Four companies receive BEST financial support

The Building Entrepreneurs in Software and Technology competition will fund four technology-based businesses led by Indiana University students.

The competition opened in September, and IU-Bloomington students who submitted plans for a startup company focused on Internet and software technology competed for a share of the $1.1 million to help jumpstart their business.

Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder; Scott Dorsey, CEO and co-founder of ExactTarget; Mary Delaney, CEO of Luceo Solutions; Chris Baggott, Compendium Software chairman and ExactTarget co-founder; Cheng Wu, chairman of Azuki Systems; Scott Etzler, CEO of Intercall; David Ferguson, partner at Ferguson and Ferguson; Steve Ferguson, chairman of the Cook Group; Mat Orrego, CEO of Cornerstone Information Systems; Eric Taylor, CEO of Taylor Building Corp.; and Tony Armstrong, CEO of the IU Research and Technology Corp. all worked to raise money to create the scholarship.

After three rounds of viewing 61 student submissions, judges narrowed the field to six finalists.

Each finalist presented their business plans to a panel of investor judges at the School of Informatics and Computing on April 14, and four companies were selected to receive funding. 

YuMingle

YuMingle is a mobile platform for facilitating social connections that will allow users to create small, personal social networks based on their current location and interests.

YuMingle was created by Kelley School of Business seniors Jonathan Baldwin of Indianapolis and Nathan Baldwin of Carmel, Ind. The company will receive $100,000 funding from the competition.

Campus Protein

Campus Protein is an online company that supplies college students with rapid delivery of nutritional supplements and fitness information.

The company was created by Kelley seniors Russell Saks of Port Washington, N.Y., and Michael Yewdell of Rye Brook, N.Y. Saks and Yewdell started the company the summer after their freshman year after they joined a gym and found they needed an easy way to obtain cheap protein supplements.

Campus Protein will receive $100,000 from the BEST competition. Saks said the funding will “take Campus Protein to the next level.”

“I want to express how incredibly valuable the BEST competition has been for my team and myself,” Saks said in a press release. “We are fortunate to have had access to such a distinguished group of business people, and we’ve benefited tremendously from the mentoring and intense coaching sessions. Going forward, our business will be that much stronger having had that exposure and investment, and the overall experience has made a lasting impression on all of us.”

Distress Mobile

Distress Mobile is a mobile safety application that aims to provide an integrated, efficient communication platform to connect individuals with law enforcement officials.

The program was created by School of Public and Environmental Affairs senior Kevin Courtney and Kelley students junior Patrick Courtney and sophomore Michael Courtney, all of Carmel, Ind. Distress Mobile will receive $50,000 in funding.

Ornicept

Ornicept is a research company that develops remote avian surveying tools for the energy industry. It combines wildlife biology techniques with software algorithms to provide wind developers, environmental consultants and researchers with data on raptor conservation.

It was created by IU graduate Russell Conard of Lafayette. The BEST investors are providing Conard and business partner Justin Otani, originally from Gresham, Ore., and a student in both the Kelley School and the Maurer School of Law, with capital to raise a round of financing
during the summer.

The 2012-13 BEST competition will kick off at the start of the fall semester.

— Nona Tepper