverage of BioVenture 2009 in the Omaha World-Herald, which focused on Kelly.
Students have the touch for business success Published Saturday November 21, 2009
Six times a day, Steven Kelly, a diabetic, pricks his finger, places a drop of blood onto a testing strip and measures his blood sugar.
A bioscience entrepreneurship student at Creighton University, Kelly, 22, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, when he was 3 years old […]
Another contributor to the program that I met was Mary Ann Wendland from Creighton’s department of intellectual resources management. Wendland is a member of a team at Creighton that was assembled to support the students who participate in the university’s Entrepreneurship Program.
The big winners from the evening turned out to be the iDrop team, who took home the lion’s share of the audience’s donations. Nonetheless, all of the presenters have a bright future ahead of them. I, for one, am looking forward to good things from all three companies. I’m glad I got the chance to meet everyone. A few years from now, when they’ve all hit it big, I can say, “I knew them when…”
