Pipe Dream: Harvard Team Wins First Prize in $125,000 MIT Clean Energy Business Plan Competition
Jenny Ann Nichols, Contributing Writer
Issue date: 5/9/05 Section: News
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The Harvard team's winning proposal offered environmentally sensitive technology solutions-an engineered strategy containing polymer-producing bacteria based on research by Perry-to literally, eat away existing and inhibit new scale formation in industrial water systems. Microbial scale forms on the interiors of pipes used to transfer heat; a mere one-millimeter of mineral build-up can increase energy costs by 7.5 percent. The losses from the reduced energy output combined with the expense of conventional tactics to rid pipes of scale costs a nation the size of Great Britain almost one-billion pounds per year. Moreover, less efficient heat transfer leads to additional energy consumption (with more pollution along with it) and the current treatment strategies produce environmental contamination.
The members of the company, who originally met in Business 2107: "Commercializing Science and High Technology", a course taught by Harvard Business School's Lumry Family Associate Professor of Business Administration Lee Fleming, initially had no plans to take their ideas outside the classroom. They give credit to Paul Bottino, Executive Director of the Harvard Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences-based Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH) at DEAS, for inspiring them to enter the competition and for serving as their advisor and presentation coach.
The Ignite Mass contest directors focused the event on creating and presenting business plans because, according to the entry materials, "Great business ideas will not get funded unless entrepreneurs present their ideas in a clear, compelling story that is focused on the needs of investors and customers. A common complaint of VCs and business analysts is that CEO presentations are disorganized, self-serving, jargon-filled, or irrelevant."