Biz plan contest gives top startups jump-start

SIREN CALLING: Siren Marine President Dan Harper, center, shows off watercraft-monitoring technology, with Director of Marketing Michael Moran, left, and Vice President John McGarr. / PBN PHOTO/NATALJA KENT
SIREN CALLING: Siren Marine President Dan Harper, center, shows off watercraft-monitoring technology, with Director of Marketing Michael Moran, left, and Vice President John McGarr. / PBN PHOTO/NATALJA KENT

(Corrected, Oct. 22, 9 a.m.)
If you ask Parker Wells, the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition played a major role in the success of his startup, Overhead.fm of Providence. Without it, he said his company would have had difficulty paying licensing fees and developing an app crucial to his business.
In fact, all three winners of last year’s competition – one for each division – speak highly of the contest and say they are doing well since winning their respective divisions.
This year’s competition kicked off Oct. 17. Final applications are due April 1, 2013.
Overhead.fm, winners of last year’s student division, was co-founded by Wells and Stephen Hebson, who a year ago were seniors at Brown University. Wells credits the contest for honing his skills in the fields of finance, marketing and an overall education on business skills.
“RIBPC helped our startup tremendously. … It was the first time [Hebson] and I were forced to create a formal business plan,” Wells said. “This meant laying out our early economic projections and forming our story into a succinct message that was immediately understandable. Before the competition we had an idea and a very early form of our product, but we didn’t know how to tell people about it and how to get people to truly understand the opportunity we were hitting.
“The multiple speech process [presentations] was really helpful before even getting to winning,” he continued. “Winning the competition was really what got the ball rolling for us. We knew that we could focus on Overhead.fm full time after college and no longer needed to worry about taking other jobs,” he said.
“This allowed us to pay for early music-licensing fees, a bunch of early business expenses and allowed us to get a lot further in our product design before looking for outside investment,” Wells said.
With the experience under their belt, Overhead.fm found themselves with the credentials to be accepted into an exclusive business accelerator, making connections with most of the players in Internet music and in-store music. “We have gone from an early prototype to a full product getting its first plays in stores across the country,” he added.
The competition encourages new businesses, early-stage and seed-stage companies that have an idea or concept but haven’t generated income yet to submit their business plans for review. The most promising share in cash and in-kind prizes that last year had a combined value of more than $200,000.
For Daniel Harper of Siren Marine, winner in the technology category, the competition provided valuable financing and accounting services. The company has developed a monitoring and control system for watercraft in order to keep the owner informed of problems and allow remote switching of onboard equipment. The system monitors anything from battery power to bilge level and can activate anything from lights to a kill switch.
“The winnings paid for our CE certification, meaning it meets European standards. That enabled us to open up distribution in Europe,” Harper said. Thus far their products are distributed in Sweden and the company is working on business in Turkey and the United Kingdom. Sales have been brisk in the United States and several insurance companies now offer discounts for boat owners with the product.
Harper and Vice President John McGarr spend extended hours working the field, keeping in touch with business owners. They attend boat shows across the country; recently they have teamed with Gencorp Insurance Group, an East Greenwich-based financial services agency that serves the needs of individuals, business owners, and insurance professionals in the region. “They want to convince their customers that they want our product,” Harper said.
Originally from Connecticut, the company has moved to Rhode Island and sports a new website, more benefits attributable to the competition. They’ve even hired a new employee, and like Overhead.fm, they believe the competition gave them instant credibility. Entrepreneur division winner JumpOffCampus of Providence is run by Mark Abramowicz. His brainchild is the development of a free online service to colleges to help students find housing near campus.
“At the time we entered we had five accounts and by the time we were awarded anything we had 10; now, six months later we are up to 25 and we definitely attribute it to the competition,” Abramowicz said. “Putting the plan together was a great thought exercise and the contest itself taught us how to talk about our business in a succinct and clear way. The money and in-kind services were a big help. With the money we were able to pay legal fees to develop a boilerplate contract and templates for some of our agreements.
Siren Marine received $40,000 in cash and about $25,000 in services. Both JumpOffCampus and Overhead.fm received $15,000 in cash as well as services valued at nearly $24,000.
Larry Davidson, principal with the accounting firm of Kahn, Litwin, Renza & Co. Ltd. is the co-chair of the competition. Like all volunteers associated with the contest he takes a particular pride and enthusiasm in its success; the last two years have each brought over 100 applicants.
“We want to make sure that the startup movement level in Rhode Island continues at a high level,” he said.
The competition is free and open to everyone, and several educational events are held in the months prior to the application deadline that are geared to guide participants through the process.
Future workshops will cover business development, financial planning and presentation skills. In early December the competition will also hold its annual Rhode Island Elevator Pitch Contest, where participants have 90 seconds to make a presentation to a panel of judges.

Correction: Gencorp Insurance Group was originally listed Sacremento, Calif.-based biotechnology company GenCorp.

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