The pitches came from:

- Several Duke undergraduates including an idea for a Duke-based "Craigslist-like" site to exchange textbooks and other student goods; and an idea to help social causes create unique t-shirts to promote their causes.

- Several Fuqua students, with ideas ranging from a startup that is commercializing the world's longest carbon nanotube, a possible replacement for copper wires; a startup working with "cell seeding" technology from Duke's own labs, for use in making medical devices more acceptable to the body; a podcast transcription company that makes blog and news sites available to commuters in a safe and easy-to-use manner; and a medical device developed at Stanford that can solve the unmet urinary incontinence problem through a unique and convenient valve system.

- two sets of Duke PhD students, one who is looking to create a smart network for the home that will help with energy monitoring, among other things; the next being some students who have created a network for helping North Carolina businesses get microconsulting work from students.

- a Duke Master of Engineering Management student with an idea for energy saving competitions to be used in university dorms, that monitors, in real-time, the dorms energy usage.

The slides and program for the pitches can be found here:

- Slides: http://sites.google.com/a/dukedees.com/www/session-downloads/elevator-pitch-practice-run-2009/07-FinalSlidesforDukeElevatorPitchPracticeRun.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

- Program: http://sites.google.com/a/dukedees.com/www/session-downloads/elevator-pitch-practice-run-2009/07-ProgramforElevatorPitchPracticeRun.doc?attredirects=0&d=1

At the end of the evening, the judges gave an overview of what they look for in a pitch. Particularly helpful was David Pierson's description of the components of an elevator pitch, something he has observed many times in his years as a venture capitalist.

Two winners were selected for the night, a Judge's Choice and a People's Choice.  In the actual Elevator Pitch Competition, the two winners of each Track (there are 7 tracks) will advance to the Finals Event on November 20th with Bill Maris, co-founder of Google Ventures.

While the Judge's huddled to select their winner, the audience members texted their vote to our online poll and the results were updated live on screen.  It was an entertaining and efficient way to participate in the judging process.  The results can be seen here: http://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/LTUyMDIwMTQ4

Both Judge's and People's Choices went to General Nano, the longest carbon nanotube.  As per the rules in the Elevator Pitch Competition, the 2nd place Judge's choice (25th Hour Media, the podcast company) would have advanced to the Finals.

This event is a practice run for the real Duke Start-Up Challenge Elevator Pitch Competition which takes place from November 16-20, 2009, a part of Global Entrepreneurship Week.  More information about that exciting week-long event is available at www.dukestartupchallenge.org.

Pictures of the event are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/eshipatduke/Entrepreneurship20092010#, and the video will be made available soon.

Written by Howie Rhee, co-advisor to the Duke Start-Up Challenge, the Duke Entrepreneurship Education Series, and the EVCC