Fortune Lists, 2007

In August, Fortune Small Business named the finalists for their 6th Annual Business Plan Competition: Calle Soccer from Brigham Young University; SweetRiot (chocolateers) from NYC; Idea Storm Products, from Pace University; Mulligan Stew Pet Food from Wyoming; Green Dragon Pest Solutions from Georgia; and Saatwic Food (for diabetics) from Tennessee.

Earlier this year, seven companies headquartered in Virginia were among the 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2007, recognized by Fortune: Network Appliance, Booz Allen Hamilton, Capital One Financial, MITRE, SRA International, Stanley, and CarMax, which is located in central Virginia.

More recently, Fortune identified the Best Colleges for Entrepreneurs; the University of Virginia made that list that for their partnership with the University's medical school.

Innovation Challenge 2007

The 5th annual Innovation Challenge returns to the Darden School of Business in November. The enrollment is open now, and ends on September 28, 2007.

The international panel of judges this year includes Charlottesville entrepreneur Elizabeth Pyle.

See Innovation Challenge for more information about this year's event and winners from prior years.

Virginians in the Inc. 500

There were 34 Virginia companies among the 2006 Inc. 500 fastest growing companies. The 2007 list will be announced next month.

Doug Tatum, founding chairman of Tatum Partners, will deliver his talk on No Man's Land at the Inc 500 Awards ceremony in Chicago. He spoke on this zone at the Charlottesville Venture Group last year.

For the record, Central Virginia companies recognized in 2006 Inc. 500 include:
University Instructors at 139; ActCom Security Solutions at 345; and Rosetta Stone at 431.

Entrepreneur Magazine's Hot 500 for 2007

The Daily Progress reports that 24 Virginia companies made the Entrepreneur Magazine Hot 500 list of America's fastest growing companies in the South Atlantic Region this year. They include Outcomes, Inc. of Charlottesville, Stoker Construction Management LLC of Midlothian, Log.Sec Corporation of Manassas, and PBM Holdings, Inc of Gordonsville.

Other ranked Virginia companies are Four Points Technology, Nexius, and Valador, Inc. of Herndon, A-T Solutions, Inc. of Fredericksburg, Patner Construction, Inc., Webster Data Communications, Inc. and Winn Design LLC of Fairfax, Morgan Franklin Corporation and Aquarian LLC of McLean, Government Support Services, Inc., Acuity Consulting, Inc. and Orion Worldwide Travel of Alexandria, Integrity Applications, Inc., Nonstop Delivery, Inc. and JRC Logistics, Inc. of Chantilly, The Goal, Inc. of Ashburn, Platinum Solutions, Inc. of Reston, ICI Services LLC of Dumfries, MCG Capital Corporation of Arlington, and kmG Hauling of Potomac Falls.

European Entrepreneur Cullen

Aodhan Cullen, founder of StatCounter, was recognized by Business Week as the Young IT Person of the Year, recognizing outstanding achievements made by a recent entrant into the IT profession. The StatCounter blog has details, and celebration snapshots.

Y-Combinator Funding

Paul Graham's Y-Combinator has just opened applications for funding in the San Francisco Bay area. The deadline is October 11 for companies seeking startup funding and mentoring. Reddit is one of the companies launched through this program.

Graham's March essay, "Why to Not Not Start a Startup", derived from talks at the 2007 Startup School and the Berkeley CSUA, reviews some of the lessons learned from Y-Combinator's first years of operations. He comments that So about half the founders from that first summer, less than two years ago, are now rich, at least by their standards. His piece on The Equity Equation is an interesting perspective on whether to seek or accept startup funding.

Greater Washington Entrepreneurs of the Year

Ernst and Young recently announced the winners of the Greater Washington Area regional Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

Matthew Ernst, CEO, Amentra, Inc. of Richmond won in the Technology section. Other regional winners from Virginian include Matthew O’Connell (Communications), President & CEO, GeoEye of Dulles, Philip Nolan (Government Services), Chairman, President & CEO, Stanley, Inc. of Arlington, Stanislas Vilgrain (Hospitality), CEO, Cuisine Solutions of Alexandria, David Vos (Services), Founder & CEO, Athena Technologies, Inc. of Warrenton, and Peter Harrison (Emerging), CEO, GlobalLogic, Inc. of Vienna.

VA Business CFO of 2007

Virginia Business Magazine recently announced the five category winners of the 2007 CFO of the year. Three central Virginia companies were among the winners, including the Large Private Company category winner, Ted Hanson of Apex Systems, Inc. of Glen Allen. Among the Small Nonprofits, Roy Peters of the Central Virginia Food Bank, is the winner. Douglas E. Blum, of the Capital Region Airport Commission won in the Large Nonprofit category.

In the Small Private Company category, the winner is an architect, Nicholas Vlattas of Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas & Co, an architectural firm based in Norfolk. In the Public Company category, the winner was Victor Sellier of Argon ST of Fairfax.

Web of Belief

According to Journalism.org,

Some of the biggest names in web journalism—ESPN.com, Slate.com, and People.com—were among the finalists for the 2007 National Magazine Award in “Online General Excellence.” But when the American Society of Magazine Editors announced the winner on May 1, a lesser known spirituality-and faith-based site called Beliefnet.com walked away with the top prize. And in bestowing its 2007 National Magazine Award, the American Society of Magazine Editors lauded Beliefnet for “its ability to unite a diverse audience under one digital roof. Founder Steve Waldman left US News & World Report to start Beliefnet in 1998.

Originally Beliefnet had an ambitious business strategy mirroring the ethos of internet entrepreneurs of the 1990s, and about 60 employees. Along with news and commentary, visitors to Beliefnet.com could book a vacation or access an online dating service.

When the Internet bubble burst, Waldman declared bankruptcy. The five remaining employees worked at minimum wage, although they were given stock in the company which, according to a recent New York Times article, could now be valued at as much as $100 million. (According to a New York Times article, its revenue has surged by at least 50% in the last four years, reaching $12.6 million in 2006.)

With the support of venture capital, the site was reorganized and adopted a new business model based predominantly on online advertising. Beliefnet also augmented the social networking component with more than 100 hundred different topics and a roster of beliefs that range from Atheism to Zoroastrianism. Snippets from Journalism.org

The site includes the trademarked Belief-o-matic to find out the faith group to which your personality type belongs, as well as prayer requests and advertisements for Evan Almighty, filmed in Crozet last year.

2007 Magazine Award Winners

The 2007 National Magazine Awards are an interesting snapshot of our times. The winners include:

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists was recognized for General Excellence, beating out finalist The Virginia Quarterly Review.

Wired beat The Economist in their circulation class. Vanity Fair won both the Public Interest and Columns and Commentary categories. The Single Topic Issue winner was the American Express Departures Latin American issue (Not available online without subscription). In the Excellence in Reporting category, Esquire's report on the 2004 attack on the Russian school in Beslan beat out the IEEE Spectrum's report on restoring electricity to Iraq, Reengineering Iraq.

Finally, the Interactive Service category winner was Business Week's B-School Channel.

Ernst and Young Entrepreneurs, 2007

Ernst and Young is beginning to announce the state and regional winners of the 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year awards. National winners will be announced in November.

VA Small Business of 2007

Nominations are open for the 2007 Virginia Small Business of the Year, sponsored by Virginia Business Magazine. Nominations are due by August 31.

VA Small Business

Nominations for the Virginia Small Business Success Story of the Year are due August 31, 2007. Next February, the four regional winners will be profiled in Virginia Business magazine.

Criteria include:
• Virginia based
• Less than 100 employees
• Privately held
• At least one owner active in the business
• In business at least five years
• Profitable

Ernst and Young 2007 Finalists, DC Area

Finalists for the Ernst and Young 2007 Greater DC Area Entrepreneur of the Year include the following central Virginia finalists:

Sreven S. Baum, James E. Johnson, Barry M. Koski and Christopher J. Ziegler of Compass Energy Services, Inc. of Richmond
Matthew Jonathan Ernst, Amentra, Inc of Richmond
Sean Garvey, NovusCG of Manassas

Finalists from other Virginia locations:
Craig P. Abo of Carahsoft Technology Corp; Prashanth “PV” Boccasam of Approva; Mike Bruce of InScope Solutions, Inc; Richard L. Burtner of SkyBitz, Inc; Bernard H. Clineburg of Cardinal Bank; Christian Hunt of Care Rehab and Orthopaedic Products, Inc.; Shankar Iyer and Bala Sundar of SyApps; Philip O. Nolan of Stanley, Inc; Matthew O'Connell of GeoEye; Rahul Sharma of Celcite Management Solutions LLC; Lee Van Arsdale of Triple Canopy, Inc; and Stanislas Vilgrain of Cuisine Solutions.

Winners will be announced on June 21.

Academy Awards, Virtually

According to CNN, Ailin Graef, Anshe Chung in Second Life, and Jon Jacobs, Neverdie of Entropia Universe, have announced the creation of a Virtual Worlds Academy.

The academy will accept nominations on its Web site for categories like "Best Virtual World," "Best Virtual Fashion Designer" and "Most Dynamic Virtual Economy."

In February, the winners will receive virtual statues at live ceremonies in Second Life and Entropia Universe.

BTW, Graef, with her 60 full-time employees, has business interests in Entropia Universe, There and IMVU, as well as Second Life.

Thanks to avatar Wolf Pau for pointing to this news.

BGN Entrepreneur's Minute, May 9, 2007

(About 1 minute)

Recent and Upcoming Awards:
Virginia State Chamber of Commerce Fantastic Fifty information
Greater Richmond Technology Council information
VPTC+CVG Tech Awards Gala information

The BGN Entrepreneur's Minute is made possible by the generous support of the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond.

VA Fantastic Fifty

The Virginia Chamber of Commerce announced the winners of the Fantastic Fifty last night.

This 2006 Virginia Vanguard winners are:

• Highest Growth Overall: SpecTal, a Reston-based consulting group

• Technology: Applied Predictive Technologies (APT), of Arlington creator of a retail optimization program

• Manufacturing: Germane Systems of Chantilly, a manufacturer of high-end servers

• Service: Coldwell Banker Professional, Realtors of Virginia Beach

• Retail/Wholesale: Blinc Inc. of Herndon, a manufacturer and distributor of beauty products

Central Virginia companies among the Fantastic Fifty include:

• ERA Kline & May Realty of Harrisonburg

• Adaptive Technologies Inc. of Blacksburg

• Mid Atlantic Vinyl Products Inc. of Fredericksburg

• Messer Landscape of Virginia, Inc. of Glen Allen

• Oakley Logistics, Inc. of Prince George

NVTC Hot Ticket Nominations

The Northern Virginia Tech Council is accepting nominations for their Hot Ticket Awards through May 4. Winners will be announced June 27. Categories include Hottest Bootstrap and Hottest Exit, as well as Buzz, Management and Venture Deal.

Deloitte Nominations for Entrepreneurs

Deloitte announced that it is now accepting nominations for 2007 Technology Fast 500, Technology Fast 50, Wireless Fast 50 and the Rising Star programs. The deadline is May 31, 2007. The "Fast 50" award is based on revenue growth over the past five years; the "Rising Stars" are recognized for revenue growth over 3 years.

Fairfield Language Technologies: This high-growth software company has for three consecutive years made the Deloitte and Touche Virginia Fast 50 list of high-growth technology firms (with five-year growth of 632%). And its holding company (Rosetta Stone Inc.) last fall entered the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing businesses at #431. Snippet from BGNentrepreneur