The IDEA management team; we’re a mysterious bunch. Spring semester came to a close and many of us took our roles behind the scenes to prep for our next round of gap funding. However, I thought it would be important to highlight the personal entrepreneurial projects that some of us have been working on when we can pull ourselves away from summer plans.

Firstly, my fellow Communications Officer, Megan Linebarger, has been sharing her advice for entrepreneurs in her blog on YPNation. For those of you who are not familiar, YPNation is a website that serves as a platform for young professionals and gives them the opportunity to have a national voice and presence. Megan has tackled topics that range from “Branding your Business Using Social Media” to “Joining a Startup: How We Can All Be Entrepreneurs.” Most recently, she has used the blog to highlight a venture that resides within the IDEA management team; a mobile app called Zazu.

Zazu, “the smartest damn alarm clock”, is the product of hard work from Aaron Gerry, Punit Shah and Marc Held. Aaron Gerry is IDEA’s current Operations Officer and Punit Shah provides his talents to IDEA by being a coach for ventures.

Through the YPNation blog, Megan uses Zazu as a case study for launching a business as a college student. Without divulging too much from the blog entry, the story of Zazu’s creation and how the team continues to build it for success is one that may seem all too familiar to Northeastern’s student entrepreneurs. I, for one, am excited to see what this team accomplishes in the near future. The accolades that Zazu has already received have made their potential for success overwhelmingly apparent.

To read Megan Linebarger’s YPNation blog entry about Zazu please visit: Launching a Business: A Case Study

To learn more about Zazu please visit: getzazu.com

On Friday April 16, after a series of six Boot Camps, participants of the Husky Innovation Challenge (HIC), part of Northeastern’s Entrepreneurs Club, showcased their businesses at Demo Day.  Eight teams took part in the exhibition-style event, four of which are working with IDEA (Golcio, Scriptbots, Bandzu and Parafinch).  The other four groups are: BossTown, MusiWiz.com, Hush Buddy and Astro Lounge.  All teams were competing for a shot at one of five $1,000 grants to help accelerate their businesses.

On Friday April 16 at the Curry Student Center indoor quad, after a series of six Boot Camps, participants of the Husky Innovation Challenge (HIC), part of Northeastern’s Entrepreneurs Club, showcased their businesses at Demo Day.  Eight teams took part in the exhibition-style event, four of which are working with IDEA (Golcio, Scriptbots, Bandzu and Parafinch).  The other four groups are: BossTown, MusiWiz.com, Hush Buddy and Astro Lounge.  All teams were competing for a shot at one of five $1,000 grants to help accelerate their businesses.

Demo Day was a great opportunity for IDEA to network with the entrepreneurs on campus.  The event brought out some other startups here at Northeastern (NU), who also showcased their companies (but did not compete for awards), including Annie Mulz and Style Check – ventures also working with IDEA.

The Husky Innovation Challenge, run and organized by IDEA Operations Manager Aaron Gerry and IDEA Coaches Punit Shah and Prafal Mathur, began at the beginning of the 2010 spring semester.  The Boot Camps were designed to help ventures refine their business pitches and plans.  Over the course of the semester, these entrepreneurs learned about: identifying your startup, marketing, business model and strategy identification, startup financing, prototyping and launch.

Each session began with the teams “Rocket Pitch,” which they also presented at Demo Day.  This one minute pitch sums up the company while still captivating an audience.  Boot Camps also included presentations from industry professionals, hands-on activities and networking.  Demo Day was the culmination of these sessions as NU startups demonstrated their developed skills and knowledge.

Five awards were given to four of the eight HIC ventures.  BossTown, an educational software tool for small businesses to engage in simulated experiences in order to improve and survive in the market, won the “Game Changer” award.  Bandzu, an online management system for small to medium sized bands, won the “Time to Market” award.  Taking home the award for “Best Presentation” was Golcio, a web platform that facilitates trade between America and Latin America.  Scriptbots, a site where high school students can submit their virtual portfolios rather than a CD to potential colleges, took the “Sustainable Venture” award.

The HIC also implemented a text-to-vote service, allowing attendees to text in votes for their favorite companies.  Scriptbots took home the “Crowd Favorite” award.

Congratulations to all the winners and participants of the HIC Demo Day.  The event was a success and the Boot Camps were great tools for all of these NU ventures to utilize.  IDEA works very closely with HIC and encourages all Northeastern entrepreneurs to get involved with NU’s Entrepreneurs Club and Boston’s entrepreneur community.

IDEA Communications Officers, Megan Linebarger and Genna Scisci (left to right) speak with students at Demo Day

After a semester of working closely with numerous Northeastern student ventures, it became time for the IDEA management team to select five to be eligible to receive Gap Funding. On Monday, April 5th those five ventures, AnnieMulz, HypeGenius, Golcio, Bandzu and Style Check, presented their extensive venture road maps and milestones to IDEA’s advisory board and management team. Each venture put a lot of hard work into their presentations and sparked great discussion and questions.

The next step for the ventures is to work on the constructive feedback they received from our advisory board and then present one last time at our April 20th Gap Funding Event. While the Gap Funding Event is invite only, it will be a significantly larger crowd than April 5th’s presentations. At the conclusion of the presentations there will be networking and refreshments before the Gap Funding recipients are announced. The unique facet of the Gap Fund is that there is no limit to the number of ventures that will be funded. Each venture has the chance to be the recipient of up to $10,000 in pre-seed funding, if they are determined to be ready to use the funding to achieve their milestones.

If you are not coming to our event on the 20th, be sure to check out our Facebook and Twitter (@IDEANEU) that evening for the announcement of the recipient(s). In addition, throughout the next couple months we will feature each of the five ventures on the Student Spotlight section of our homepage. For a brief description of the five ventures, see below.

• Annie Mulz – A high quality urban clothing company inspired by the “Animal in Man.”
• HypeGenius – A social media marketing company for musicians and other clients.
• Golcio – A business-to-business e-commerce portal that targets emerging markets in Latin America.
• Bandzu – An online band management platform that organizes a band’s important information.
• Style Check – A mobile application that provides fashion-related decision support to consumers.