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Entrepreneurship Week and the New Venture Challenge

The University of Colorado’s inaugural Entrepreneurship Week began April 13 with a luncheon on starting companies at CU and culminated April 17 with the announcement of winners of the http://cunvc.org/"; target="_blank" title="http://cunvc.org/">CU New Venture Challenge, the university’s first business-plan competition for students and faculty. The week was a campus-wide initiative comprising the http://www.silicon-flatirons.org/index.php"; target="_blank" title="http://www.silicon-flatirons.org/index.php">Silicon Flatirons Center, the http://leeds.colorado.edu/Deming/index.aspx?id=548"; target="_blank" title="http://leeds.colorado.edu/Deming/index.aspx?id=548">Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, the http://www.colorado.edu/atlas/"; target="_blank" title="http://www.colorado.edu/atlas/">ATLAS Institute, the http://itp.colorado.edu/"; target="_blank" title="http://itp.colorado.edu/">Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program, the http://eship.colorado.edu/"; target="_blank" title="http://eship.colorado.edu/">Engineering Entrepreneurship (E-Ship) Program, the https://www.cu.edu/techtransfer/"; target="_blank" title="https://www.cu.edu/techtransfer/">University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office, and numerous students and faculty members.

http://www.colorado.gov/governor">Governor Bill Ritter helped mark the weeklong events on April 16 by announcing information and communications technology (ICT) as a pillar of the state’s economic-development strategy. Ritter delivered the keynote address at a conference titled “Putting the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Perspective” at Colorado Law. The event brought leading academics and business people to campus to discuss entrepreneurship as a horizontally integrated “ecosystem,” in contrast to the traditional top-down structure of corporate America. The governor committed to promoting Colorado’s Front Range as a national hub for technological entrepreneurship, noting that the area has one of the country’s most highly educated populations, as well as high concentrations of software engineers, aerospace workers, and university researchers.

The teams competing in the New Venture Challenge provided a window into the exciting, high-caliber innovations and business ideas emerging from CU. Eight teams presented their plans before a panel of judges, made up of investors, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and service professionals in the community. Four teams were chosen to continue to the finals. The four judges were Paul Berberian, co-founder and former CEO of http://www.techstars.org/mentors/pberberrian/"; target="_blank" title="http://www.techstars.org/mentors/pberberrian/">Raindance;; Catharine Merigold, general partner of http://www.vistaventures.com/assoc2.htm"; target="_blank" title="http://www.vistaventures.com/assoc2.htm">Vista Ventures; Ryan McIntyre, managing director of http://www.foundrygroup.com/"; target="_blank" title="http://www.foundrygroup.com/">The Foundry Group; and Nancy Pierce, co-founder of http://www.carrieraccessinc.com/"; target="_blank" title="http://www.carrieraccessinc.com/">Carrier Access.

The April 16 conference also included presentations of academic research and discussions by panelists: