On Monday I attended the 1st annual East Coast Venture Competition which was sponsored by VC firm DFJ Gotham and took place at Columbia. It was a really great event, especially considering it was the first one (they have one out West too, but this was the first on the East coast). A couple of guys from Princeton took first prize (250,000 in funding) for their chemically enhanced bacteria-resistant catheters and one of CBS's own won the surprise 2nd prize - $100,000 in funding.

The CBS winner was a company called Greenware, founded by a 2nd year who just graduated. Basically, they make ecologically friendly paper plates. It sounds simple but is actually very hard to do. The plates are microwavable, washable, and look good, too. I think they're onto something, and apparently the VC's do, too!

I also had the pleasure of meeting Tim Draper, who came out to judge the event. For those who don't know, he is the 'D' in DFJ, and one of the world's most successful VC's. It was kind of like meeting a rock star (albeit a rockstar that only MBAs and VC geeks like myself would appreciate :)

Actually, I just put some links to some videos of Tim on the right side of the blog -- it's him singing his VC-themed song, 'The Riskmaster'. Corny, but funny. Future MBAs will get a kick out of it (and others may cringe).

Kudos to DFJ - they put on a great event.