Winners of the Rice Business Plan Competition

• Live blogging the finals of Rice Business Plan Competition in Houston

  Final round of Rice Competition starting now. Six Teams have 15 minutes to present; 10 minutes for questions. Finalists include three medical companies, two from the microchip industries, and one with optical technology: BiologicsMD, Ambiq Micro, GlucaGo, Rebellion Photonics, Reveal Design Automation, OrthoIntrinsics --Jessica Shambora

  First up: BiologicsMD

  Developing OsteoFlor, a new prescription medication for treatment for Osteoporosis.

  "You're not looking at a hip fracture, you're looking at a death sentence." --Jerry MORE

  Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Apr 17, 2010 1:42 PM ET
  Posted in: Rice Business Plan

• A peek inside the halls of Rice Business School

  Rice is ranked No.5 among graduate entrepreneurship programs in the U.S. by Princeton Review. Wonder if it has anything to do with these fancy lockers? What do they keep in there? --Jessica Shambora

  Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Apr 17, 2010 12:21 PM ET
  Posted in: Rice Business Plan

• Five pointers from the judges

  by Jessica Shambora

  During the first round of competition at Rice on Friday, one audience saw business plans ranging from a Netflix for maternity wear, to a better tool for identifying bugs in semiconductor chips. The assembled judges, including investors, attorneys and past winners, asked questions and offered feedback. Here are some key lessons that emerged:

  1. Action speaks louder than words: Even if it's very basic, do an alpha test to MORE

  Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Apr 17, 2010 12:24 AM ET
  Posted in: Rice Business Plan

• What's your elevator pitch?

  by Jessica Shambora

  The Rice Business Plan Competition kicked off in Houston Thursday night with an elevator pitch contest. All 43 teams had one minute to pitch their plans. Each asked for a specific dollar amount; some suggested a valuation and exit strategy; a few even promised 40x returns!

  While there were designated judges for the competition (including VCs and high school students), audience members with the event's iPhone app got to MORE

  Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Apr 16, 2010 5:24 PM ET
  Posted in: Rice Business Plan

• Tweeting from the Rice Business Plan Competition

  Fortune's Jessica Shambora and others are Tweeting about the Rice Business Plan Competition on Twitter, under the hashtag #RBPC. Click to follow the updates coming out of the competition.

  Paul Smalera - Apr 16, 2010 12:01 PM ET
  Posted in: Rice Business Plan

• Rice University Business Plan Competition 2010

  What's the Big Idea? Judge for Yourself

  By Josh Hyatt, contributor

  Call it April Madness. In just a few days, 42 teams of student entrepreneurs will compete in a grinding competition to win a record-busting $1 million in cash and prizes.

  Meet the 42 teams who have been chosen – out of 420 entries – to face off in Rice University's Tenth Annual Rice Business Plan Competition, the country's largest and wealthiest graduate-level MORE

  Daniel Roth - Apr 14, 2010 10:36 AM ET
  Posted in: Entrepreneur, Rice Alliance for Technology, Rice Business Plan, Rice Business Plan Competition, Rice University

• Nintendo Wii officially recession-proof

  The Wii Fit game is one of Nintendo's biggest sellers with 697,000 sold in the U.S. in November. Courtesy of Nintendo

  By Yi-Wyn Yen

  Nintendo seems to have bucked the recession. The Japanese video game manufacturer has doubled November sales of the Wii in the U.S. from a year ago, according to NPD's latest release on gaming sales.

  The demand for the Wii remains strong since the game console's debut two years ago. The company MORE

  yiwyn - Dec 11, 2008 6:43 PM ET
  Posted in: DS, Gaming, gears of war, Nintendo, ps3, Wii, wii fit, Xbox, Xbox 360

• Kosmix searches for a new way around Google

  By Yi-Wyn Yen

  These days, getting a large handout from venture capitalists is rare. It's even tougher when your startup needs a lot of cash to compete with Google.

  Kosmix, however, has defied the odds. In late October, the plucky startup raised $20 million, led by Fortune's parent company Time Warner (TWX), by assuring investors that Google is not the only way to search on the Web. Kosmix says it takes a MORE

  yiwyn - Dec 9, 2008 2:12 PM ET
  Posted in: anand rajaraman, Google, Internet, Jon Miller, kosmix, Search, startups

• Report: Former AOL chief wants to buy Yahoo

  By Yi-Wyn Yen

  Yahoo's fate is becoming more convoluted every day. Just two days after the Times of London reported that talks between Microsoft and Yahoo were back on, the the Wall Street Journal says former AOL chief executive Jonathan Miller is trying to raise money from private equity and sovereign wealth investors to buy the struggling Internet company.

  Shares of Yahoo (YHOO) spiked 11% to $12.50 in mid-day trading on MORE

  yiwyn - Dec 2, 2008 4:33 PM ET