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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowFinalists have been selected for Purdue University’s Burton D. Morgan Business Plan Competition, which will award a total of $100,000 in prize money to winners in an effort to spur entrepreneurship.
Finalists will make their business-plan presentations Feb. 24 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. in Discovery Park’s Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship in West Lafayette. A dinner and awards ceremony will follow.
Winners in the Gold Division will receive $30,000 for first place, $15,000 for second, $7,500 for third and $3,750 for both fourth and fifth places. In the Black Division, winners will receive $20,000 for first place, $10,000 for second, $5,000 for third and $2,500 for fourth and fifth places.
Besides the cash prizes, the top three finishers in the Gold Division will get free legal advice and consulting services from the local law firm of Ice Miller LLP. The value of the services is $5,000 for first place, $3,000 for second and $2,000 for third.
The late Burton D. Morgan was a Purdue grad who started 50 companies, six of which have become major corporations. They include Morgan Adhesives, one of the world’s largest makers of pressure-sensitive adhesives. He established the entrepreneurship competition in 1987 with an endowment gift to the university.
In the Gold Division-for faculty, staff and graduate students-finalists are BioScat, a biotech firm specializing in identification instruments for biological samples; Liquid Qinetics, which manipulates light droplets through a light-pattern technology; MicroFluidic Innovations, a chemical and biological analysis firm; SiMetal, a developer of an LED manufacturing method using silicon wafers; and True North Performance, which is developing an Internet-based assessment tool for market-research activities.
In the Black Division-for Purdue undergrads-finalists are Adventure Lust, a Web-based company for adventure seekers; Hide and Seek, an aircraft design and building company; Mission MatchUp, a social-networking site to help raise money for mission trips; MuZation LLC, a Web site that helps music composers connect; and SystemConv Solutions, a data, voice and video service company.
Teams will have 15 minutes to present their business plans and 10 minutes to field questions from a panel of professors, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists serving as judges.
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