The Sacramento Angels, together with the UC Davis Center For Entrepreneurship (C4E) have spearheaded the Angels on Campus program at the University. One of the student groups we have advised and mentored, Eco Catalytics, has just won 3rd place (and $5,000) in the Walmart Better Living Business Plan Challenge. Team members were: John-Paul Farsight (MBA student), Daniel Misicak (Electrochemistry Post Doc), Anthony Santamaria (Ph.D. mechanical engineering candidate, PEM fuel cells), and Tomas Sudnius (MBA student).
The Team: Anthony Santamaria, John-Paul Farsight, Tomas Sudnius, and Daniel Misicak
This is national competition for students to showcase their best ideas and to help Walmart learn from some of the brightest minds in the world. The competition challenges students to invent sustainable products or develop sustainable business solutions and present them to a panel of Walmart executives, suppliers, and environmental organizations.
Eco Catalytics presented their business and technology that greatly reduces the price of fuels cell and other catalytic products (like auto catalytic converters). They have invented a better process to produce platinum based catalysts that use 95% less platinum that current methods, while retaining full performance.
Teams from all the country competed, first in regional competitions, the one in the west being won by Eco Catalytics. In all, 64 teams from the best Universities in the country competed (and within each University there were additional competitions to get to select each school representative, so hundreds of teams were involved). So 3rd is a fantastic achievement for the team.
“It was a fantastic opportunity to present our business idea as well as compete with the best business schools in the country. We received a lot of interesting feedback, especially from top Walmart executives. We gained valuable experience in Bentonville through interaction with other innovative teams as well as by experiencing Walmart’s unique culture first-hand. John Paul helped lead the traditional Walmart cheer for an auditorium of Walmart employees. ” said Tomas Sudnius.
This is also great validation for the C4E programs; Wil Agatstein, Executive Director of C4E, commented “Here at the UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship, we are delighted by the tremendous success of the team of Business Development Fellows and MBA students in taking science out of the lab and in to the world through the commercialization of UC Davis research. We are also thankful to the business community who have helped make this happen in our Entrepreneurship Academies, Business Development Clinics, Angels on Campus and Chairperson on Campus programs. We are very proud of this team and we are looking forward to many more successes in the coming years.”
It’s nice to know that in just 5 months since starting the Angels on Campus program we have contributed to a significant success!
