Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 14, 2000

Volume 28, Number 28

Four students win contests
for aspiring entrepreneurs

Competition among "dot com" entrepreneurs entered in Yale's first annual Y50k contest ended April 8 when Yale Law School student John Leibovitz and graduate students in engineering Stephen Robinson and Stephen Brown won the grand prize of $50,000 in cash and business services worth another $50,000 for their entry YellowPen, a Web-based knowledge management system.

Judges representing venture capital firms and non-profits selected winners for two prizes: the $50,000 cash prize in the for-profit category, won by Leibovitz, Robinson and Brown, and a $10,000 cash prize for the Social Entrepreneurship Award, won by Peter Schurman, a School of Management student who founded GenerationNet, a Web site aimed at educating young people about key public policy issues. Other members of Schurman's team included first-year SOM students Susan Thomas and Ross Decker; second-year SOM student James Trowbridge; and third-year SOM/Forestry joint degree student Terry Kellogg.

Leibovitz, Robinson and Brown are awaiting the field testing of software that will make YellowPen operate on the Internet. Their idea beat out 41 teams consisting of professors, alumni, undergraduates, graduate and professional students and Yale employees, all of whom competed for cash and services worth a total of over $100,000. The competitors had to submit written business plans for their proposed ventures to a panel of judges. Richard H. Brodhead, dean of Yale College, presented the awards in the Law School's Levinson Auditorium. Steve Markowitz, the founder of MyPoints.com, gave the keynote address.

The Yale Entrepreneurial Society (YES), founded in 1999 by Yale seniors Sean Glass and Miles Lasater, is the lead organizer of Y50k. With the backing of Yale and sponsors, Y50k furthers progress by providing growth opportunities for companies that will revitalize the community and develop a new generation of business leaders. Participation in the competition by Yale students and affiliates enhances the learning opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters the entrepreneurial spirit at Yale and in New Haven. In addition, Y50k reflects Yale's dedication to creating economic development in New Haven.

Yale's Y50k is similar to entrepreneurship competitions operating at MIT and Harvard. YES and Y50k help to enhance the value of good ideas and provide a network to exchange them, yielding many innovations, according to YES leaders. Going beyond the "dot com--drop out" mania, YES and Y50k choose to build on Yale's strength as a liberal arts education by providing opportunities for creativity and innovation, they say.

In addition to the Y50k Yale Entrepreneurship Competition, YES hosts speakers, conducts training sessions, publishes a newsletter and pairs students with successful professional mentors. YES also has an initiative to match students with local start-up companies and not-for-profit organizations that need business help. YES members include alumni, undergraduates, graduates and professors.

The panel of judges for the Y50k competition included Graham D.S. Anderson, general partner, Euclid Partners; Jim Carlisle, entrepreneur in residence, Primedia Ventures and general partner, Carlisle Venture Group; Michael Carusi, general partner, Advanced Technology Ventures; Zen Chu, general partner, NetVentures LLC; Henry Fernandez, executive director, New Haven's Livable City Initiative; Terry Jones, partner, Wiggin & Dana; Frank J. Marco, chairman, Emerging Companies Practice Group, Day, Berry & Howard LLP; Edward J. Nicoll, chairman and CEO, Datek Online Holdings Corp.; and Matt Ocko, general partner, Vantage Point Venture Partners.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Donald Margulies wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Broadway redesign project wins architecture award

Four students win contests for aspiring entrepreneurs

Study tracks second illness caused by ticks

Telemundo chief executive will visit as Gordon Grand Fellow

El Greco will be the focus of Yale painter's Rand Lecture

Rep offering explores culture through music, dance, stories

Student competition will unite an ancient mythical character and robots

Puente enjoys spotlight during visit as Chubb Fellow

Award-winning novelist discusses the art of writing and reading

Leonard S. Doob, a specialist on ways of resolving conflict, dies

'Visionary' student wins award for his work with homeless people

Neurologist Fuki Hisama is honored for her research on aging syndrome

Library acquires papers of noted Caribbean novelist

Lectures will explore emerging trend of 'personalized' medicine in drug industry

Salmonella injections may improve treatment of cancer, study finds

Artists will talk about their cutting-edge works

DMCA event to feature 'sonic world'

Campus Notes

Yale Scoreboard

In the News