The 2009 Cantor Colburn LLP Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit

I had the opportunity to be a judge for the 2009 Cantor Colburn / CCAT Innovation & Entrepreneurship Summit’s Elevator Pitch Competition (that’s a mouthful) today.  There we 45 startups presented in rapid-fire (90 second) intervals.  We assessed the companies on their presentation, business idea, and future potential.  A couple non-traditional solutions that impressed me were:

• a wrist band that spoke to your cell phone to wake you up at the optimum interval based on your sleep pattern so you wake up refreshed
• a company that could mine millions of stem cells from a tooth

There were a number of awards given out. I was particularly pleased to see that a BizSpark startup won the software innovation award: Weston Software.  They plug into Microsoft’s Management Console to extend our management story to monitor Unix and Mac platforms.  Hank Voight (CEO) was there to accept the award – congrats Hank! 

I encountered several other startups in attendance that leveraged BizSpark including WebNotes, a solution that supports your taking notes (e.g., doing research) on web properties, and Myplaylist which intends to enable sharing and monetization of shared music playlists.

BizSpark has been a huge hit, well exceeding our expectations for year one.  We’ve been adding value to the BizSpark program via improved training (e.g., www.msdev.com) and access to high-value support like Incubation Weeks, which I’ve mentioned in prior posts. 

We have another Incubation Week coming up in Boston the week of October 5.  Info on how to request to participate (BizSpark members are prioritized) is listed in the post.