Winners Named in Boomer Entrepreneurs Contest

Two Bay Area start-ups capture top prize in 2007 Boomer Business Plan Competition; World Hearing Organization and SeroNostics win $10,000 plus access to leading venture capitalists and boomer market experts

Santa Clara, CA (PRWEB) June 22, 2007 – Two early-stage ventures developing innovative technologies that address health problems common among older people have been selected as winners of the 2007 Silicon Valley Boomer Business Plan Competition.

World Hearing Organization (WHO), a San Jose, California-based company that provides mobile hearing aid centers that visit hospitals, drugstores, nursing homes and other healthcare venues, took top prize in the competition’s “general” category. WHO’s mobile centers test patients’ hearing and sell prescription hearing aids at sharply discounted prices. WHO’s hearing aids are powered by solar cells and contain a chip programmed with several standard prescriptions. The potential market for these devices is enormous - in the United States alone, it is estimated that 25 million people have untreated hearing impairments. WHO plans to launch its centers in California next year, but sees national and global opportunities down the road.

Top prize in the competition’s “health” category went to SeroNostics, a start-up venture that is developing a hand-held diagnostic device that allow physicians and nurses to quickly analyze blood and other bodily fluids at a doctor’s office or other point of care. Devices that speed blood analysis, and eliminate the need for analysis in remote labs, represent a rapidly growing segment of the medical diagnostics market. The device being developed by SeroNostics, which is led by a team of bioengineering and mechanical engineering Ph.D. students at UC Berkeley, will initially be used to diagnose skin infections, before expanding to other diseases such as influenza.

The winners were announced on June 19 at the Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit, an annual conference held at Santa Clara University.

The annual Boomer Business Plan Competition attracts entrepreneurs, early-stage companies and university students who are developing products and services aimed at the fast-growing baby boomer and senior markets. Contestants target a range of industries poised for change and growth as the population ages, including medicine, technology, fashion, romance and financial services.

The 2007 competition drew more than 60 business plans from around the United States and eight other countries, including Egypt, Germany, India, Israel, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

The competition is co-produced by Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business and Mary Furlong & Associates. For more information, please visit www.boomerventuresummit.com/competition.

World Hearing Organization and SeroNostics were among 10 finalists – five from the “general” category and five in the “health” category – that presented business plans to a panel of judges at the Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit. The judges, who included top venture capitalists and other experts in the boomer and senior markets, chose the two category winners after listening to their presentations.

Each of the two winners was awarded $10,000 check. All of the finalists received exposure to investors, potential partners and executives from leading nonprofit organizations such as AARP, the American Society on Aging and the National Council on Aging.

In addition to World Hearing Organization, the following “general” ventures advanced to the competition’s final round:

• AmeliaPlex, an Orlando, FL-based company, is developing and marketing software solutions that send medication reminders to users’ cell phones, pagers and other mobile devices.
• Celery, a Troy, NY-based firm, has developed a device that enables users to send and receive handwritten letters as email and receive printed color photos without a computer.
• eLegacy, a Lewis Center, OH-based firm, is developing software that makes it easier for estate holders and their executors to manage and settle estates.
• Prime Footwear, a Stanford-based venture, is developing therapeutic footwear with clinically validated technologies for consumers with joint problems.

In addition to SeroNostics, finalists in the “health” category included:

• CellThera, a biotech venture based at UC San Francisco, is developing cell-based transplants for severely disabled stroke patients.
• Curant, a Stanford-based venture, is developing device-based therapies for people with urinary incontinence.
• cVision Medical Solutions, a Johns Hopkins-based venture, is developing a non-invasive ultrasound procedure that measures central venous pressure.
• Optimal Vision, a University of Illinois at Chicago-based venture, is developing a non-invasive laser procedure that reshapes the cornea and corrects near-vision loss.

The Boomer Business Plan Competition “is the first time we have brought our product to a public audience, after four years of development. The exposure this competition has given us, including the contacts with VCs and leading nonprofits like AARP, has been invaluable,” says Siamak Sani, president and CEO of World Hearing Organization. “Winning top prize in our category reaffirms for us that we have the right vision and the potential to hit a home run in a huge and growing market.”

“The point of care diagnostics field is very crowded…but we think our technology stands out from the rest due to its versatility and simplicity. The platform can be rapidly adapted for virtually any diagnostic need, making it extremely promising for many untapped markets,” says J. Tanner Nevill, a UC Berkeley bioengineering Ph.D. candidate who is part of SeroNostics’ leadership team. “We are thrilled to have won first prize in the health category at the 2007 Boomer Business Plan Competition. While the financial award will benefit SeroNostics, the biggest asset is the contacts and exposure that the competition provided.”

This year’s panel of finalist judges included: Andy Donner, Director, Physic Ventures; Bill Elkus, Managing Director, Clearstone Venture Partners; James P. Firman, Ed. D., President and CEO, National Council on Aging (NCOA); Jody Holtzman, Director of Knowledge Management, AARP; Nancy U. Kamei, Sector Director - Digital Health, Intel Capital; James L. Koch, Executive Director of the Center for Science, Technology & Society and Professor of Management, Santa Clara University; Emilio Pardo, Chief Brand Officer, AARP; Bijan Salehizadeh, MD, Partner, Highland Capital Partners; Robert Stein, President & CEO, American Society on Aging; Brad Vale, Ph.D., VP, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation; Vance Vanier, MD, Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures.

Sponsors of the 2007 Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit include AARP; North Castle Partners; Posit Science Corporation; Hewlett-Packard; MetLife Mature Market Institute; Morrison & Foerster; Silicon Valley Bank; Sun Microsystems; Decision Street; The Entrust Group; Petplan; ALCiS Health, Inc.; and LifeBio.

In-kind contributors include BMW; Les Concierges; Four Seasons Silicon Valley; and Southwest Airlines. Marketing partners include AIPMM; American Society on Aging and its Business Forum on Aging; CXOnetworking; EBIG; Mary Furlong & Associates; Patti Wilson, Career Company; San Francisco Chapter of the American Marketing Association; and SmartSilvers Alliance.

About the co-producers
Founded in 1926, the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University was one of the first business schools in the country to receive national accreditation. Its undergraduate business program was recently acknowledged among the best across the U.S., and its MBA and Executive MBA programs are ranked 12th and 21st, respectively, in the nation among graduate business programs. More than 80 percent of its 1,100 MBA students are working professionals in Silicon Valley. More information is available at www.scu.edu/business.

Founded in 2003, Mary Furlong & Associates (MFA) is a proven team of business innovators, comprised of talent from marketing, editorial, business, online content and community. Mary Furlong, Ed.D., the firm’s founder and CEO, has guided the offline and online 40+ market strategies of leading corporations and nonprofit organizations for more than 20 years. Furlong is Dean’s Executive Professor of Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, and previously founded SeniorNet and ThirdAge Media. Her latest book, “Turning Silver into Gold: How to Profit in the New Boomer Marketplace,” was published in February 2007. More information is available at www.maryfurlong.com.
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