The 10 finalist teams presented their business ideas before six judges in 15-minute sessions in Boylston Hall yesterday afternoon. Following the presentations, the teams and judges were treated to a dinner at the Charles Hotel before the winners were announced at 9 p.m.

The event, organized by Wu and HSA co-director Keith D. DesRochers '02, was sponsored by Deloitte & Touche, Palm, Inc., J.P. Morgan and several other large business organizations. The judges, who mainly consisted of representatives from the sponsoring businesses, used commercial viability, sustainability, managerial feasibility, technical feasibility and the defense of a proposal in evaluating each entry.

Each team submitted their own ideas for starting original profit or non-profit business organizations in the contest, which was limited to undergraduates at Harvard.

DesRochers emphasized, however, that the program was also about familiarizing future entrepreneurs with aspects of real-world businesses besides being a competition. Over the course of four weeks, student participants worked with professional mentors and attended workshops as well as "weekend bootcamps" during which they received lectures on finance, management and other valuable real-world business skills.

--Staff writer Jing Lin can be reached at lin4@fas.harvard.edu.