DFJ and Cisco Global Business Plan Competition

Where Are They Now?

Find out what happend to the 16 finalists for last year's DFJ Cisco Global Business Plan Competition. Where are they now?

Riskmasters

DFJ is dedicated to the entrepreneurs who set out to change the world. Their passion and drive advance our society, improve our lives, and create employment and wealth for all of us. DFJ entrepreneurs are some of the most successful we have encountered, but there are so many more who are out there risking their careers, their financial stability, and their social lives for the good of our world.

We at Draper Fisher Jurvetson have been investing in start ups now for over 20 years, and our industry is forever fascinating and full of wonder. The people we meet are extraordinary, driven by some injustice or difficulty or opportunity in the world, and they often create from nothing a way for their customers to improve their lives. The blood, sweat and tears they shed are all for the good of their cause, and any success they achieve is rightly theirs.

The visions and products we see through the eyes of entrepreneurs can be as simple as Hotmail's free email, Skype’s free Internet phone service, or Overture's pay for performance search. Or, they can be beyond the imaginations of science fiction writers, as in the case of Theranos' human-prescription feedback mechanism or D-Wave's quantum computer. Whatever their effect, they all become a part of the human experience, our culture and our lives. It just keeps getting better.

Change will come to our lives faster and faster with the continued exponential development of communications and information technologies, the melting of geographic barriers, and the improvement in governmental freedoms. Eventually, everyone will be able to exercise the creativity of the entrepreneur, and from the unleashing of their minds, we all benefit.

But it is only those who make the sacrifices, who keep their eyes on the mission, who lead their teams with compassion and strength, and who ultimately wake the world to see what they have envisioned who can be called, “The Riskmasters.”

The Riskmaster Book (PDF)

The Riskmaster Song (MP3)

Ambiq Micro Wins Global Business Plan Competition

Team Will Receive Investment Totaling $250,000 from DFJ and Cisco to Lead the Way to Ubiquitous Computing with Next Generation Energy-efficient Microcontrollers

DFJ's Tim Draper presenting the check to business plan competition winner Ambiq Micro.
Ambiq Micro presenting their winning plan from Michigan via TelePresence.

Ambiq Micro is the winner of the Global Business Plan Competition for university and business school students. Ambiq Micro is developing next generation energy-efficient microcontrollers. The team will receive a seed investment totaling $250,000 from DFJ and Cisco to help the company lead the way to ubiquitous computing.

This competition is made possible by the unparalleled reach of DFJ's Global Network and Cisco TelePresence (TM) suites. Cisco TelePresence suites enable collaboration through a live, face-to-face network communications experience where participants feel as though they are sitting in the same room even though they may be located thousands of miles apart. The 16 finalist teams from across the globe presented business plans from their local TelePresence suite to a panel of San Jose-based judges composed of venture capitalists from DFJ and its Global Network Funds and executives from Cisco's Corporate Development team.

"Cisco TelePresence just rocks! What an amazing group of entrepreneurs we saw this week," said Tim Draper, managing director of DFJ. "We covered the gamut including location-based services, innovative online security, new advertising and financial lending platforms, cleantech efficiency, visual search, revolutionary drug delivery and pathology systems, and even worm producers, all with one common thread: passionate entrepreneurs poised to change the world. We intend to keep close track of all the finalists because there’s no doubt that pioneering teams like these will make an impact."

Draper said that every single plan had a strong case to be the winner and it was exceptionally difficult to choose just one winner. As a result, in addition to working with Ambiq Micro, DFJ will begin due diligence on the runner-up teams OsComp Systems, DeliWorm, GlucaGo, MicroMed, SiliconReef, and ios Financial.

"It was difficult to choose a winner, but Ambiq Micro has an impressive technology and team to pursue what is a very interesting market," said Hilton Romanski, vice president of corporate development at Cisco. "As more and more of our daily activities--work, entertainment, learning, commercial transactions—are carried out with the help of ever-smaller and ubiquitous computing devices, low-power utilization will be crucial to sustain cost and performance. Ambiq Micro's silicon technology helps enable this. Ambiq was among an impressive field of finalists in this competition. Each of the 16 finalists put forward smart, creative and impactful plans to address a diverse group of issues, and we look forward to seeing great things from each of them as they move forward and grow their business."

The presenting members of the Ambiq Micro team were Scott Hanson and Phil O’Niel from the University of Michigan. Ambiq Micro was founded in January 2010.

"This is a tremendous honor to be considered for this award alongside the extraordinary group of entrepreneurs that presented this week," said Scott Hanson chief executive officer of Ambiq Micro. "We look forward to building our company with the investment teams at the DFJ Global Network and Cisco to make Ambiq Micro a leader in ubiquitous computing."

Finalists in the competition were selected and evaluated in the same way that venture capitalists evaluate start-ups. For each company, the judges considered the management teams, addressable market size, competitive positioning, barriers, capital efficiency and financial projections. In addition to the financial investment awarded to the winner, both DFJ and Cisco will continue to work with the winner and other finalists in leading the next wave of disruptive technologies by providing mentorship and professional assessments regarding their submissions.

Please contact Marta Bulaich at DFJ to see a webcast of the competition.

2009 DFJ and Cisco Global Business Plan Competition

Congratulations to Husk Power Systems, the winner of the 2009 DFJ and Cisco Global Business Plan Competition. More.


DFJ's Tim Draper gives $250,000 check to winner, Husk Power Systems

Video: Tim Draper talks to Fox Business News about Husk Power Systems and the DFJ and Cisco Global Business Plan Competition.