The HBS entrepreneurial spirit was evident on May 1, when nearly nine hundred students and guests jammed into Burden Auditorium for the finals of the School's fourth annual Business Plan Contest. The winning entry, Bang Networks, provides Internet companies with a new kind of infrastructure network that "will revolutionize the Web," according to the start-up's four founders, Robert Rosin, Sarah Boatman, Robert Dreyer (all MBA '00), and Tim Tuttle, an MIT Ph.D.

The first-place team received the Dubilier Prize -- established in honor of the late Martin Dubilier (MBA '52), cofounder of the prominent LBO firm of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice -- as well as $10,000 in cash and in-kind professional services worth $10,000. The judges for the final competition included a number of HBS graduates and represented an array of top venture capital firms.

The three runner-up teams will also share awards in cash and in-kind services. They are KNUMI, which is developing technology to enable "media content providers to create a highly interactive experience for end-users"; Sound MicroSystems, which is commercializing technology for the development of a silicon microphone; and 3Plex.com, a B2B enterprise that has already garnered $16 million in funding to link shipping companies with suppliers via the Internet.

More than one hundred teams involving over three hundred students initially entered the competition. Some 95 percent of the submitted plans represented dot-com ventures. "The extraordinary level of participation and accomplishment in the Business Plan Contest reflects the fact that student interest in entrepreneurship at the School is at an all-time high," said Dean Kim B. Clark.

Past Business Plan Contest finalists include success stories such as Chemdex, the leading provider of e-commerce solutions for the laboratory supply market; CitySoft, which builds Web sites and intranet applications and recruits and hires employees from underrepresented urban areas; and ZEFER Corp., an Internet consulting firm.

The founders of Suppliermarket.com, a runner-up in last year's contest, were on hand at this year's event to offer some words of wisdom to those following in their footsteps. Jon Burgstone and Asif Satchu (both MBA '99) have raised $48 million in venture capital to fund their online marketplace for industrial buyers and suppliers. "Build the right management team and partner with the right investors," advised Burgstone. Satchu added, "Choose a business model you can be passionate about 24/7, then focus on the product and listen to the customer."

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