Six Imagine Cup Finalists Take the Next Step to Becoming Entrepreneurs

Microsoft, BT to co-sponsor second annual Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator program in January 2007

The Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator, now in its second year, is designed to provide business and technical training for students to help them turn winning business concepts into a business reality. Over an intensive two-week period, students will further develop their Imagine Cup-winning designs into potential must-have technology solutions of the future. Using agile methodology within a “hothouse” development environment, the teams will refine their software designs using the platform and network assets of BT and Microsoft. In addition, business experts will be on hand to help the students build a solid business proposition and plan to bring their ideas to market.

One of the teams in the 2005 Innovation Accelerator program whose members have gone on to become entrepreneurs is Russia’s Team Inspiration, the winners of the 2005 Imagine Cup who have incorporated Musigy Inc. “During the Innovation Accelerator, we worked with a team of business experts who helped us work out the business model of our future company,” said Stan Vonog, one of Musigy’s founders. “Our participation in this program has brought new opportunities for our business that we would not have had otherwise.”

Musigy (http://www.musigy.com) enables musicians to plug their instrument into a computer and be connected to other musicians all over the world, perform live in a distributed environment, and share the real-time performance broadly via Internet Protocol multicasting. The team has formed an international advisory board made up of music industry and business and technology leaders to chart the company’s course for future success. Musigy has filed two patents in both the United States and Russia and is in talks with several venture capital firms to secure additional investment to ensure Musigy’s continued growth.

Source: Microsoft PressPass - Six Imagine Cup Finalists Take the Next Step to Becoming Entrepreneurs

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