Whitman School team awarded 4th in University of Nebraska business plan competition

Whitman School team awarded 4th in University of Nebraska business plan competitionMarch 22, 2004Cynthia J. Moritzcjmoritz@syr.edu

Martin J. Whitman School of Management seniors Jeremy Calandrino, Maggie Chwaleba, Brian Nelson, Richard Reginelli and Kimberly Salley recently represented Syracuse University in one of the nation’s most established business plan competitions and came away with a fourth-place finish for their business concept, CapturCam. The 17th annual International Venture Competition, held Feb. 26-28 and sponsored by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship, drew 22 teams from across the United States and abroad.

The CapturCam team earned the chance to participate in this international competition by winning top honors in the Whitman School’s fall Captsone Business Plan Competition, in which strategic and entrepreneurial management students worked as teams to create concepts and business plans for new ventures.

“This team has made amazing progress since they won our internal competition last December,” observes Prof. Michael Morris, chair of the entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises department and the Chris Witting Chair in Entrepreneurship. “Watching them present their plan at Nebraska and handle a lot of tough questioning from the judges-all of whom were entrepreneurs-made me especially proud of their performance.”

The judges had high praise for the team’s concept, plan and passion for their enterprise. “They especially liked that we’d segmented our market to safeguard against changing demographics,” notes Salley, “and said that of all the teams, we best convinced them that we as individuals were the right people to be running the company. Two judges asked to be updated on the future success of our venture; as they handed us their business cards they told us, ‘You kids are going to make millions!’ “

CapturCam is a company that rents digital video cameras at high-traffic vacation destinations, converts clients’ footage into CD/DVD format and mails the final product back home. “We turn moments into memories by applying editing techniques and adding personalized elements to ensure that each family receives its own magical vacation story,” says Salley.

“The experience at the University of Nebraska made all the long hours of work on our business plan worthwhile,” says Chwaleba. “It’s exciting working toward a goal and realizing its achievement. And we had the chance to meet eager professors, venture capitalists, business people from all walks of life and students much like ourselves.”

The CapturCam concept hasn’t seen its last competition. The team is further polishing its plan for participation in the annual Syracuse Business Plan Competition, where 56 teams led by SU students will vie for seed money totaling $40,000. The team will also represent the University at Venture Adventure, an undergraduate business plan competition hosted by the Center for Entrepreneurial & Family Enterprises at Colorado State University in April.