UCI Grad School Students Now Take a Real-World Test

Winning has its advantages. Just ask the founders of Intelligent Horizon Inc., an Irvine company that manages databases for large companies.

The company’s six founders won first place in the UC Irvine Graduate School of Business contest for start-up business plans--blueprints describing such key business elements as product or service, target market, and advertising and marketing strategy.

In addition to taking home the grand prize of $20,000 in seed money, the MBA students said winning burnished Intelligent’s reputation.

Angel investors have flocked to Intelligent since its June 15 triumph, said Darren Whissen, 27, Intelligent’s chief executive and one of its founders. One of the contest judges has pledged to pour $50,000 into the company, said Whissen, who declined to name the investor.

Winners were chosen for the clarity, quality and business potential of their plans. Each of the 11 participating squads had at least one MBA student at UCI.

Three days after winning, Whissen and his five co-founders opened Intelligent’s headquarters in a tiny office in Irvine. The firm, which maintains databases that tell companies such things as when to replenish their inventories and demographic information about clients, has no customers.

Whissen has chipped in $100,000 of his personal savings to get the company off the ground. He said he came into a little money last year after the e-commerce consulting firm he worked for, Proxicom Inc. in Reston, Va., went public.

In an interesting twist, four of Intelligent’s founders who are still in school plan to switch to part-time status so they can work full-time at their new company.