Students vie in tech-based business plan competition

Student entrepreneurs will vie for more than $24,000 in prizes, and the potential to take their technology-based business ideas to market, Friday, April 26.

Nine student teams will compete in the G. Steven Burrill Technology Business Plan Competition. The daylong public event will be held in Grainger Hall, 975 University Ave.

Lance Fors, chairman and CEO of Third Wave Technologies, Inc., will be a guest speaker at the event.

Students have been working for months to develop product ideas and business plans to make them viable in the marketplace. Each team consists of at least one business student and one student from the sciences or engineering. This year’s teams will present business plans surrounding ideas ranging from food products to high-tech inventions. A panel will select the top four winners and best prototype. This is the fifth year for the competition. Previous winners have seen their business plans implemented and funded in the marketplace.

The G. Steven Burrill competition is supported by the UW–Madison Technology Enterprise Cooperative, the School of Business, the College of Engineering, and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Major funding is provided by G. Steven Burrill, a 1966 graduate of the School of Business and CEO of Burrill & Company. Burrill is an advocate for life sciences and high-tech industries.

For more information, contact Aimee Amer, School of Business, (608) 265-4994.