Venture Capital Investment Competition at Emory
Urban Planet Mobile to participate in Venture Capital Investment Competition at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School
Savannah, Georgia (November 19, 2009) - Triton Value Partners, co-sponsor of this year’s Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), a one-of-a-kind competition that gives students from top business schools a realistic venture capital experience in a competitive environment, invited locally owned Urban Planet Mobile, the leading provider of education and information products created specifically for mobile phone delivery, to participate in VCIC as an early stage company at the Goizueta Business School of Emory University in Atlanta, GA on Saturday, November 21, 2009.
Urban Planet Mobile, a Georgia Tech Advanced Technology Development Center company (ATDC), was chosen to participate because of the strength of the opportunity, scalability of the products, and its immense international market. Additionally, Urban Planet Mobile’s stage of development, preparing to go-to-market both in the U.S. and Middle East by year end, the company was an ideal choice for the VCIC competition. Because the focus of the event is as an educational challenge for the students, only companies with compelling business plans are selected to participate.
“When Brian A. OliverSmith, CEO of Urban Planet Mobile, presented the business plan to us at Triton Value Partners, it was immediately clear to all the managing partners that it was imperative we extend an invitation to Urban Planet Mobile to join the VCIC competition,” Paul H. Freischlag, Jr., Managing Director of Triton Value Partners stated. He continued, “Particularly because the company has such a worldwide reach and because its offering is at the intersection of the burgeoning mobile market and the explosive English language learning market, it was felt that Urban Planet Mobile would only raise the level of the competition by introducing the students to a significant real-world opportunity”.
Compared to traditional business plan competitions where students perform the role of the entrepreneur, the VCIC’s platform allows students to form mock-VC firms to evaluate and invest in actual entrepreneurs. In its 8th year at Goizueta, the competition has evolved from a student competition into a marketplace for entrepreneurs seeking investors and a training ground for future venture capitalists.
“It is a real compliment to our vision to be invited to participate as a presenting company at VCIC”, said Brian A. OliverSmith, CEO of Urban Planet Mobile. “Because we are raising money in a second round for our go-to-market stage, it’s both exciting and fun to have the chance to run our business model and plan by these future movers and shakers to see what they think. It’ll be interesting to see how these mock-VC firms stand up to the real life VC firms we are in front of currently”.
In 2008, VCIC included 40 events in North America, Europe and Asia, and served 500 students, 150 venture capitalists and 100 entrepreneurs. The program is akin to a network of mini-venture fairs, wherein about a quarter of the entrepreneurs who present go on to raise venture funding.
ABOUT URBAN PLANET MOBILE
Urban Planet Mobile is the premiere language learning content developer for mobile delivery. With robust lines of innovative English language lessons developed specifically for the mobile market internationally, Urban Planet Mobile is poised to radically alter the English learning landscape. For additional information: press@up-me.com, www.urbanplanetmobile.com
ABOUT TRITON VALUE PARTNERS, LLC
Triton Value Partners is a full-service management advisory group that provides small and medium-sized enterprises with the mission critical experience, services and resources required to help them create and execute business plans that make the companies more valuable.
Triton’s team of Atlanta-based Partners boasts an average of twenty-five years of experience as corporate executives, business owners and professional investors. The firm draws upon this wealth of experience to provide a full range of advisory services including: strategic planning, business/market development, operations, and capital structure. Triton’s client service approach leverages its Partners’ functional expertise and industry skills to maximize the strength of each client’s organization and infrastructure.
Triton Value Partners is based in Atlanta, Georgia, but serves a client base that operates across the U.S. and internationally. More information on Triton Value Partners is available on the company’s web-site: www.tritonvp.com