Winning business plan would bring university royalties

By BENNETT HALL
Gazette-Times business editor

A proposal to license university computer programs written for in-house use to outside institutions took top honors in this year's business plan competition at Oregon State University.

Each year, students in the master of business administration program at OSU's College of Business form five-person teams to develop business plans as part of the college's Integrated Business Project.

The teams pitched their ideas for a new venture to a panel of 14 venture capitalists and investment professionals.

The Best Overall Award went to University Software Solutions. The plan would create an online marketplace that would offer software written by OSU faculty or staff for internal use to other universities. In exchange for the rights to use the programs, OSU would receive licensing fees.

"Universities develop lots of software for their own needs," said Tom Dowling, a management instructor involved with the competition.

Because no off-the-shelf products are available, many institutions create their own programs to track research grants, manage the motor pool and sort enrollment information, Dowling said. The University Software Solutions plan would let outside institutions avoid the need to write their own programs by licensing OSU software that fits their needs.

"It would create a trading space, and eBay for university software," Dowling said. "It essentially creates an internal market for universities for what I'd call best practices software."

The University Software Solutions team is made up of Justin Lacche of Manzanita; Sarah Baily of Portland; Blaine Yamamoto of Makawao, Hawaii; Duangporn Wattanasukchai of Bangkok, Thailand; and Se-hun Lee of Kimcheon Gunybuk, South Korea.

The group also won the Most Viable Award in the eight-team competition.

The Elevator Pitch Award went to On the Way Gourmet, a plan to deliver upscale meals to corporate airline travelers at the departure gate. Best Artistic Plan went to Thai House, a proposal to develop a chain of fast-casual restaurants; and Best Technology went to One Click Technologies, a pitch to provide marketing services for mid-cap corporations.

Each award brought $500 to the winning team.

The money is only one benefit of the competition, now in its fourth year. Even more valuable, Dowling said, is the experience the students gain from pitching a business plan to a roomful of veteran business people.

In some cases, students have turned a strong pitch into referrals to potential funding sources; in others, top performers have gotten a crack at a good job before they even graduate.

"We've had people who literally were given job offers or interview opportunities as a result of this thing," Dowling said.

Bennett Hall is the business editor for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.