Peer2Connect LLC advance to the second phase of the Governor's Business Plan Contest

51 firms advance to next round of Business Plan Contest

Fifty-one entries from 19 communities have advanced to the semi-final round of the ninth annual Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest.

The contestants were selected from a field of 248 first-round entries by an independent panel of about 60 judges organized through the Wisconsin Technology Council.

The semi-finalists are spread among advanced manufacturing (14), business services (11), information technology (13), and life sciences (13). Also entering were companies in energy, clean tech, software, industrial processes, health diagnostics, drugs, and medical devices.

The 51 entries competing in Phase II of the contest are writing summary business plans of no more than 1,000 words. Phase II plans will be filed online by 5 p.m. March 19; the next judging period will last about two weeks.

About two-dozen plans will move on to Phase 3, in which contestants will write a full business plan.

Prize winners will be announced in June at the annual Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference, to be held at The Pfister Hotel. The top dozen contestants will give live presentations at the conference, with judges scoring those pitches as a part of selecting the winners. Total cash and in-kind prizes in the statewide contest exceed $200,000.

The semi-finalists include:

Ankit Agarwal	Madison	Imbed Biosciences
Sara Amiri	Whitewater	Peer2Connect LLC
William Bazeley	Whitewater	NexVex Home Services Exchange
Joe Beck	Madison	Bacterial Concentrator (USE)
John Bender	Sussex	Simple Campus
Erwin Berthier	Madison	A Painless Cholesterol Test
Joseph Blustein	Madison	Artificial Vision Device - AVD
Boyce Doyle	Greendale	Sensational Exploratorium
Andrew Brown	Madison	HS Stats
Matthew Buerosse	Thiensville	COMFY CRUTCH
Rimas Buinevicius	Madison	RoWheels
Bill Checovich	Madison	IFAST
Brian Curry	Pewaukee	Lumen HC
Joshua Curry	Milwaukee	NutriGenix LLC
Ryan Dover	Lake Geneva	LocalGrown
Paul German	Oconomowoc	Imas Technologies
Mike Goodman	Madison	Retail Prescription Filling
Tim Gorsuch	Mukwonago	The Smart Sight
Roald Gundersen	Stoddard	WholeTreesTM Structures
Shawn Guse	Madison	Apartia Pharmaceuticals
Michael Harper	Milwaukee	ROAM
Brian Jensen	Madison	Fishidy.com
Chris Johnson	Middleton	Pilot Training System
Christopher Kemp	Milwaukee	Soil & Sediment Clean-up
Aaron Larner	Madison	Style Shuffler
Jeff Leismer	Sheboygan	VibeTech, Inc.
Nick Maris	Mequon	Reza-Band UES Assist device
Frederick Montgomery	Middleton	Novel Nitric Oxide Treatment
Connie Nadler	Madison	Smart in a Box
Leena Palav	Sussex	Natural touch bra
Nathan Patterson	Madison	PolarD - Radiant 3D Printers
Bobby Peterson	Madison	My Coverage Plan
Peter Petit	Pewaukee	V-Glass Vacuum Insulated Glass
Scott Pristel	Peshtigo	Self-DJ®
Ronald Raines	Madison	Hyrax Energy
Justin Reed	Madison	Capacitive Exciter
Dan Reed	Madison	Revolutionary Fishing Software
Pradeep Rohatgi	Milwaukee	Lightweight Composite castings
Abdalla Saad	Madison	Anticancer Nanomedicene
Jason Sevener	Shorewood	EnaCloud
Robert Shimmel	Madison	NCD Technologies
Alexander Smith	Beaver Dam	AxMax Tremolo
JT Smith	Madison	The Game Crafter
Jonathan Stojan	Hudson	ThriftyWrench.com
Menachem Tabanpour	Madison	Phophate Upcycling
Constantin Tivis	Dickeyville	Parallel programming software
Wayland Tobey	Sauk City	Cycogs Robotic Wheels
Karisa Trudgeon	Verona	inSIGHT by RedTwine
Woody Wallace	Madison	Cloud Machine
Dave Westlake	Delafield	Print Command
Ching-Hong Yang	Mequon	Pathogenesis inhibitor

Source: http://www.ibwisconsin.com/In-Business-Wisconsin/March-2012/51-firms-advance-to-next-round-of-Business-Plan-Contest/

Disconnected

Our addiction to technology became the subject of many news articles, scientific forecasts, and target for technology innovators seeking millions of dollar in revenues. It is given, proven, and taken for granted that human's addiction to technology is, with no doubt, increasing over time. Tonight, sitting in front of my laptop's screen, with itchy eyes and burned out energy, I started wondering about how life will be today for people who choose to get disconnected from their cellphones, laptops, television screens, iPods, and their different social media sites.  I didn't have to look for the answer, because I experienced it and I can tell you that it is a strange yet a great feeling of time appreciation and freedom.

Tichka, Atlas Mountains

A couple of years ago, my family and I went on a trip to Tinzar, a small berber village located in the suburbs of the city of Ouarzazat in Morocco. I can still recall my excitement to visit the village where my grandfather came from, visit family members that I have heard of but never seen in the past. We drove many long hours, passing through the mountain of Tichka, famous in Morocco for its dangerous curves. When we arrived to the city of Ouarzazat, I felt reassured, thinking that we finally made it safe, until we were told that we have to park our car in the city and wait for a truck driver to drive us up the mountain to the village where we were staying. To my big surprise, he was the only driver with the ability and expertise to drive up the narrow curves of the mountain leading to Tinzar. The ride was full of excitement, the narrow curve could only take one car at a time, giving us the feeling that with a little wind we could have fallen down from the tall mountain. All I could think of the whole way was how in the world am I going to survive our departure and having to drive down the mountain.

Soon my fears were forgotten, and I began to enjoy the uniqueness of the village: people, their houses, their food, their simplicity, their generosity, and joie de vivre. It was incredible. But the most unique aspect of my trip was the disconnection from all technology that is enslaving us in the city. There was only one place that provides internet connection and it was an hour drive from where we were staying. Grocery stores and markets only opened once a week, there was only one house with TV and dish network in the village, and my phone signal was playing hide and seek with me during my entire time there. It took me a few days to get accustomed to the life-style and not to take a peak at my phone every 10 minutes checking if my phone signal has found its way to Tinzar. But soon, I started to enjoy the daily gathering of family and friends, long walks around the village to almond trees plantations, by the rivers and the beautiful water falls. I felt a strong connection to the people and to the environment around me, and the moon has never been any closer to my sight than in Tinzar. I spent a long time every night contemplating the moon and the light it reflected on the village, it was in fact the only light illuminating Tinzar after sunset.

 People seemed very healthy, motivated, and most importantly Happy! They weren't wealthy people, but they were rich with culture, with ambitions, with love, and with health. While there, I suddenly felt that every minute counted and that I had more time in my day to spend with my family, new friends, and with myself. Some of my relatives there had to walk 60-90 minutes to get to their schools everyday, when it snowed it took them even longer. However, they were very happy to be able to go to get an education and dream about a very bright future. 

Today, looking back at this trip and thinking of the stress-free mind that I had during my stay in Tinzar, I wish I could be disconnected from every piece of electronic device that is around me for some time. Perhaps, I should take on this challenge: No technology for a week... Just the thought of it makes me picture the many things I could do during the free time that this challenge would offer me. 

Issues and Ideas (Whitewater TV)

Issues and Ideas

Maxim and I were invited to Whitewater TV to talk about our success as international students and about Peer2Connect. The show was hosted by Kirsten Kozik from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. 

                               

To Quit or Not To Quit

About a year ago, I had a great conversation with one of my close friends Mehul Kar about the right time to quit. I always have the best conversations with Mehul as I consider him a wise and reassuring friend who seems to make minuscule whatever problem or issue I encountered since I have met him.
The conversation about the right time to quit evolved from my premature decision to quit my position with Whitewater Student Government (WSG). I have always wanted to work with WSG, I still remember walking everyday past the WSG office and thinking to myself: "I want to be part of it!". I knew it was going to be hard to join it for several reasons, the most obvious one was because I was an international student and joining a governmental organization on campus could be a challenge, another reason was that I had nothing in common with the members of the organization except that I was a student and I cared about the campus and its students. But later my dream became a reality and I was hired to join WSG, I was very excited and could not wait to start working there and have my space in the office. I wanted to make it the best experience and tried to work hard to satisfy my duties but things didn't turn the way I wanted and had opposition from the members of the organization to the point that I wanted to quit my dream and enjoy the last months left in college with no pressure or stress. But when I spoke with Mehul, he asked me one question that totally changed my decision: "Are you in a dip, in a cliff, or in a cul-de-sac? ". I had to think the whole night about this question to come up with an answer. My answer the next day was "A dip!". I was not ready to quit but I was ready to push myself more and succeed. I did not want to fail and was ready to make more sacrifices in order for me to stay with WSG, meaning I had to work with the opposition around me to make progress and I did!

You probably wonder what are Cliffs, Cul-de-sac and dips, right?
Well cliffs refer to the situation where everything is going very well now but you know it will eventually go wrong and make you fail, so you have to quit. Cul-de-sac, as fun as the name sounds, it refers to the situation where there is no future ahead, the road is closed in front of you and you have to make a detour (quit), a dip in my understanding is the situation where things are going bad but with more hard work and persistence you could overcome those obstacles and succeed. Clear?

A year from my conversation with Mehul, going through more experiences and having to overcome more obstacles, I realized that this philosophy is wrong! If someone came to me today with the same issue I will ask them: "Are you ready to reinvent yourself?". Quitting is not the right answer anymore. When you are in a cliff or cul-de-sac you have to reinvent, change things in you and around you. I read in an article that if you are in the newspaper industry you are in a cliff because the industry is failing and you have to think of quitting, I would not call it quitting but I'd say reinventing. The word "quit" seems to me so negative that I don't want to believe in it.

Two years ago, I started working on a business idea called "studentutor" with a partner. In a couple of months I realized it was going nowhere, I didn't quit! I reinvented by changing partners and reinventing the idea to come up with a better idea, and that is where Peer2Connect came from... from reinventing.

Summary: When you think that there is no hope and that the road is closed ahead or around you, start by changing (reinventing) yourself and your environment. You might let go something for another that is better, but you are not quitting.

Internship 101 - The Interview Process




 The Reinvent Yourself Workshop
The Tranel Financial Group

I know some of you have been waiting for my post, hence Blue Perez. But let me know tell you that the only thing that has been holding back from writing is my busy schedule at work. I actually have much more to add on to my post, so enjoy!

I want to start out by telling you, in the next posts, about my experience at my second internship here in the United States and how life changing it was for me, not only on the professional level but also on the personal level. I have been having The Experience of A Lifetime. I say that because I feel the change and I hope you feel it too after your internship wherever that would be.

I started interning for The Tranel Financial Group in May 2011, and I think I have to mention how I got the internship…The answer is simply by being ME. Like any other student in my graduation class, I have been looking for a job or internship months before graduation. I have had a couple of interviews, mostly over the phone and it did not turn out well. I was too nervous, I felt the time emergency and really wanted to be at my best during the interview or perhaps be someone else they might like better than myself.  I think that is how many students prepare for interviews; they become less themselves and more someone else that they think has more chances to get the job! It did not work for me. After a couple of interviews and many disappointments, I became desperate and even thought of giving up, but my friend Maxim came to me one night and suggested I interview with The Tranel Financial Group, because they seemed like a good fit for me. I thought about it the whole night and thought it would probably be my last attempt. I was not nervous at all because I thought to myself “what could possibly happen?”... “another rejection letter?”.

The day of the interview, I didn’t take too much time getting ready. Threw on the first black pants and button shirts I could see in my closet and printed two copies of my resume & cover letter, and left for my interview. Of course I did some research about the company and connected with one of their employees “Kyle” on Facebook. I wanted to put a face to the company and I could do that through connecting with one familiar face I could relate to.  Once there, I was shockingly calm and surprisingly myself. I conducted the interview like I would in a mocking interview with a close friend (Sachie). I suddenly became relaxed and confident, thinking that if my interviewer did not like me the way I am then I should probably not be working for the company. The interview lasted 15 minutes, after that it was me sharing personal stories, being humorous, cheerful, over excited…being myself. When I got the positive answer I have been waiting for, I felt I wanted to jump around, of course being myself I did not stop myself from showing my big smile and sparkling eyes. I felt I made a big step forward to accomplish the dreams I came for to the United States.

Moral of the story: Be Yourself! When you try hard to be someone else, it shows and translate your lack of confidence and self esteem. It also makes the interview awkward and makes it hard for the interviewer to connect with you. Don’t build that obstacle between you and the interviewer with your own hands!

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version

of somebody else." 

by Judy Garland

Crise financière : nouvelles des Etats-Unis avec Sara Amiri

Voici un éclairage pragmatique venant des Etats-Unis sur la crise actuelle...

Sara Amiri, Responsable marketing dans une société financière nord-américaine est l'exemple, à la fois, d'une brillante carrière et d'une intelligente capacité d'adaptation. Jeune marocaine, elle a choisi les Etats-Unis pour parfaire son parcours académique. Notamment, à l'Université du Wisconsin. Entrepreneur-née, elle a été, entre autres, attachée de campagne pour le parti démocrate. Elle nous fait le plaisir de partager sa lecture de la crise financière actuelle, avec sa posture d'outre-atlantique.
- Sara, sur le vieux continent et depuis la crise de la dette grecque, nous nous "gargarisons" de pessimisme et les marchés financiers jouent à se faire peur. Quel état d'esprit prévaut de ton côté de l'Atlantique ?  
Il est vrai que la crise de la dette grecque a déclenché bien de l’angoisse et de l’ambigüité dans tous les continents et notamment chez les investisseurs américains qui sont sensibles aux médias américains mais aussi européens. Ces derniers nous envoient, malheureusement, des signaux défavorables sur l’économie mondiale et sur les marchés financiers en particulier. Nous n’avons toujours pas guérit totalement de la blessure infligée par la crise financière de 2008, et nous voici, une nouvelle fois, confrontés a une crise systémique. Quant à l'état d’esprit prévalant aux Etats-Unis, je dirais qu'il existe beaucoup de confusion. La plupart des gens se demandent comment la crise de la dette grecque peut se répercuter sur le marché financier américain. Peu de gens comprennent la crise de dette, mais ce qui est encore plus important, c’est que peu de gens savent qui au juste détient ces dettes. Ces questions alimentent l'incertitude chez l’investisseur américain. Cela peut également déclencher une crise de resserrement du crédit, voire éventuellement une crise de liquidité. Nous suivons de très près l’actualité européenne. Nous comprenons à présent, le degré de propagation d’une crise financière à travers le globe. Cela dit, je pense que l’on reste vigilent tout en demeurant plutôt optimistes aux Etats-Unis. Les derniers rapports sur la croissance du PIB et sur le taux de chômage sont encourageants. Aussi, je conclurai qu'il n'y a pas autant de pessimisme de ce côté de l'Atlantique.
- L'Europe voue, souvent, aux Etats-Unis une relation schizophrène. Un sentiment tantôt mêlé d'envie et de réprobation mais aussi d'admiration et d'attente. Comment le ressens-tu ?   
Je pense que c’est une relation bien réciproque. Au fil de mon expérience et de mes diverses conversations avec des Américains et des Européens, j’ai pu ressentir cette relation complexe. Je pense, en partie, cela est dû à l’histoire de ces derniers mais aussi à la politique étrangère américaine. La relation historique entre l’Europe et les Etats-Unis est basée sur des valeurs communes et sur une forte croyance fondamentale de la démocratie et des droits de l’Homme. On y ajoute: justice et pouvoir de l’économie du marché.  Ce sont deux fortes économies qui sont à la fois partenaires mais aussi concurrentes sur le marché mondial. Chacune des deux économies assure à l’autre une grande partie de ses investissements directs étrangers.  Il est à noter que les Etats-Unis seuls ont investi en Europe près de 98 milliards d’euros en 2010.  Cependant, le sentiment de reproche envers les Etats-Unis peut être expliqué par le positionnement des Etats-Unis sur la scène politique internationale comme étant la force économique et militaire mondiale, diminuant de facto la force que représentait l’Europe, il y a quelques décennies. Je pense que l’on peut bien constater le mouvement d’hostilité entre les Etats-Unis et l’Union Européenne face à la campagne de lutte contre le terrorisme lancée par les Etats-Unis et l’invasion de l’Irak par la suite.  Je pense néanmoins que cette relation, dite schizophrène, n’est que le résultat logique d’un affrontement entre deux pouvoirs qui tentent de préserver et d’assurer leurs positions au milieu de la scène politique et économique internationale. Toutefois, cela fait sourire de constater que cette scène ne tardera pas à être dominée par de nouvelles forces comme la Chine, Israël, ou l’inde, si ce n’est pas déjà fait en coulisses.
- Le compromis sur la dette US adopté début août entre démocrates et républicains n'a pas enthousiasmé les marchés financiers. Est-ce à attribuer au pessimisme ambiant ou à l'insuffisance du plan ?
Que l’on soit démocrate ou républicain, il était nécessaire d’initier un débat sur l’endettement du gouvernement américain au niveau politique. Barack Obama a conseillé vivement les deux partis politiques de parvenir à un consensus pour éviter que le gouvernement américain ne puisse honorer ses échéances.  Malheureusement, le débat économique sur la dette a pris l’apparence de deux campagnes électorales qui ciblent.....
Pour lire la suite: http://www.meylan-finance.ch/blog-finance/2011-08-crise-financiere-nouvelles-des-etats-unis-avec-sara-amiri 

FastPitch Contest in Rockford

Maxim and Sara Answering the judges' questions after the pitch!

The FastPitch Contest has been a great learning experience for us, through the Whitewater Launch Pad Program of Whitewater, we have been preparing and working hard to WIN the contest! We realized that hard work does pay and patience is one necessary element to success adding to it several sleepless nights. Our idea was simple, yet innovative. Peer2Connect is an idea based on our need as international students. Another lesson learned is if you know your target market you know your business!

As partners, we have been communicating everyday. Discussing every little detail of our business plan. Our main communication tool was our weekly meetings and our everyday phone and skype conversations. Although conversations weren't all about business, but we enjoyed every moment of it because it helped us build our dream and reach our objectives with the motivation we gave each other.

Professor William Dougan, from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is our mentor and has been a great motivation factor for us because he believed in our idea but also in our abilities. He is always ready to work with us, be it 8 AM or 9 PM. The night before the contest, we stayed in his office working until 1 AM before returning home for more work.

We want people to understand that there is no secret ingredient to winning the fastpitch contest but hard work and sacrifice.

At the Final of FastPitch Contest in Rockford

Winning the contest was great but meeting new people and getting more connections was amazing! It was important for us as new entrepreneurs to get our name out there and let people know that we are ready to work hard and are able to. We are looking forward for the biggest contest of finalizing our business idea and launching Peer2Connect in January 2012.

We will keep you posted!