Rockin' MIT Developmental Entrepreneurship Track Semi-Finalists...

I was quite pleased to see the five selected Semi-Finalists in the MIT Entrepreneurship Competition 2008 Development Track (out of a big number of entries, nearly 40!)...

1. ClickDiagnostics -- Mobile Camera-Phone Enabled Health Diagnostics (Bangladesh/SouthAsia)
   
2. Assured Labor -- Day-Labor Market-Making via Mobile Phones & ICT (Brazil/Expats)
   
3. FertilGas -- Distributed Farmhold BioDigestor Energy Systems (Honduras/Tropics)
   
4. CircleCapital -- Social-Network Empowered Banking of the Unbanked (India/SouthAsia)
   
5. Ghonsla -- Solutions for Insulation & Energy Efficiency (Pakistan/SouthAsia)
   

I'm especially happy to have gotten to know four of these five teams from their participation in my Developmental Entrepreneurship class this past Fall 2007. Professor Sandy Pentland and I have run this course since 2001 and this year we have a fantastic group of emergent ventures, including Click, Assured, Circle & Ghonsla plus several others! It's also excellent to see FertilGas dramatically improve their business case between the fall and this spring.

Also, it should go without saying, but both Sandy and I are completely removed from the Judging of this Competition! These are independently chosen and done in as objective a fashion possible.