For most Tufts students, the word "entrepreneurship" might imply selling a used textbook to a friend for a price below the bookstore's markup. For some particularly innovative Tufts students, however, the phrase means more - a lot more.
On Thursday, Apr. 6, Tufts held its second annual Business Plan Competition and its third annual Frigon Competition in Social Entrepreneurship. Selected finalist teams presented their business plans in front of judges, competing for monetary and in-kind prizes, as well as a chance to truly take their ideas farther.
"Each year, the number of applicants increase and the quality of the business plans improve," said Pamela Goldberg, director of Tufts' Entrepreneurial Leadership Program.
"For some student entrepreneurs, this competition is an opportunity to further develop their ideas and then test them in front of judges who see business plan presentations on a regular basis," she said. "For other students, the prize money helps them launch their venture and make the dream a reality."
According to Goldberg, the competitions are "vehicle[s] to encourage innovation and leadership, which are at the core of the Tufts culture."
Business Plan Competition winners Noah Spitzer-Williams and Brian Yun found that their idea for the EMS [Emergency Medical Services] Planner, an online scheduling service for EMS squads and other similar non-profit organizations, was deemed to deserve not only a cash prize of $12,000, but also $10,000 in office space, $5,000 in legal fees and $5,000 in consultation fees - for a whopping total of $32,000.
"We're college students," said Yun, a junior. "I don't think we've ever even heard of $32,000 all in one sum."
The idea for the EMS Planner occurred to Yun, executive director of Tufts Emergency Medical Service (TEMS), when he recognized the inefficiency of the traditional methods of scheduling for TEMS.
The old method involved countless calls between the scheduler and the volunteers and a schedule written only on a whiteboard.
Yun contacted his friend, senior and computer science major Spitzer-Williams, to create a rough online calendar, which has since become the EMS Planner.
"We were kind of just testing it with Tufts, but the response was so overwhelmingly positive," Spitzer-Williams said. "We decided to look into the market to see if other schools were having the same problem, and it turned out they were."
After attending a college EMS conference, Yun and Spitzer-Williams were able to greatly increase their customer base.
Currently, approximately 40 EMS squads - about 900 people - have subscribed to the EMS Planner. Besides Tufts, now Brandeis, Mount Holyoke, Tulane, Springfield College and Union College use the system.
After their initial success, Spitzer-Williams and Yun decided to enter the Tufts Business Plan Competition. They wanted "to get a sense of what we had, if we were really onto something serious," Spitzer-Williams said. "It would give us a chance to present to top-notch investors."
With their prize money, Yun and Spitzer-Williams plan to continue with EMS Planner after their graduation.
"In the future, we're going to start licensing our program out so that college EMS squads can start putting it into their own server," Yun said. "We're considering hiring a part-time worker to help with EMS Planner."
Already, Yun and Spitzer-Williams are attending more EMS conferences to boost their product's customer base. Spitzer-Williams honed his skills in entrepreneurship at Tufts. "I've been working with the Entrepreneurial Leadership Program, so I know a bunch of the professors," he said. "It was pretty special winning it with all of them there... I think that was the greatest feeling for me."
The team is still stunned by their win. "I think when we walk into our office for the first time, it will really sink in," Spitzer-Williams said.
Spitzer-Williams and Yun are not the only team who have to let their prize sink in: The winners of the Frigon Competition for Social Entrepreneurship won a prize of $50,000 for their idea of the Somerville Language Bank.
"The Somerville Language Bank is a Web-based translation and interpretation resource that turns Somerville's language diversity from a perceived barrier into a real opportunity," said junior Sebastian Chaskel, who led the winning team along with senior Thomas Singer.
The team also included Tufts seniors Kagan Erdil and Hyunjung Kim and sophomore Tina Ye, as well as University College Community Engagement Specialist Lisa Brukilacchio and University College Scholars Program Coordinator Ify Mora. Additional team members were Director of Community Organizing at the Somerville Comunity Corporation Meredith Levy and Alex Pirie, Coordinator of the Immigrant Service Providers Group/Health and the Somerville Conservations.
"The idea began during my time as an intern at the Somerville Community Corporations [S.C.C.] my sophomore year," Chaskell said. "Through conversations with people at the University College and the Somerville Community Corporation, we realized that there is a very real need for affordable translation and interpretation services in Somerville."
The Somerville Language Bank would train multilingual Tufts students as well as Somerville residents in translation and interpretation, offering affordable services for non-profit organizations in need.
Singer, the former president of Tufts' Young Entrepreneurs, first started working with Chaskell after he took the class "Innovative Nonprofits" last semester.
Singer led the business end of the Somerville Language Bank. "My objective has been to make the Language Bank as sustainable as possible," Singer said. "Our hope is that eventually the Language Bank will become financially independent."
The team was "speechless when we won the award," Chaskell said. The Somerville Language Bank team was awarded $15,000 in cash, as well as $25,000 in-kind lease space, $5,000 in accounting services and $5,000 in legal services, for a total of $50,000.
"This is a lot more than we ever thought we could get," Chaskell said. "I am extremely excited, especially because of what this means for Somerville and for all the people who will be able to communicate through the Language Bank."
Because of their new influx of money, "we definitely expect to hire an interpreter and a translator in the fall in order to train the first group of Language Bank trainees," Chaskell said.
Though some of his team will be graduating and moving away, Chaskell will stay in Somerville to work on the Bank.
"I am looking forward to working with the Somerville Language Bank and seeing it grow," he said.
Chaskell expects that the Language Bank will benefit many Somerville residents, including the immigrant community, various Somerville organizations and Tufts - especially now that the University College's competition has made the Bank possible.
"I really think this is what education should be all about," he said.
CORRECTION: APR. 12, 2006Monday's Features article "Two business-minded teams win big bucks" (Apr. 10, 2006) incorrectly stated that the Business Plan Competition is held by the University College. In fact, the competition is held by the Entrepreneurial Leadership Program at the Gordon Institute.
