Raj Krishnan and the UC San Diego student-run bioengineering startup company Biological Dynamics did not win the $250,000 first place at the DFJ Cisco Global Business Plan Competition. (Click here for background.)
Krishnan remains upbeat and optimistic. “We aren’t done yet, not by a long shot.”
First prize went to Husk Power Systems Inc., a company that turns rice husks into energy. The company is already powering a small town in India. Read a quick summary on the Wall Street Journal’s Venture Capital Dispatch blog.
“The competition was world-class and the process was extremely useful and exciting. Just making the finals is a great honor,” said Krishnan, whose team swept student research and business plan competitions across UC San Diego, the UC System and the region.
According to the story on Venture Capital Dispatch, posted by Timothy Hay, 15 executives from both Cisco and DFJ helped narrow the field of 16 finalists.
Draper said he has plans to follow up with seven of the start-ups he came across.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we funded four of them,” said Draper, DFJ founder.
“We learned a lot, and got to see the best of the best presentations worldwide. We will apply our knowledge to further improve our presentation for the upcoming $250K first prize Qualcomm QPrize competition, which we hope to win.”
The finals for the Qualcomm QPrize will be held in November 2009 here in San Diego.
