Sponsors of the 2010 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition

The Rhode Island Business Plan Competition thanks the following organizations whose generosity has made this year’s competition possible.

Leaders

Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP
Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP is a full-service law firm with 150 lawyers and offices in Providence, Rhode Island; Boston, Massachusetts; Hartford, Connecticut; and Concord, New Hampshire. Since 1906, the firm has been providing expert legal counsel to corporations, organizations, and individuals, and has earned a reputation for legal excellence delivered with a personal touch. The firm provides legal services to individuals and businesses, including many of the region's publicly held corporations and emerging business. Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP's practice is organized into the following principal practice areas: construction, corporate and business, employee benefits, environmental, health, intellectual property, litigation, real estate, labor and employment, personal financial planning, securities, and technology.

Kahn, Litwin, Renza & Co., Ltd.
KLR is one of New England's premier accounting and business consulting firms. With 160 team members and offices in Providence, Boston, Waltham, and Newport, KLR provides a wide range of services to both individuals and businesses. Ranked one of the largest firms in New England, KLR’s growth and commitment to client service is unparalleled in the industry. Communication, cost saving strategies, relationships, and excellence are the core of our commitment to our clients. KLR has been awarded three Practice Innovation Awards and named one of the Best Places to Work (four years in a row). Our award-winning firm helps ensure our ability to retain the most talented professionals to support your business.

Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation
The RIEDC seeks to strengthen the Rhode Island economy through policies, programs, and projects which enhance and enrich the business environment for public and private sectors in order to create prosperity for all Rhode Islanders. We provide support, advice, services, and programs efficiently and effectively. Our goal is to set the standard of excellence for fiscal integrity, technical knowledge, asset management, economic project development, and creation of substantial incremental revenue to the state.

RI Small Business Development Center
The RISBDC at Johnson & Wales University provides a business development continuum for entrepreneurs, starting from where they are to where they need to go in order to sustain profitable growth. Our no-fee counseling program facilitates the business and market planning processes needed to gain access to capital, increase sales and/or improve operations. We connect our clients to a “best-fit” resource network of business colleagues, coaches, peer advisors, consultants, educators, and student staffing support. Our public/private collaboration includes the US SBA, RI EDC, financial institutions, chambers, JWU, and other participating university programs.

Pace Setters

Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge
Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, with 520 attorneys across nine offices, is a full-service firm with roots in New England going back more than 100 years. The firm has been recognized by Chambers and Partners for its corporate/M&A, banking and finance, private equity, complex litigation, employment, real estate, and insurance and reinsurance practices. Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge's growth strategy has included the recent procurement of high-profile lateral partners, the 2005 merger with Palmer & Dodge, a major Boston law firm, and the 2000 merger with Dike Bronstein Roberts & Cushman, a leading intellectual property firm. The firm's attorneys have represented some of the early pioneers in venture capital as well as the cutting edge players of today.

Embolden
Embolden is an award-winning web development and consulting firm located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, that offers distinctive web solutions to clients across the country. Established in 1998 by its president, Ann-Marie Harrington, Embolden has grown into one of the state’s high-tech leaders. Members of Embolden's full-service staff not only execute the technical aspects of a website or web application, but also are experts at project management, graphic design, programming, user interface, web marketing, and content development.

Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce
The Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce working with the Innovation Providence Implementation Council (IPIC) distributed US Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration funding to support local economic opportunities like the RI Business Plan Competition, which focuses on growing the state’s Knowledge Economy. The Chamber is a membership organization that fosters the development of a positive and productive business climate. The IPIC oversees strategy and investment surrounding the development of Rhode Island’s Knowledge Economy.

Johnson & Wales University
Johnson & Wales University, based in Providence, is a world class university where students have an opportunity to pursue a career education in business, hospitality, culinary arts, or technology. Scores of majors and degree programs are offered at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels to empower its diverse student body to succeed in today's dynamic world by integrating general education, professional skills, and career-focused education.

Shazamm
Shazamm is an award-winning interactive agency based in Providence. Founded in 1999 with the mission to “save the Internet one site at a time,” Shazamm’s digital thinkers offer clients the most functional – and beautiful – Web, multimedia, and print solutions available. Shazamm also provides custom software development services (including its own asset management platform, ZMedia) and marketing support to clients both far and near.

Trail Blazers

AM 790
AM 790, one of five Citadel Broadcasting Radio stations in Providence, addresses the information needs of the small business community. 790 is Rhode Island's home for talk shows with authoritative commentators on the financial markets, business and personal finances in addition to the very best of national political and current event talk shows. For C-level management, owners, and white collar workers, the talk and business format on AM 790 provides a highly efficient way to reach this market throughout Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Braemar Energy Ventures
Braemar Energy Ventures is a leading energy venture capital firm. Our principals have more than 100 years of combined energy experience, and an investment record that dates back to the mid-1980s. We partner with exceptional companies and management teams, in both alternative and traditional energy markets, that can contribute to a more profitable and efficient energy landscape through innovation and marketplace expertise.

Business Development Company of Rhode Island
The BDCRI is a non-bank lender, regulated by the state of Rhode Island, which provides gap and direct funding, in the form of debt or equity, to help promising but often undercapitalized companies in Rhode Island and nearby Connecticut and Massachusetts grow and expand employment. Since our founding in 1953, we have assisted hundreds of companies to become stronger competitors while helping to retain and create thousands of jobs in Rhode Island, as well as jobs in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Cherrystone Angel Group
Cherrystone Angel Group, founded in 2004, is Rhode Island’s first organized angel investment group and today includes approximately 50 members. All members are experienced and qualified investors who have either built their own companies or have extensive experience launching new business ventures. Many have done both. Their backgrounds include creating or working with manufacturing, distribution, technology, and service companies. Many have been serial entrepreneurs. To help ensure the success of our investments, Cherrystone Angel Group actively works with the entrepreneurs in which it invests.

CVS Caremark
CVS Caremark is the largest provider of prescriptions and related healthcare services in the nation. The Company fills or manages more than 1 billion prescriptions annually. Through its unmatched breadth of service offerings, CVS Caremark is transforming the delivery of healthcare services in the U.S. The Company is uniquely positioned to effectively manage costs and improve healthcare outcomes through its approximately 6,200 CVS/pharmacy stores; its pharmacy benefit management, mail order and specialty pharmacy division, Caremark Pharmacy Services; its retail-based health clinic subsidiary, MinuteClinic; and its online pharmacy, CVS.com. General information about CVS Caremark is available through the Investor Relations portion of the Company's website, at http://investor.cvs.com, as well as through the pressroom portion of the Company's website, at www.cvs.com/pressroom.

Federal Electronics, Inc.
Founded in 1948, Federal Electronics, Inc. is one of the Northeast's leading electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers. Based in Cranston, RI, we offer virtually all aspects of electronic manufacturing, from circuit boards and interconnect assemblies to functionally tested higher level/system level assemblies. Whether it's assisting start-ups in converting concepts into commercially viable products or strategically partnering with larger companies who chose to divest themselves of manufacturing resources not critical to their continued success, Federal Electronics delivers a custom solution that addresses each clients unique needs. We service the requirements of companies engaged in the homeland security, instrumentation, semiconductor capital equipment, telecommunications, test/measurement, medical, and military industries.

Foresight Science & Technology
Foresight Science & Technology is a technology marketing firm with nearly 30 years of experience in technology commercialization, technology transfer, and intellectual property management. We help companies, entrepreneurs, universities, foundations and governments take innovative ideas and turn them into profitable and socially beneficial products, services and processes. We also help companies and governments find the technologies they need to stay ahead of the field. Our staff of both subject matter experts and technology generalists do over 500 projects each year in a wide range of industry sectors, including biomedical, IT, energy, and consumer products, and have helped our clients generate hundreds of millions of dollars from their technologies.

Goodwin Procter LLP
Goodwin Procter LLP is one of the nation’s leading law firms with offices in Boston, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Washington, D.C. The firm’s core areas of practice are corporate, litigation and real estate, with specialized areas of focus that include financial services, private equity, technology, REITs and real estate capital markets, intellectual property, tax and products liability. With 850 attorneys across 10 offices in the U.S., Asia and Europe, we're proud of our commitment to excellence, the interesting matters we handle and the impressive clients we serve.

Point Judith Capital
Point Judith Capital, an early-stage private equity firm based in Providence, invests in high-growth companies in southern New England. We add value to businesses through our hands-on approach to investing and our experience as investors and business operators to assist portfolio companies as they deal with the challenges and opportunities of growth. These attributes also allow us to leverage our networks to assist portfolio companies in establishing customer relationships and strategic partnerships.

Rhode Island Commodores
The Rhode Island Commodores is a group of more than 325 top business and civic leaders who play a key role in enhancing the state’s economy and quality of life. They actively support the state Economic Development Corporation’s strategic initiatives and undertake efforts aimed at promoting the benefits of living, locating a business, and vacationing in Rhode Island.Since it’s founding in 1968, members of this unique organization have also served as ambassadors of good will when traveling outside the state.

Slater Technology Fund
The Slater Technology Fund focuses on the support of entrepreneurs who have the vision, leadership and commitment to build substantial business enterprises, providing seed stage capital to companies committed to basing and building technology-based businesses in Rhode Island. Slater typically invests at the inception stage in the development of a new venture, often based upon ideas and technologies originating in academic institutions, government research laboratories or commercial enterprises located within the region. In most cases, investments are premised upon the possibility of raising substantial follow-on financing, be it from venture capital investors or from strategic partners, the rationale being that such external funding will accelerate the creation of a significant number of high value, high wage jobs over the intermediate to longer-term.

Innovators

Brown University
Brown University, founded in 1764, is a leading Ivy League institution with a distinctive undergraduate academic program, a world class faculty, outstanding graduate and medical students, and a tradition of innovative and rigorous multidisciplinary study. The mission of Brown University is to serve the community, the nation, and the world by discovering, communicating, and preserving knowledge and understanding in a spirit of free inquiry, and by educating and preparing students to discharge the offices of life with usefulness and reputation.

Bryant University
Bryant University has a 144-year tradition of excellence in higher education. The depth and breadth of the academic programs in the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Business offer students the flexibility to explore courses that pique their individual interests. Bryant’s unique integration of the business and the liberal arts prepares students to apply their knowledge and skills upon graduation. Outstanding faculty, state-of-the-art facilities and technology, and a focus on the development of the individual transform and empower students. The goal is to help students to realize their personal best in life and their chosen professions.

Citizens Bank of Rhode Island
Citizens Bank of Rhode Island, with $12 billion in assets, 78 branches and 146 ATMs, has the largest branch banking network in Rhode Island. It is a subsidiary of Citizens Financial Group, Inc., a $148 billion commercial bank holding company headquartered in Providence. Citizens also has nine support facilities located in the metropolitan Providence area. Citizens has more than 1,600 branches, approximately 3,100 ATMs, and more than 27,000 employees in a 13-state retail branch network and non-branch offices in more than 30 states. Citizens is the eighth-largest commercial banking company in the United States ranked by deposits. Citizens is owned by RBS (The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc).

Coastway Community Bank
Coastway Community Bank, incorporated in 1920, is a Rhode Island bank with seven branches in Lincoln, Providence, East Providence, Cranston, and Warwick. Coastway offers a full menu of consumer banking products and services. In addition, Coastway’s Small Business Banking Group is a SBA preferred lender as well as Rhode Island’s top SBA lender—in terms of dollar volume—for two of the last four years. Coastway, with $300 million in assets, is headquartered in Cranston, Rhode Island and is an equal housing lender and Member FDIC.

Providence Business News
Providence Business News is the local publication serving southern New England business leaders.  With concise reporting, timely interviews and trends, PBN is a weekly must read.  The Web site, pbn.com, delivers breaking news to the business community daily.  Annually, the Book of Lists is an essential resource guide. Awards and events round out Providence Business News’ commitment to the 30,000 readers each week.

Ximedica
Ximedica partners with medical device leaders to design, develop, and manufacture innovative products for clinical and commercial success. We combine research, design, engineering, regulatory, and advanced manufacturing expertise under one roof to ensure the highest quality outcomes and share concept-to-delivery responsibility for your success.

Bank of America
Bank of America provides a full range of business and consumer banking services throughout Rhode Island. Bank of America maintains nearly 30 offices in the state.