e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[Tinroad]

Wonder if they need any help.....

Singapore start-up first in new-venture contest
http://www.courierjournal.com/business/news2002/10/08/bu100802s290701.htm

A Singapore team planning to use Internet-based audio technology as a tool for China's Englishlanguage students won the $10,000 top prize in the University of Louisville's annual business plan contest over the weekend.

Maestro Success International hopes to supplant the unique Chinese fuduji -- a bulky reading machine widely used for language learning -- by developing and marketing a small, hand-held MP3 player featuring a text screen. Four of the budding startup's five principals received their master's degrees in business administration through U of L's Singapore program.

Maestro's mastery marked the first time an international team had won the 6-year-old New Venture Competition. UBS/

PaineWebber, start-up incubator bCatalyst and U of L's Entrepreneurship Council financed the contest.

''We've had international teams compete before, and they've always done very well,'' said Van G. H. Clouse, U of L's Cobb family professor of entrepreneurship. ''I think this year, with Maestro winning . . . it validates . . . our approach to offering our MBA and entrepreneurship (program) in our international locations.''

U of L faculty travel to Greece, Panama and Singapore to teach classes, and it partners with a German university to bring students to Louisville.

The potential of Maestro's venture lies in China's vast marketplace, where the company anticipates an increase in devices capable of playing MP3 technology to 4.3 million units from 500,000 units within five years. Maestro expects to have a 20 percent market share by 2007.

''Any business that is trying to tap into the Chinese market, which is obviously huge and growing -- those businesses have huge potential,'' Clouse said.

What is Maestro's target market?

''People in China who have computers and who do or can download information,'' said competition judge Greg Chapman, founder and manager of Anchorage Angels LLC. ''But that number is growing rapidly. The addressable market today is very small compared to the addressable market in a few years.''

Maestro's business plan attributes the strong demand for English-language products to a global economy, China's membership in the World Trade Organization and the 2008 Olympics, to be held in Beijing.

''Because of that, there's an enormous desire to learn English,'' said Louisville entrepreneur Paul van der Pol, who served as mentor for two of the U of L competition's five teams, including Maestro.

The company's research revealed that Internet access is vital to building market share. Maestro said the number of Internet users in China has risen 73 percent this year to 45.8 million people.

For the second consecutive year, the New Venture Competition offered 2-for-1 matching funds in addition to the first-place prize money. The incentive was offered to assist contest winners with successful launches and must be spent on startup expenses.

''Maestro won $10,000, but if they place all of that into launching the business, we will be able to match them with another $20,000,'' Clouse said.

Floyd Street Technologies of Louisville, which developed a hand-held tool for construction estimators, racked up more dollars in other competitions following its 2001 victory.

''They have actually launched the business. They are currently working on developing their prototype, and they are in negotiations with a major customer,'' Clouse said.

Touch & Go Technologies of Louisville took the $5,000 second place prize in the New Venture Competition. The company is developing software to allow restaurant patrons to place orders at touch-screen kiosks -- much like technology already in place at gasoline stations and grocery stores.