Contest Info

Who Will Be Chicago’s Next Star Entrepreneur?
1:00pm, November 15th, 2008

McCormick Tribune Center, Evanston, Illinois

We are proud to host the 2nd Annual Entrepreneur Idol, an idea pitch competition for undergraduates emphasizing fun, vision, and delivery with competing schools across the Midwest.

The Competition

Entrepreneur Idol posts students with ideas against a panel of judges and audience members who will critique them based on the quality, creativity, and delivery of their concepts.

The competition will be a full day extravaganza full of passionate competition and lively entertainment.  Elimination Rounds on Saturday will narrow the field for the Finals later that day.  Helping competitors and audience through the stress and excitement of competition will be good food, educational speeches by successful entrepreneurs, and informational booths from leading start-up companies.

The Prizes

  • Grand Prize - $25,000 through the iventures10 program.
  • 2nd Place - $1500 cash + Free Kaplan Prep Courses (GRE,GMAT,LSAT) for the winning team.
  • Audience Favorite Award - $1500 cash. You decide who wins!

The Competitors

Undergraduate students from more than half-a-dozen Chicago-land universities are expected to compete in Entrepreneur Idol.  Students may work as individuals or as teams and will be allowed whatever aids they feel are necessary for their presentations.
Participating institutions:

  • University of Chicago
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Northwestern University
  • University of Maryland
  • DePaul University
  • Illinois Institute of Technology
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison

Entrepreneur Idol 2008 Winners:

1st Place and Audience Favorite Award

Emotion from Illinois Institute of Technology

Members: Avelo Roy and Ed Suda

eMotion creates and offers devices that support communication between those that are physically separated by emotionally connected in a manner that is safe and easy to use. Our first product is called the BFF<3 Necklace, which is: a. A customizable fashion accessory. b. A wireless communication device that uses patterns of lighting and vibration to enable friends to send secret, encoded messages. c. A gateway to an online social networking website built only for tweens (girls aged between 8 and 14 years).

2nd Place:

SidewalkEffect.com from Northwestern University

Members: Jonathan Drake, Nicholas Evans, and Micah Friedland

SidewalkEffect.com will be a highly visual online flyering website for student groups to advertise events, and individuals to advertise pretty much anything they choose. Each network has a home page where there are multiple ad spots to be purchased by the individual/student group each day, and category views (politics, athletics, performance, etc) where users can post for free. The website will be almost entirely image-based, allowing users to switch between a collage view and timeline view, with easy access to filtering and searching metrics. Each ad, once clicked, opens up a large version of the flyer, giving users a message board and various notification options. Positive incentives will encourage site traffic.

Sponsored by Illinois Ventures, the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, Clarity Consulting, and OCA Ventures