New Orleans, LA – Future Factory Managing Director Ed Michael Reggie served as a judge to select the winner of the 2015 Tulane Business Model Competition, the flagship entrepreneurship event for Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business.
The Tulane Business Model Competition, an annual presentation of the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, awards over $37,500 in cash to high-potential early stage ventures that demonstrate a market-tested ability to adapt to customer needs. More than 50 ventures from across the U.S. applied to participate in this year’s competition.
“It was, indeed, a rewarding experience to serve as a judge at this competition,” Reggie commented, “and it was exciting to see the potential demonstrated by the three finalists.” Reggie’s background with start-ups made him a well-qualified judge. His company, Future Factory, initiates and manages start-ups and has created companies that were ahead of their time and successfully managed them to exit.
The finalists were selected based on the viability and sustainability of their businesses, as demonstrated by their ability to identify and precisely define the assumptions of the new venture; test those assumptions in the field; and then change based on lessons learned.
Winner of the TBMC was Disease Diagnostic Group, a medical device manufacturer that developed a fast, accurate test to improve the diagnosis of malaria. The other finalists were D&P Bioinnovations, a biomedical firm with a technology to regenerate damaged tissue; and REEcycle, a recycling company that extracts rare earth elements from discarded electronic devices.
