The INOV8 blog tracks the latest news and trends in technology and innovation throughout the world
UAMS startup PhytoTEK advanced to the final round of the Harvard Business School’s Alumni New Venture Contest last week in Boston.
PhytoTEK, which researches plant-based biofilm inhibitors used in preventing staph infections, reached the final round of three, topping teams from across the U.S. as well as countries such as Brazil, Germany, India, China, South Africa and United Arab Emirates. Congratulations to CEO Cassandra Quave and CFO Sahil Patel.
Here’s the Tuesday press release from ASBTDC:
BOSTON (May 3, 2011) – Arkansas biotech startup PhytoTEK has earned a top-three finish in a prestigious Harvard business plan competition.
At the final round of Harvard Business School’s Alumni New Venture Contest April 25-26, PhytoTEK topped teams from 9 U.S. and international regions including Boston, Chicago, Southern California, Brazil, Germany, India, Shanghai, South Africa and United Arab Emirates.
The $25,000 top prize went to BioMine, a California company that uses technology from the mining industry to salvage discarded electronics containing valuable metals and rare materials. CardSwap of Toronto was the other semi-finalist.
Representing PhytoTEK were chief executive officer Dr. Cassandra Quave of Little Rock and chief financial officer Sahil Patel of Washington, D.C. To participate, teams had to include at least one member in a key leadership role who was a Harvard Business School graduate. Patel received his MBA from Harvard in 2005. Quave, who also serves as chief scientist for PhytoTEK, is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Their company is investigating new plant-based biofilm inhibitors useful for preventing staph infection.
Quave and Patel worked together to write PhytoTEK’s business plan for the contest. Patel concentrated on the business modeling and financial projections and Quave focused on the sections pertaining to the technology and market space. The Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock College of Business also provided assistance with the development of their business plan.
The ASBTDC assists researchers-turned-entrepreneurs like Dr. Quave in growing innovation-based companies. In addition to getting help with PhytoTEK’s business plan from ASBTDC, Quave honed her investor pitch at Advanced Invention to Venture, a four-day workshop presented by ASBTDC in 2010 in collaboration with the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance.
“We were delighted to have the opportunity to participate in the Harvard Business School New Venture Contest global finals,” said Quave. “It gave PhytoTEK’s management team a chance to network with other promising entrepreneurs from around the globe and learn from leading business instructors. The experience was invaluable, and being selected for the semifinal round of the competition as one of the top three teams was quite an honor.”
More than 90 teams participated in the second annual Alumni New Venture Contest, which Harvard Business School patterned after its business plan contest for students. HBS faculty and alumni comprised the panel of judges for the finals.
“We launched the Alumni New Venture Contest with two goals in mind,” Lynda M. Applegate, the Martin Marshall Professor of Business Administration and chair of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School, said in a press release on the school’s website.”First, we wanted to identify promising new business ventures among our very entrepreneurially oriented alumni body; second, and perhaps more important, we were eager to create a formal mechanism to connect alumni who are starting new companies with faculty expertise and the global HBS network of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and angel investors.”
PhytoTEK qualified for the final round by winning the regional competition for teams from the New York and Washington, D.C., HBS Alumni Club in January.
Congratulations! That is a great accomplishment.
[...] Rock-based PhytoTEK provides a “unique biologic solution for the infection-control market” focusing on [...]