NCET (Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology), Golden Capital Network (GCN) and the Sierra Angels announced that the winners of the recent Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition have been invited to present their business plans at the 7th Annual Silver and Gold Venture Capital Conference to be held on October 22-23 at the Siena Hotel Resort Casino in Reno, NV. The conference will feature more than 40 venture capital and angel investors and a wide range of presenting companies from Nevada and Northern California. The two winning teams are:

• Graduate Winners: NanoVation, Inc. – University of Nevada, Reno
• Undergraduate Winners: Weingart & Keranen Environmental Solutions – Sierra Nevada College

“For the student teams, this is the next step on the path that began with entering the Governor’s Cup competition in March,” said Dave Archer, NCET’s CEO. “They were selected as finalists based on their written business plans, and then 1^st Place winners based on their oral presentations. We have now invited them to present their business plans to a wide range of Angel and Venture Capital investors drawn from throughout the Western United States.”

The conference features leading seed and early-stage venture capital, corporate, and angel investors as panelists and/or speakers. Investor speakers will have the opportunity to market their fund, share industry expertise with entrepreneurs and their peer investors, review top-notch, pre-screened deals, and establish important new relationships with other active angel and venture investors who focus on the Western Unites States.

Entrants, sponsors sought for state contest
The organization that puts together a statewide business-plan contest for college students is seeking corporate sponsors and entrants for its spring event.

Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology is preparing for the third annual Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup Business Plan Competition, which will award $200,000 in cash to aspiring entrepreneurs in the Silver State.

Though competitors don’t need to commit to the contest until Feb. 15, the center’s executives, along with university professors from across Nevada, are encouraging students to begin thinking now about business proposals.

Dave Archer, chief executive officer of Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, said the agency is especially interested in proposals that combine disciplines, such as engineering and business or journalism and business. The center added a Lieutenant Governor’s Award in 2007 for energy-related business plans, and the Commissioners’ Award, new in 2008, will go to the commercial idea that best addresses the economic needs of rural Nevada. Panels of judges will sift through the plans in April.

Nevada’s winners will advance to a tristate competition against students from Oklahoma and Arkansas.

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