One month after Alianza won BYU’s Business Plan Competition, the company placed in the top eight and received the Outstanding Business Plan Award in their division during the 22nd annual Global MOOT CORP Competition. On May 7 at the University of Texas at Austin, 40 teams of MBA students competed from top schools around the world including London Business School, Carnegie Mellon University, Northwestern University and Thammasat University.
Alianza offers reduced telephone rates to Mexican residents by routing calls through the Internet. Brian Beutler, CEO, and Scott Bell, chief technology officer, have worked on this project for more than one year and are finalizing $2 million of financing this month.
Many teams qualified for the Global MOOT CORP by winning national or regional competitions. However, BYU was one of the few universities invited to the competition based on reputation alone.
“It was a great experience filled with highly competitive events,” says Beutler, a history major from Orem, Utah. “It was an honor to be invited.”
The competition provided an opportunity for students to perfect their various presentations. When not in direct competition, students spent hours finalizing their business plan presentations. “It was an intense experience for the students,” says Gary Williams, associate director for the Entrepreneurship Center. “By the time they got back from the competition, their presentations were superb – extremely polished.”
Because this was BYU’s first international competition, it was an opportunity to trail blaze. “We have the nation’s largest single campus business plan competition,” says Don Livingstone, director for Center for Entrepreneurship. “We felt it was time to make an appearance on an international level.”
“It’s a global competition,” Williams adds. “It’s where we want to be.”
The three-day Global MOOT CORP Competition, sponsored by Clear Channel, Microsoft, NASDAQ and other leading companies, included multiple judging rounds, feedback sessions and a Fellows Program sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation.
The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, public management, information systems, organizational behavior and entrepreneurship. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.
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Writer: Don Osmond (801) 422-1512
