 |
|
 |  |  |  |  |  |
MBA grads pitch new ventures on ROBTv
July 15, 2003
2003-07-15 - Four Queen’s 2003 MBA graduates were in the hot seat on Report on Business Television’s show “The Bottom Line with Michael Vaughan” on July 15th, when each made a 60-second pitch to a panel of venture capitalists.
The telecast simulated the business plan competition each had participated in as part of their New Venture course, taught by Professor Elspeth Murray in both the MBA for Science & Technology and Executive MBA programs. Both competitions featured a $10,000 first prize, funded by the School’s Venture Management initiative supporters Greg Cochrane, MBA’74 and Paul Hyde.
Host Michael Vaughan began the segment by interviewing Elspeth Murray and Greg Cochrane about Queen’s Venture Management initiative, then spoke with last year’s MBAst prize winner and a former presenter on the show, Samit Sharma, of Gaia Power, on his company’s recent progress.
Next up were the pitches by this year’s presenters: MBAst graduates Nicolas Joujou, Doug Ewing and Marcel Valentin, along with Executive MBA’03 grad David Seto. Each had 60 seconds to make their pitch to venture capitalists Suzie Dingwall Williams, founder of Dingwall Williams Venture Law and Salim Teja, Venture Partner at Brightspark Ventures.
Under bright TV lights and the pressure of a live broadcast, the presenters made their pitches while the clock counted down. Only one was interrupted by the sound of the buzzer. Pointed questions from the VCs led to quick-thinking responses by the presenters. At the show’s conclusion, host Vaughan and VCs Dingwall Williams and Teja evaluated the presentations, praising all four for their high quality and thoroughness.
“I’ve read a lot of business plans from people looking for VC financing, and this group’s presentations really raised the bar for me,” said Suzie Dingwall Williams after the show.