In BUS 477, we not only develop a business plan, we learn how to present a business concept to prospective investors.

Our final day of class for the Fall 2007 semester, Wednesday 21 November, was the day all students presented their final oral investor "pitch". Just about everyone dressed up in their business finest and spiffed-up their PowerPoint presentations.

For a bit of excitement, I invited several real investors and venture capitalists from Vancouver and San Francisco to participate much as they would in a typical angel investor forum. Their role was to offer a few "real world" hints and tips that might help the student participants refine their presentations before the Ken Spencer Business Plan competition. The following videos capture our version of the CBC's popular Dragon's Den show.

Introduction

My introduction to the "pitch competition" and our guests: Yaron Bazaz (CEO of Western Headquarters), Diana Costain (Entrepreneur and Angel Investor), Ernest Dadey (CEO IQ Materials), Dr. Ed Levinson (Start-up consultant), Danny Robinson (CEO Strutta Inc.), Reg Nordman (Managing Partner, Rocket Builders) and Michael Slinn (CEO Micronautics Research). Also present, but arrived later, were Dr. Ernie Love (Chairman, BC Ventures Society) and Dr. Basil Peters (Director, Fundamental Technologies Investment Fund)

Investor Pitches

Here are the 16 presentations by the students of BUS 477:

Ken Spencer Business Plan Competition

Six of the business concepts presented above were selected to participate in the SFU Ken Spencer Business Plan Competition for cash and bragging rights. (Sorry, your grades were already in!) Which ones do you think were selected?

An independent panel of judges selected the following teams in the following order as winners of the 2007 Ken Spencer competition.

Thank You!

Pulling this off successfully took a lot of behind the scenes work from a lot of people.

The students of BUS 477. Congrats to each and every one of you for accomplishing what you did with the resources and time frames you had to work with. Your business plans and presentations blew the sox off my expectations and made me very proud to have been a part of this class.
Our guest investors. Yaron, Diana, Ernest, Ed, Danny, Reg, Mike, Ernie, Basil, thank you for taking your afternoon and evening to share your real life perspectives with the class. I hope that one day soon, some of the students will be knocking on your doors with some "real" deals for you!
The SFU audio-visual team. Thank you Maggi Bailey and Andrew Szendrey for your help with getting things set up, Joel and Frank for filming the presentations and Jordan Paters for all of your help with editing and getting the presentations up on the web.
SFU Undergrad Business. Many thanks to Maria Lambert, Judy Zaichkowsky and the admin staff of SFU undergrad business for all of your behind the scenes help with making this class what it was.

Ean Jackson
Instructor, BUS 477