May 8, 2008: Four Winners Selected in 2007-2008 GAP Competition
Each will receive $2,500 in cash awards, incubator space, advisory board support and introductions to appropriate sources of early-stage capital:
- Filigree Nanotechnology (Winston-Salem)
- Longfiber Cotton Gins, Inc. (Winston-Salem)
- Salzburg Therapeutics (Winston-Salem)
- Smart Perfusion (Greensboro)

Sixteen Finalists Chosen in Piedmont Triad Entrepreneurial Network's 2007-2008 GAP Competition

Greensboro, NC –  Technology that improves on the output of Eli Whitney's cotton gin, and a system that better preserves organs during transplants, are among the winning ideas of the finalists that Piedmont Triad Entrepreneurial has named in its 2007-2008 Growth Accelerator Program (GAP) competition. This year's entries demonstrate the variety and quality of commercial output that exists in the local entrepreneurial community.

Finalists in the annual GAP competition, which is designed to encourage and support the development of early-stage growth companies, were chosen in December by an expert panel of judges on the quality of their business concepts and their potential for growth, including sustainable competitive advantage and the breadth of their target market.

"It's encouraging to see that creative talent and energy among business developers, and those that aspire to be, is thriving in the Triad," said Jon Obermeyer, the chief executive of PTEN, which has sponsored Triad-focused business plan competitions since 2001.

Tom Clarkson, the director of the Babcock Demon Incubator at Wake Forest University and a GAP plan reviewer, considers GAP an important annual event.

"It causes people looking to do start-ups to really refine their business model, develop a clear value proposition, and be able to articulate that in a way that investors can understand," Clarkson said. "And those selected as winners get many benefits: They can take courses, get visibility and advance their start-up in a way that they couldn't do if the program didn't exist."

Sam Funchess, the president and chief executive of the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship and a GAP plan reviewer, said that this year's entries reflect an overall improvement in quality over past years.  "We're starting to see some movement toward higher-growth companies, and that's what the GAP program was designed to bring in," Funchess said. "Faster-growing companies are the ones that really impact our local community, economy and jobs."

The sixteen finalists will receive a scholarship to PTEN's FastTrac Tech Course, a 10-session training program which helps entrepreneurs solidify their business plan and venture strategy. A semi-final round of the business-plan competition, and announcements of the top three GAP winners, will take place in April and May, 2008.

The sixteen finalists are:
•    Commerce-Web International Inc.   
Commerce-Web International Inc. has developed services and technology that will allow business-to-consumer (B2C) businesses and customers to move to a single, universal loyalty card which allows shoppers to receive quality promotional offers. It will also provide the B2C businesses with customer-specific sales information without the expense of having their own loyalty card.
•    DiscountWhitley
DiscountWhitley.com will provide an accessible, user-friendly Web site where users can comparison-shop the prices of groceries in their local geographic areas.
•    Eco Everyday
Eco Everyday is a lifestyle retail store that offers everyday household items that make a healthier impact on the planet and its people. It also offers colorful clothing and accessories made free of sweat-shop labor.
•    Filigree Nanotechnology Inc.
Filigree Nanotechnology is a development-stage company that has a proprietary technique for producing nanomaterials including nanowires and nanocubes using silver blended with copper, gold and even aluminum. This results in compounds with more durability, increased conductivity and lower manufacturing costs for the electronics market.
•    North Carolina Greentech LLC
North Carolina Greentech LLC will recycle waste tires, disposing of them in an environmentally sound manner that produces valuable byproducts for resale.
•    King Concepts
King Concepts will create an Internet platform to allow unknown musical talents to reach an audience not restricted by industry judging.
•    LongfiberenGINeering Inc.
LongfiberenGINeering Inc. has invented and is commercializing a technology that is the first major innovation to the cotton gin since Eli Whitney's work. The machine increases ginned-cotton yield by removing more fiber from the seed and increases quality by retaining the fiber's length.
•    NanoMed Corporation
NanoMed Corporation is developing technologies that will provide a reliable, portable and efficient method for the detection of pathogens, and chemical and biological markers at the point-of-care and point-of-test.
•    OpenMedis Corporation
OpenMedis Corporation will develop an Internet-based community for the imaging-center market which brings together independent imaging centers, health-care providers, billing and insurance providers, and patients. OpenMedis will provide the infrastructure and services to help imaging centers manage their health-care IT service needs.
•    Poll-A-Room
Poll-A-Room's ClassPAR, an Internet-based polling program, provides a more advanced and lower-cost product than the classroom engagement systems currently used in over 850 schools across the nation.
•    Record Solutions Notebooks
RS Notebooks will provide coordinated products and services allowing lab workers to easily record the results of their research in a way that documents their procedures and verifies the timing of their work for patent applications.
•    Salzburg Therapeutics Inc.
Salzburg Therapeutics is developing Cytotoxamer™ and Genotoxamer™ technologies for treatment of prostate cancer and other malignancies.   
•    SharingArt.com
SharingArt.com promises a "virtual" marketplace for event-dated and out-of-print cultural, biographical and historical information produced and published by museums, galleries and artists about their collections, exhibitions, creative works and acquisitions. SharingArt.com will consolidate the complete booklists of both museums and trade publishers on its customized Web site so that anyone can search a single-source database.
•    Smart Perfusion LLC
Smart Perfusion LLC designs and manufactures organ perfusion and transport systems, using technology that will significantly improve organ preservation quality and increase the transport and storage lifetime of kidneys and other precious organs during transplantation.
•    SSED Inc.
Survival Skills Education & Development Inc. (SSED) has created programs that increase competence and confidence in the workplace, allowing individuals to increase job retention and advancement potential by further developing interpersonal and other soft skills.
•    Trend Funnel™
Trend Funnel™ has developed online software programs that organize home furnishings, flooring, paint and accessories by style and trend, allowing users to find desired products more efficiently and with the assurance that products will coordinate and match.

Criteria
PTEN's innovative Growth Acclerator Program is designed for entrepreneurs who will start (or have already started) ventures with high-growth potential, and plan to grow those companies here in the Piedmont Triad.

Our PTEN screeners and judges are looking for new ventures that address large and critical problems, and would most likely attract "angel" investor or venture capital funding within the next two years.

These businesses do not have to be technology based as long as the problems are sizeable and the markets large. A large market would be one with national or international scope, with the company generating at least $30-$40 million in annual revenues within five to seven years.

PTEN is also looking for coach-able company founders who are able to work in close cooperation with resource partners, advisory boards and investors in order to reach common objectives.

Timeline
PTEN offers a course in how to write an executive summary course in October of each year. A one-page executive summary is submitted in mid-November. The summaries should follow the format provide in the template, which can be downloaded from a link at the bottom of this page.

The top finalist ventures for GAP are announced in mid-December. Those ventures will participate with a full scholarship in the FastTrac Tech Venture course in early 2008 and will be eligible for PTEN's business plan competition in April 2008. 

The FastTrac Tech Venture course is a nationally-renowned course for growth-minded entrepreneurs taught by Tim Janke (Inception Micro Angel Fund/SBTDC) and Stan Mandel (Wake Forest University Entrepreneurship Program). The 12-week course features a series of guest speakers and runs from January through March of each year. 

The top three winners of the April business plan competition will be selected and recognized in May at PTEN's annual Celebration of Entrepreneurs event.

Finalist Ventures
Based on executive summary submitted in November 2007: Between 10-15 finalist ventures will be offered full scholarship to the FastTrac Tech Venture course ($299 value), as well as invitation to participate in PTEN's annual business plan competition and assistance forming an advisory board.

Top Three Winners
Based on a business plan competition in April 2008. The top three companies will receive $2,500 each in a cash prize, and:
* Up to $3,600 in rent assistance for incubator space at Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship (Greensboro) or Babcock Demon Incubator (Winston-Salem).
* Scholarships to other entrepreneurial education programs such as the SBTDC's Investor-Ready Entrepreneur. 
* Introductions to fund executives at Inception Micro Angel Fund (IMAF), Piedmont Angel Network (PAN), NC IDEA and other sources of seed capital funding.
* Participation in PTEN's annual Capital Connects! Investor Breakfast (August, 2008)
* Recognition in PTEN press releases and on PTEN website (May, 2008), and participation in PTEN "Road Show" to business and investment groups (2008-2009)

Previous Winners (2002-2007):
Notion Music
Secure Designs
Cleantechnics International
Solatech
Source Horizon
C Change Surgical
Transportation Systems Solutions
Aqualutions
Otothera (previously AudioFusion)
Retina Software
Public Health Corps
Ionics Medical.

(NOTE: In 2005 PTEN launched its Growth Accelerator Program (GAP) to replace the former Spark, Verge and Fuel competitions run by Triad Entrepreneurial Inititiative)