HBS held the finals of its fourth annual Business Plan Contest on the afternoon of May 1, 2000, and some 900 students, guests, and others jammed Burden Auditorium on the HBS campus to see a start-up called Bang Networks come away the winner. According to its four founders (three of whom are members of the Harvard MBA Class of 2000), Bang Networks will provide "leading Internet companies with a first-of-its-kind infrastructure network that will revolutionize the Web."
The winning team received as the symbol of their triumph the Dubilier Prize (established in honor of the late Martin Dubilier, HBS MBA '52, cofounder of the prominent LBO firm of Clayton, Dubilier, and Rice), as well as $10,000 in cash and $10,000 in in-kind professional services. The ten judges for the final competition, a number of them HBS graduates, represented an array of top venture capital firms.
The three runner-up teams, who will also share awards in cash and in-kind services, were (in alphabetical order) KNUMI, which is developing technology to enable "media content providers to create a highly interactive experience for end-users;" Sound MicroSystems, Inc., which is commercializing technology for the development of a silicon microphone; and 3Plex.com, a going B2B enterprise that has already garnered $16 million in funding to match shipping companies with their suppliers via the Internet.
More than 100 teams involving over 300 students initially entered the competition, which eventually narrowed the field to 11 semifinalists and then 4 finalists. Some 95 percent of the plans represented dot-com ventures.
"The extraordinary level of participation and accomplishment in the HBS Business Plan Contest reflects the fact that student interest in entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School is at an all-time high," said Dean Kim B. Clark. "The diverse mix of courses HBS offers in entrepreneurial management comprises nearly a fifth of our elective enrollments. This activity builds on more than five decades of research and teaching experience in this area all based on a behavioral model that defines entrepreneurship as a distinct approach to managing."
Jon Burgstone and Asif Satchu, both members of the HBS MBA Class of 1999 and founders of Suppliermarket.com, an online marketplace for industrial buyers and suppliers that was a runner-up in last year's contest and that has raised $48 million in venture capital, delivered words of advice for those following in their footsteps. "Build the right management team and partner with the right investors," they said. "Choose a business model you can be passionate about 24/7, then focus on the product and listen to the customer."
Past HBS Business Plan Contest finalists include success stories such as Chemdex, the leading provider of electronic commerce solutions in the laboratory supply market; CitySoft, which delivers Web sites and intranet applications while helping people from urban America fulfill their potential; and ZEFER Corp., an Internet consulting firm.
A long-term effort that is integrated into the student participants' academic work and carried out under the guidance of an HBS faculty member, the Business Plan Contest also provides a series of 12 seminars — the HBS Entrepreneurial Learning Program (H.E.L.P) — to provide students with tools regarding the launch of their venture as well as direct exposure to industry practices and people. Each seminar is led by a professional such as a venture capitalist, investment banker, or accomplished entrepreneur who offers a systematic and practical approach to their specific subject. The seminars include a 60 to 90 minute presentation as well as a question-and-answer session. Topics covered this year included Developing a Winning Business Plan, Legal Aspects of Launching Your Venture, Managing Your Firm's Intellectual Property, and Negotiating Early Stage Deals.
Harvard Business School offered the country's first business school course in entrepreneurship in 1947. Today, the HBS Entrepreneurial Studies Initiative is comprised of a comprehensive set of programs, including MBA and Executive Education courses, faculty research and course development activities, and extracurricular opportunities such as the Business Plan Contest. More than 30 faculty are members of the Entrepreneurial and Service Management Unit, offering some sixteen electives as well as the required course The Entrepreneurial Manager. More than 95 percent of Harvard MBA candidates take at least one of the electives, while almost 50 percent take three or more.
To contribute to its unparalleled research and course development efforts in entrepreneurship, Harvard Business School established the California Research Center in the heart of Silicon Valley in 1997. Since then, the Center has produced more than fifty new cases on a wide range of new-economy companies. It also hosts the annual WesTrek, which in January brought more than 500 HBS students to Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay area to learn about companies and employment opportunities.
Among the large number of Harvard Business School graduates who have made their marks in high-tech and Internet entrepreneurship are Dan Bricklin (MBA '79), creator of the first electronic spreadsheet; Scott Cook (MBA '76), founder and chairman of the executive committee of Intuit; Donna Dubinsky (MBA ‘81), cofounder and CEO, first of Palm Computing and now of Handspring; Toby Lenk (MBA ‘87), founder and CEO of eToys.com; Glen Meakem (MBA '91), founder and CEO of FreeMarkets; and Scott Randall (MBA '87), founder and CEO of FairMarket.
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