15 Entrepreneur Teams Grow Businesses in Summer Venture Program at Babson College

WELLESLEY, Mass., June 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- 15 teams of Babson College students and recent alumni are spending 10 intensive weeks in Babson's Summer Venture Program to strategize, shape, and accelerate their businesses.

The Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson-organizer of the program-was highly-selective in choosing the entrepreneurs and offers an environment that stimulates their entrepreneurial minds. Open work space allows teams to be close-but not too close-so they can network, assist one another, and share resources. Many live in Babson dorms so they can work around-the-clock to refine their ventures.

Noon on Mondays is status update time when teams share ideas and solve the week's business challenge. On Tuesdays and Thursdays a Babson faculty member or business guest addresses students during a brown-bag lunch. Wednesdays are "Hot Seat" days when a single team presents their business and receives intensive feedback. Teams receive in-house counsel from the program director and meet with entrepreneur-mentors in person at least once a week.

On Demo Day, July 29th at 2:00 p.m., Babson's entrepreneurs will formally present their business plans to venture capitalists, angel investors,  friends, and family.

Babson College Summer Venture Program Companies

Undergraduate Students

Name: Austin Conti

Company: Sweet Spot Parking

Sweet Spot Parking is striving to enter into the privatization of parking meters for local towns while providing superior metering technology that will lower overall expenses to towns and create a more streamline system of parking for drivers.

Name: Damian Gray

Company: Insite Motion Media; Insitemotionmedia.com

Creator and provider of web site video content and marketing technology.

Name: Enrico Palmerino and Dinesh Wadhwani

Company: ThinkLite; www.rethinkrelite.com

ThinkLite LLC is a Massachusetts-based efficiency firm that provides energy efficient lighting solutions to businesses and households at no upfront costs. ThinkLite uses advanced technologies to measure energy consumed by lighting and provides turnkey solutions which include energy audits, lighting analysis, product provision, installation, warranties, recycling, and guaranteed energy savings that reduce monthly lighting costs by up to 80%. In exchange for their services, ThinkLite receives a percentage of the guaranteed monthly savings realized by the customer.

Name: Greg Schwartz

Company: Ball and Buck; www.ballandbuck.com

Ball and Buck is the first sustainable lifestyle brand to incorporate socially and environmentally responsible practices to create affordable and one-of-a-kind products that enable consumers to use their personalized style to help the world around us.

Name: Colin Winter

Company: ShuffleChat; http://shufflechat.com

ShuffleChat is a video chatting website that focuses on creating quality engagements between its users.

Undergraduate Alumni

Name: Mark Bollman '10 and Candace Sombrero '10

Company: Social Butterfly Group; www.socialbutterflygroup.com

Social Butterfly is an enterprise level web application that enables companies to schedule social media campaigns across platforms and see detailed analytics to measure their impact on company exposure and sales.

Name: Alexander Debelov '10

Company: Crelligence Media; www.viralskool.com

As featured in New York Times, Entrepreneur and ABC, Viralskool allows companies to host video contests, where the winner is determined based on how viral their video gets on the internet.

Name: Chris Jacobs '10

Company: Honest Discounts

Honest Discounts provides businesses, charities, professional sports teams and people with a platform to distribute custom discount prescription drug cards at no charge that allow people to save 10-65% on medications at over 65,000 pharmacies nationwide. There are millions of Americans who can't afford the medications they need, and we believe that by partnering with the right organizations we can save people money while donating to a good cause.

Graduate Students

Name: Seth Burstein

Company: Trade Show Internet; www.tradeshowinternet.com

Trade Show Internet, via their plug-and-play, internet-in-a-box solution, is dispelling the myth that internet connectivity at trade shows and corporate events is only available through overpriced, "exclusive", in-house vendors.

Name: Joshua Leffler

Company: BrandXO

BrandXO leverages existing social media applications and proprietary analytics to help executives develop their personal brand.

Name: Joanna Meiseles

Company: Zip Cuts (working title)

For busy professionals who seek convenient and low cost hair care services, Zip Cuts will provide mobile haircuts from branded trucks that will travel to office parks and business centers where lots of people work.

Graduate Alumni

Name: Farnaz Bakhtari M'10 and Nirav Shah M'11

Company: TrainingPal

TrainingPal is a SaaS-based online platform that enables personal trainers to offer their services over the internet and manage the performance of their clients.

Name: Shabnam Emamian M'10

Company: HappeningMap; www.happeningmap.com

HappeningMap.com is an early-stage community-based venture that promotes the growth of local economies by helping connect community members and local businesses in innovative and mutually advantageous ways.

Name: Sara Gragnolati M'10 and Zachary DeAngelo

Company: Evolve Foods

Evolve Foods is a nutrition-based, gluten-free food brand that uses ancient grains to make healthy, convenient products.

Name: Ben Saur M'10

Company: RecipeKey; http://www.RecipeKey.com

Recipe Key is an innovative recipe search website that allows users to search for recipes based on ingredients they already have in their kitchens.

Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., is recognized internationally as a leader in entrepreneurial management education. Babson grants BS degrees through its innovative undergraduate program, and grants MBA and custom MS and MBA degrees through the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. Babson Executive Education offers executive development programs to experienced managers worldwide. For information, visit www.babson.edu.

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SOURCE Babson College