AE Student Shares in First Prize for 2009 Cozad New Venture Competition

SongAlive, a company formed in part by AE graduate student Adam Steele, has won First Prize for being the Most Fundable Venture in the 2009 V. Dale Cozad New Venture Competition.

Steele explained SongAlive as, “A collaborative songwriting and music composition web application.” This technology will allow millions of musicians to collaborate on music and other audio projects. As the first prize winner the team will receive entrance into iVentures10 (iV10), a 10-week summer program in Champaign, during which the team develops their idea into a working prototype. A program of IllinoisVentures, iV10 is designed to fuel the entrepreneurial energy and ingenuity of computer science & engineering students. The teams accepted to the program receive guidance and up to $25,000 in capital to help get their company started.

In addition to winning Most Fundable Venture, SongAlive was also awarded the Adobe Technology Innovation Prize. SongAlive will receive $2,500 worth of single user licenses of Adobe products.

Other team members of SongAlive include August Knecht, a computer engineering student, and Will Leinweber, a graduate student in bio engineering. The team’s presentation of their product at the competition proved it to be a viable business solution to an existing consumer need.

The V. Dale Cozad New Venture Competition is a program of the Technology Entrepreneur Center and is designed to encourage students, researchers, and community members to create new sustainable businesses in the Champaign-Urbana area.

Founded by Peter B. and Kim Fox and named for V. Dale Cozad, the competition encourages the development of the entrepreneurial spirit through teamwork and competition. Teams are invited to create a venture pitch around a topic of their choice. Assistance is available in the form of mentors, workshops, and courses to guide teams through the phases of venture creation.