University of Michigan's Zell Lurie Institute Awards Over $95,000 to Michigan Business Challenge Winners and Dare to Dream Grant Program Recipients

ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business today announced the recipients of the 2007 Eugene Applebaum Dare to Dream Grant Program and 2007 Michigan Business Challenge (MBC) award. Grant recipients and award winners were presented with funding totaling $97,500 for excellence in new business concepts and business plan development.

Dare to Dream and MBC focus on the development and application of entrepreneurial skills nurtured at the Zell Lurie Institute. The programs offer students the opportunity to develop and present their business plans, receive feedback from skilled entrepreneurs and faculty, and be rewarded with funding and support.

"The Zell Lurie Institute helps students to develop as entrepreneurial leaders, in order to both create their own ventures and also to contribute entrepreneurial thinking to larger organizations," said Tom Kinnear, Executive Director of the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. "Dare to Dream and MBC provide students with the opportunity to hone their planning and presentation skills and with the funds to help them make solid business concepts a reality."

Dare to Dream Award Recipients

The Dare to Dream grant program encourages teams of students to explore the feasibility of their business ideas or to move their businesses closer to launch through the provision of grant funding. A total of $62,000 was awarded winter term to student teams. In addition to benefiting students, the program helps the local and university community by stimulating new business opportunities. Following are the Winter 2007 award recipients:

  $10,000 each:

   - Elevate Learning - one-to-one online instruction programs for K-12
     schools and school districts
   - MNI Systems - develops and manufactures implantable micro-scale
     electrodes for healthcare R&D
   - PWR - magazine offering career advice to young professional women
   - RealKidz Clothing - clothing line and online social network for plus-
     sized children and their families

  $5,000 each:

   - Forest Eye - uses remote technologies to build inventory assessment and
     asset utilization plans for forestland owners
   - Locomatix - middleware that handles large quantities of data produced
     by location-based technologies

  $1,500 each:

   - ArtisanFare.com - website for small, regional makers of food and wine
     to promote their products
   - Boomers Fitness - franchise system of health and fitness clubs for baby
     boomers
   - Custom Car Glass, LLC - high-quality custom cut glass for builders and
     restorers of street rods
   - Rain Distributors - product promotion that helps local merchants
     compete with mass merchants
   - Review Master - aggregates product reviews and ratings provided by
     internet users
   - Text Message Trivia - allows cell phone users to play online trivia
     games
   - xMoxie - online platform for real estate research and transactions

  $500 each:

   - AKA Wireless Sensing Solutions - wireless monitoring of business
     structures
   - InnovetTechnologies - innovative joint replacement products for
     veterinary applications
   - Journal Authors Network - creates network based on journal authors

  Michigan Business Challenge Award Recipients

The Michigan Business Challenge engages students through multiple rounds of competition in which they transform their business ideas into credible business plans. The process is supported by training and the plans are shaped by feedback from the judges. The 24th Michigan Business Challenge awarded a total of $35,500 in prize money to the following recipients:

   - Award for Best Business $15,000, Social Impact $3,000 and Outstanding
     Presentation $2,500

     Elevate Learning (Shaily Baranwal and Suhas Ghuge, MBAs '07) online
     instruction program for K-12 schools and school districts

   - Runner-Up $5,000

     RealKidz Clothing (Merrill Guerra, MBA '08) clothing line and online
     social network for plus-sized children and their families

   - Award for Outstanding Business and Engineering Team $5,000

     MSignS (Michael Barfuss, MBA 2007; Jason Gilbert, Ph.D 2008; Judy Yu,
     Ph.D 2008) enables real-time IP-based translation from spoken English
     to American Sign Language

   - Outstanding Written Plan $2,500

     Well-House Home and Building Supply (Michael Edison, MBS/MS 2008;
     Adelaide Egan, MBA 2008; Matthew Garrett, MBA/MS 2008) single source
     for information and supplies for building professionals and homeowners
     to execute green home projects

   - Outstanding Presentation $2,500

     Locomatix (Nate Johnson and Carl Timm, MBAs '07) provides real-time
     asset tracking software to the retail supply chain and healthcare
     industries

About the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies

Formed in October 1999, the Institute actively engages the nation's most successful entrepreneurs and offers an outstanding faculty comprised of both academic researchers and practitioners in entrepreneurship. The Institute's mission is to focus the capabilities and resources of the top-ranked Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan to provide education, and experience in entrepreneurship; serve as a catalyst for new venture development; and contribute research in the field of entrepreneurship. Members of the Advisory Board include Samuel Zell, Chairman of Equity Group Investments; Michael Hallman, former COO of Microsoft Corporation; and Eugene Applebaum, Founder of Arbor Drugs, Inc. For more information, visit the Institute at http://www.zli.bus.umich.edu/.