Release Date: Monday, March 25, 2002

GEORGIA, WAKE FOREST TEAMS WIN TOP HONORS IN THIRD ANNUAL BABCOCK ELEVATOR COMPETITION

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Teams from the University of Georgia and Wake Forest University tied for top honors at the third annual Babcock Elevator Competition on Saturday, March 23, at the Wachovia Center building in Winston-Salem.

Georgia's Nicole Kinser, with a business plan for the company Aqua Vitae, and Wake Forest's Margaret Price, who pitched the business plan for D-Tec-Dent, shared first place. Each received a trophy and will enter discussions with venture capital groups that sponsored the competition.

Other schools with teams that advanced to the finals were Cornell University, Harvard University and Simon Fraser University. Teams from the University of Manitoba, the University of Texas at Austin and a second team from Wake Forest earned honorable mention.

A field of 26 teams of MBA students from 21 schools competed. The first round consisted of two 28-floor elevator rides during which teams pitched their business plans to a venture capitalist. Finalists advanced to the second round, where they made formal presentations to a judging panel of three venture capitalists.

The competition, presented by the Angell Center for Entrepreneurship at Wake Forest's Babcock Graduate School of Management, is believed to be the only one of its kind in the country. Eno River Capital, Wachovia Capital Associates and the Wakefield Group were among the sponsors for the event, which is organized by students at the Babcock School.

Aqua Vitae produces a patented compound that reduces mortality rates in ornamental fish for aquariums. Kinser, a second-year MBA student from Spring, Texas, says the technology helps companies avoid large financial losses by helping fish survive in transport. Kinser says she and her business partners expect to secure angel financing within the next couple of months and hope to receive a second round of funding from venture capitalists within 12 to 18 months.

Price's company, D-Tec-Dent, uses computer chips to keep track of dentures for patients,caregivers and health-care professionals. The company also will register and store impressions of dentures to replace sets that are lost. Price, a second-year MBA student, is part of a management team that includes Dr. William Price, her father-in-law who founded the company. D-Tec-Dent is one of four companies working in the Babcock School's business incubator.

Judges were Daniel Egger and Paul Jones of Eno River Capital, and David Gilroy of the Wakefield Group. Other event sponsors were the venture capital firms CapitalSouth Partners and Intersouth Partners; Ernst and Young; the law firms Kilpatrick Stockton LLP and Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice PLLC; and the North Carolina Small Business Technology Development Center. The event is supported by the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Louis and Harold Price Foundation.

Other schools competing were Babson, Carnegie Mellon, California State-Fresno, Chicago, Columbia, Duke, Kennesaw State, MIT, Michigan, Northwestern, Pennsylvania, Purdue, San Diego State, Texas and Virginia Commonwealth.

More information is available at the Web site www.mba.wfu.edu/elevator/.

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