The Next Great Internet Company—Who Cares? A Few Observations from Inside the 100K Contest

at his Blackberry, which I guarantee you would not happen in real life. They also explained what they saw as holes in the business very gently, rather than flaying the presentation—or the presenter.

—All the teams had interesting ideas focused on significant markets. But in most cases I don’t think they were as realistic as they should be about what made them uniquely qualified to form their businesses. That’s speaking as a journalist who has seen hundreds, if not a few thousand, of demos and pitches. Pinpointing that distinction probably depends on having a lot more experience than most of the teams could be expected to possess, given that their members were all young (20s and early 30s from what I could tell).

—I wouldn’t make a good venture capitalist. For a VC to bankroll a truly new idea from a young, relatively inexperienced team would require incredible astuteness. To me, for instance, it isn’t a wonder that a bunch of VCs turned down Facebook, it’s a wonder that some decide to back it. That requires an ability not just to see beyond the horizon of the business idea, but to see beyond the horizon of the young team pitching you.

—For further proof of my lack of VC talents, I completely missed guessing the winner. That was CyberAnalytix (I actually liked these guys second best), the computer security risk company offering a new way for “networked businesses to make informed and timely decisions about how to manage their constantly changing vulnerability profiles,” according to its handout. All five of its members trooped into the conference room to explain the concept, which is based around some core technology from Lincoln Lab and is addressing a segment of the huge (they said $13.5 billion by 2011, of which their slice would be $670 million if I followed the rapid-fire pitch) software security market.

For winning the Web track, CyberAnalytix is guaranteed $20K. It also advanced to today’s finals, where it joins winners of the six other tracks to see who comes out with the big prize.

But of course any of the teams could still turn out to be the winner in real life. Good luck to them all.

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Author: Robert Buderi

Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative. Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.