As the deadline for the CUE 5K Challenge draws closer, here are some helpful documents to guide you along with your business plan writing. Remember to submit a softcopy of your business plans to 5ksubmission@cue.org.uk by 2359 on the 28th of April! Good luck!

What judges look for - Bradley Hardiman

General legal issues - Mills and Reeve, Legal issues Starter Pack. For participants that have any legal queries, feel free to direct them to cue@mills-reeve.com.

Funding and finance - Ensors Accounting

We have now reached the final stage of the 2012-2013 CUE Business Creation Competition!

This is the one and only opportunity you will get in the University to develop a full business plan, have it judged by experienced entrepreneurs and investors, and have the chance of winning over £5,000 in cash! Regardless of your level of entrepreneurial experience, this is the best opportunity in Cambridge to turn your business ideas into reality.

Reminder: You do NOT need to have participated in previous stages of the competition to enter the 5K Challenge. As long as one member of your team is a current member of the University or an alumnus graduated not more than 18 months ago, you are eligible to participate.

Here are some simple steps to help make the submission and judging process clearer:

Submission

1. Read the Competition Handbook. This was updated in March 2013, so do read it again even if you participated in the earlier stages of the competition.

2. For those who wish to request for a mentor, send your request and a 100 word summary of your business idea to Pavel, our VP (Competition), at pavel.abdulkin (at) cue (dot) org (dot) uk. Mentors will be able to provide their thoughts on your plans and give some suggestions for improvement. They will not help you write your plans.

3. Write a great business plan. Include short bios for each team member (will not count to the word limit) to facilitate the judging.

4. Fill out the 5K Competition Entry Form and attach it to your business plan. Send a soft copy to 5ksubmission@cue.org.uk by 28th April 2013.

5. Mail a hard copy of your the Entry Form, your business plan, the Competition Disclaimer and NDA (found on Page 18-20 of Competition Handbook) to us. Use UMS if you are in Cambridge to send it for free. Entry fee should be sent as a cheque if possible. These must be sent by 29th April 2013.

Judging

1. Judges will read all plans and score them based on the judging criteria laid out in the Competition Handbook.

2. Top teams from each of the 3 streams will be selected as Finalists. Finalists will be notified by 22nd May 2013.

3. Finalists will have to attend the judging meeting for their respective streams, where they will pitch their ideas to the judging panel and get the opportunity to clarify any questions the judges may have.

The Technology stream meeting will be held on the 28th of May, Social Enterprise on the 29th of May and Software on the 30th of May. These meetings will take place from 9 to 11am.

4. Judges will deliberate and decide on the winning teams.

5. Winners will be announced at the Grand Finale on 14th June 2013. Prizes include £5K prizes for the best Technology, Software and Social Enterprise start-ups, £7.5K for the best Life Science start-up and £2.5K for the Entrepreneur of the Year. Teams will also get the chance to pitch to a panel of Angel Investors for a chance at winning a Special Angel Prize!

Good Luck! We look forward to receiving your entries!

Here are the judges who will be evaluating the entries in the CUE 1K Challenge 2013:

Technology Stream

Peter Dummett - Founder, IPCAM

Bob Pettigrew - Co-founder, Generics (Now Sagentia); Cambridge Angel

Peter Morgan - Managing Consultant, PA Consulting Group

Darrin Disley - CEO, Horizon Discovery

Mike Arnott - Investment Manager (Physical Sciences), Cambridge Enterprise

Bradley Hardiman - Investment Manager (Life Sciences), Cambridge Enterprise

Software/IT Stream

Marine Barbaroux - Joint Head, Fledgling Market Division, Red Gate Software

Pieter Knook - RAEng Visiting Professor of Innovation, University of Cambridge

Jack Lang - Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Judge Business School; Co-founder, Artimi; Cambridge Angel

Anne Dobree - Head of Seed Funds, Cambridge Enterprise

Adam Twiss - Founder and CTO, SwiftServe

Social Enterprise Stream

David Gill - Managing Director, St John’s Innovation Centre

Peter Morgan - Managing Consultant, PA Consulting Group

Anne Radl - Projects Manager, The Humanitarian Centre

Charles Lang - Serial Entrepreneur

Peter Harris - Co-founder, Hotel Chocolat

Martin Clark - Deputy CEO, Allia and Future Business

With the submission deadline for the CUE 1K Challenge drawing closer, we would like to highlight some resources that may be useful to participants when writing their executive summaries.

Videos and slides for previous 1K training events can be found here and here.

A sample executive summary can be found here.

Additionally, we have received several emails about the issues below, so please note:

• Posters will only be required at the 1K awards ceremony on the 20th of February
• Registration fees can be sent via cheques addressed to ‘Cambridge University Entrepreneurs’. If payment by cheque is not possible, please contact zachary.chen@cue.org.uk to make alternative arrangements.

Thank you!

CUE will be awarding up to 10 £1000 prizes as part of our 1K Challenge, where a 1,500 word executive summary could win you £1000! Apart from the attractive prizes, enter to benefit from our mentoring scheme and to receive feedback about your business ideas from our judging panel, made up of experienced entrepreneurs and investors.

*The 1K Challenge is open to everyone. You do not need to have participated in or won the 100 word Challenge to participate.*

Follow these 5 simple steps to enter the competition:

1) Download and read the Competition Handbook

2) Fill out the mentor application form as soon as possible for us to match you up with an appropriate mentor

3) Draft your executive summary

4) Email the final copy of the executive summary (including profiles of team members) to 1ksubmission@cue.org.uk by 20th January 2013

5) Fill out the cover page and the NDA (found in the Competition Handbook), post them, a hard copy of the executive summary and the £10 registration fee to us before the 20th of January.

(Registration fees are waived for all 100 Word winners and i-Team participants)

PLEASE NOTE

• Hard copies, NDAs and registration fee will be accepted as long as they are posted by 20 Jan. They do not have to be received by 20 Jan as stated in the Competition Handbook
• Posters will only be required at the 1K awards ceremony on the 20th of Feb
• Registration fees can be sent via cheques addressed to ‘Cambridge University Entrepreneurs’. If payment by cheque is not possible, please contact zachary.chen@cue.org.uk to make alternative arrangements

Thank you and best of luck!

Mentor registration for the 1K Challenge is now CLOSED! Best of luck to all 1K participants!

Congratulations to all the £100 pounds for 100 Words winners!

If you’re one of the winners, we should have already contacted you for your details so we can send you the prize. If you haven’t heard from us yet, please email info@cue.org.uk

If your idea wasn’t one of the winners, don’t worry: you can still participate in the £1K and £5K competitions. We look forward to receiving all your executive summaries and business plans throughout the rest of the competition and to seeing you at our upcoming events!

Here are the winners and their ideas:

1) Stephen Co, Darryl Gibbings-Isaac

The Phillipines is currently a net importer. Whilst coconut oil is a primary export, the Philippine mango industry is the 9th largest in the world and the country\’s mango processing plant throws away circa 150 tons of mango seed per year. We have developed a patent pending method of extracting mango oil from discarded and underutilized seed kernels using coconut oil as a base solvent; the result being a 100% natural mango-coconut oil hybrid.  Mango-coconut oil is a highly versatile commercial substance which can be used in various aromatherapy applications, and due to our method of extraction, has nutraceutical potential.

2) Bernd Kuhlenschmidt

MobileStudent – Students are under a lot of pressure and want to use their time efficiently. So, why not use waiting times, bus rides, etc. to revise some of the material for your courses. We develop an easy-to-use mobile app allowing students to study from anywhere. The software includes flashcards (for vocabulary and definition training), a document management system and more. Also, it will be easy to exchange learning material with friends.

3) Xin Yang

The fast-growing biopharmaceutical industry spends more than half of its total production cost on downstream purification processes. Current technologies are disappointing due to their low resolution, long processing time and very high cost. A new patented technology, porous micro-capillary film (MCF), provides 10,000 times higher capacity than non-porous matrices, better mechanical strength, very high flow velocity and extremely low cost than existing technologies such as beads and membrane. Moreover, MCF is biodegradable and easy to handle without packing requirement. We propose to explore the markets for this exciting technology (e.g. purification in biopharmacy or non-biopharmacy, dialysis and water/air filtration).

4) Michele Mattioni

Choosing food is usually constrained by time, availability, money and quality. Supermarkets have the upper hand on time, availability and money. However, local producers food is better quality and this is attracting more and more customers, with the market (QFM) estimated at 5B£ and increasing. The SustainableSouk aims to map all the local producers, to create a virtual market based on locations with real-time products availability, where customers can shop online from any close local producers, and collect the products either from a micro-hub, or get them delivered at home.

5) Christopher Warick

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have been described as a disruptive technology changing dramatically the form of established technological solutions, such as variable-antennae and accelerometers. The worldwide market for MEMS currently stands at 15bn and is increasing at CAGR of 16%. Micro-machined silicon surfaces can easily stick together through capillary forces, chemical bonding and other interactions and poses a significant limit to component size, production cost and lifetime. We have developed a novel hydrodynamic lubricant that makes MEMS machines run 100,000 longer. We aim to sell/licence our application know-how to the leading MEMS manufacturers creating value through longer component lifetimes.

6) Alap Chavda

Global sales in hair-loss prevention products rose by 40% in last 4 years to £0.5 billion in 2011. Our patentable SME has (a) specific mode of action, (b) less side effects, and (d) cheaper than current drugs. The SME will be patented in Japan (55%, market share), US (15%) and UK (1%). Our core-expertise will be in the SME production at the Babraham incubator. Marketing & selling will be licensed to Unilever, allowing the latter to expand into pharmaceutical market. Profit forecast in first 4 years is £24m and our exit will be via acquisition.

7) Sam Massey

Motorsport is dangerous, none more so than motorcycle racing. In car racing, safety has greatly increased, deaths and serious injury are now thankfully rare. However, riders are still very much at risk. I have developed a device which restrains head movement and therefore injury during a crash effectively, repeatably and safely. The production of a prototype demonstrated feasibility, and I have now secured a meeting with the largest motorcycle clothing manufacturer in the UK. Research shows a huge potential userbase, with the additional benefit of a road market not present with car-based products, plus alternative markets such as snowsports.

8 ) Boaz Sobrado and Daniel Forde

A popular type of holiday for the 3.29m UK students is the European music festival, yet festivals still rely on word-of-mouth advertising in the UK because of high marketing costs. In other countries local companies (e.g. MEXX and Ostfest) offer student-tailored packages (travel, festival tickets, collective camping and exclusive extra events) and run the festival\’s national marketing and sales. This reduces the cost for the students, increases attendance for festivals abroad and could potentially transform the UK festival market. Being students ourselves our advantages are: understanding our clients, offering better prices and, primarily, marketing and selling more effectively.

9) Sarah Bennett, Julia Frede, Francisco Hernandez Heras, Martin McBrien, Igor Romanov, Hannah Williams, Bella (Yuting) Wu

FlexiLens is a novel low cost polymer-liquid lens that will revolutionise optical systems by delivering zoom and focusing power within a single lens.  It is perfectly suited to drive the miniaturisation of optical systems with the potential to transform the consumer electronics market.  The lens is chemically and biologically inert and mechanically robust therefore it can lead markets for lens products in demanding environments, accessing a wide range of applications from battlefield optics to medical endoscopes.  FlexiLens is an exciting business opportunity as its high quality technological and physical capabilities are delivered by an inexpensive and adaptable patented manufacturing process.

10) Roger Coulston

Microencapsulation is currently a multi-billion ($USD) a year industry with established applications in food, cosmetics, drug delivery, diagnostics, and electronic displays. The current unmet consumer demand is to produce inexpensive capsules that allow for the triggered release of a cargo. This is a critical industry challenge over the next decades. AQDOT has developed an economically viable method to produce capsules with the unprecedented ability to actively and passively release fragrances, enzymes, cells, and other high value materials. We are currently building a prototype for the consumer products industry that will act as a demonstrator for the many other possible applications.

11) Timothy Lindsay, Alexander Fleming

From 1994 to 2010, British hospitals witnessed a 700% rise in children admitted for anaphylaxis. In 2011, 20% of Brits reported some kind of food allergy. Our product empowers these patients through a personalised, rapid detection mobile device enabling avoidance of allergens. Whether allergy is a matter of life and death or daily inconvenience, this product improves quality of life for allergy sufferers and safeguards the service industry.  Gone is the ambiguity of a label or the guesswork of a waiter.  In its place: a simple swipe and scan system that is as liberating as it is easy to use.

12) Ashknaz Oraee

Reduction of capital cost is vital in the growth of the wind industry, especially offshore, and to realise EU’s targets for 2020. Windrive has developed a patented lightweight drivetrain for wind turbines, comprising an integrated medium-speed permanent-magnet generator and a 2-stage gearbox, which enables 20% reduced capital cost for offshore installations. A 50kW prototype has been successfully tested and a 2.5MW machine is being developed. The offshore wind market will grow rapidly in the next 10 years, reaching 80,000MW in 2020. We expect to take a 10% market share by 2020 and generate revenues of £18M, assuming 2.5% licensing income.

13) Maria Maldonado

Identifying the best-quality oocyte is crucial for successful human and veterinary fertilisation procedures, yet robust techniques to achieve this are lacking. Our researchers have patented a comprehensive panel of molecular markers that non-invasively monitor oocyte maturation at different developmental stages, allowing for selection and confirmation of the most viable oocyte and thus dramatically increasing fertility. Our diagnostic can be marketed both for clinical and research settings, and we are expanding from equine molecular markers to homologues in other important livestock, and humans. Our diagnostic promises big economic and societal impact in a world with ageing population and decreasing animal fertility.

14) Peter Fisher and Michal Cabadaj

“Enterprice” is a specialised Internet platform connecting promising early-stage start-ups to VCs worldwide. Start-ups seeking venture capital create free customisable profiles and VCs pay a subscription fee for access to the resulting network, which they can browse through various filters including ‘funds seeking’, ‘business sector’, ‘country’ and ‘development stage’. Initial invitees to join the network will be early stage spin-outs from prestigious universities. This platform will help raise the visibility of start-ups whilst allowing VCs access to a broad network of investment opportunities they can filter and pursue at will, rather than leafing through thousands of unsolicited business plans.

15) Smita Kumar

The inaccessibility of regular health checks for the general population is a major cause of downstream healthcare issues and associated re-imbursement costs by insurers and taxpayers. MedBooth is a self-contained unit that allows individuals to independently evaluate their health at their own convenience. MedBooth users can assess current health and future health risks by inputting key health indicators and taking blood pressure, body mass index, cholesterol, diabetes, lung capacity and other measurements. Easy to understand reports (at a cost 1/20th of that of the annual health check-up) advise individuals of their current risks and recommend them to a GP accordingly.

16) Bethan Evans

Bio-barcode makes personalised medicine a reality and increases time-to-market of New Biological Compounds (NBC). Bio-barcode is a high-volume analytical platform technology for sequencing DNA/proteins/antibodies in commercial laboratories. Patented microparticle emit a magnetically sequenced barcode-like field unique to the protein to which it is bound. The codes are read by microfluidic high-speed scanning heads much like an old VCR. Bio-barcode microparticles have unlimited specificity to any analyte allowing million-plexing, accelerating new-drug development. Bio-barcode will position itself in the $600billion pharmaceutical R&D tools market, seeking partnerships and investment from the top 10 novel drug manufacturers.

17) Marius Somveille

Population growth and increasing demand for clean water result in higher price and stronger pressure on ecosystems. Indeed, cleaning water is a major ecosystem service but ecosystems cannot match our consumption rate anymore. Inspired by green walls art, I propose to commercialise ‘vertical gardens’ (fixed on buildings) capable of collecting rainwater and cleaning it with filtering plants. Clean water can then be used for domestic tasks (showers, dishwashing, laundry, toilets, and potentially for drinking). This is an aesthetic and sustainable solution, which is also advantageous in terms of economy (reduce water bill and heating bill – great insulator) and image.

18) Allen Lin

Like waiting at the doctor’s office? No one does. IntelliScheduler for Doctors is a smart, cloud-based scheduler that reduces patients’ wait-times and dynamically updates appointments in real-time. Using proprietary machine learning algorithms, IntelliScheduler statistically learns doctors’ behaviors and patients’ arrival habits to predict when patients will actually be seen. It gracefully handles service-time variations, delays, and emergencies to minimize patients’ frustration and doctors’ unbilled time. It also allows patients to leave waiting rooms by text-messaging estimated wait-times. By increasing customer satisfaction and likelihood-of-return, IntelliScheduler raises doctors’ revenues. IntelliScheduler can provide customizable, easy-to-setup, privacy-compliant software for over 250,000 US/UK physician offices.

19) Nadia M Jesus

To overcome poor healthcare infrastructure in low-income countries, UMAN Diagnostics will launch HemoTest, a cheap and disposable immunoassay test strip for rapid SCD diagnosis. SCD affects millions of people worldwide and it’s the most common genetic disorder in Africa, where up to 80% of the 400 000 children born with the disease per year die before 5. However, if cases are diagnosed and treated, then survival rates improve significantly. This new frugal technology will enable point-of-care testing of patients in limited access settings to allow best treatment decisions. The model envisioned to develop HemoTest is an industrial partnership.

20) Antoine Amann

Echobox lets bloggers publish and monetize their blogposts on smartphones. More and more people are using smartphones to read their news and blogs. To counter this trend, news outlets have created beautiful mobile apps. Bloggers, on the other hand, do not have the financial means to create great mobile experiences for their readers. Echobox solves this problem. We publish a blogger’s blogposts on our mobile app and forward our ad revenues back to the blogger (after taking a cut). Echobox will only take two minutes for bloggers to set up and will be free for their readers to download.

Have a great idea but lack a complete team? Have entrepreneurial aspirations but no ideas? CUE’s Co-founder Speed Dating on November 14th is the solution for you!

With an exciting and fast paced format, participants will get 2 minutes each to share their ideas and expertise with one another before rotating to form new pairs.

Opportunities are also available for participants to share an elevator pitch of their ideas to the entire crowd! Please email info@cue.org.uk if you are interested!

The most promising business ideas coming out of Cambridge this year will also be revealed during the announcement of the winners of the £100 for 100 Words competition! So come on down to share ideas and meet like-minded people over pizza and drinks.

Register at cuespeeddating2012.eventbrite.com

The submission period for the 100 word competition has now closed!

Winners will be announced at the Co-founder speed dating event on 14 November, watch this space for more details!

Best of luck to all the entrants!