By Paul TakahashiThe Daily Northwestern

It all started out with a personal challenge.

“I wanted to do something besides school,” said Matt CynaMonday, a participant at Saturday’s entrepreneurship competition. “So, I got the idea to walk the Great Wall of China.”

The SESP sophomore’s goal spawned the business idea BeExtraordinary, a “Facebook-like” social networking Web site with a philanthropic focus.

Despite competing against graduate students from the Kellogg School of Management and the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, Cynamon’s undergraduate team received $7,000 for their idea at the final round of the NU Venture Challenge.

The team, which also includes Communication junior Devin Balkind, SESP sophomore Jackson Froliklong, and Weinberg sophomore Micah Friedland, won third place overall and an award for the best social idea. The team also won best undergraduate team at the semifinals held April 21.

“To have undergrads compete as well as they did against Kellogg grad students is a testament to the quality of the students and their ideas,” said Kellogg graduate student David Silverman, one of the organizers of the event. “We were glad to be able to provide an outlet for such ideas to get public exposure.”

NU Venture Challenge, organized by InNUvation, is the first universitywide entrepreneurship competition, said InNUvation co-president Andrew Chen. Competitors pitched ideas to a panel of six judges with expertise in entrepreneurship, vying for prizes totaling $27,500.

After a 15-minute presentation of their idea, finalists answered questions posed by the judges during a 15-minute question-and-answer session.

Of the 60 teams competing in the challenge, six made it to the final round.

BeExtraordinary was the only undergraduate finalist. Armed with a stack of note cards and a PowerPoint presentation, they pitched their idea for a social networking site that would connect student philanthropists with potential donors, as well as a marketing strategy that would help them realize it.

“We see this (Web site) as the hub for all philanthropic activity in the U.S.,” said Cynamon during his team’s business pitch. “We believe our idea will channel youthful energy for the betterment of society.”

Users of BeExtraordinary.org will be able to post their challenges, such as shaving their hair, to entice donors to their cause. Advertisers can also support charities through the Web site.

“Companies have to be socially responsible to do well,” Cynamon said.

Improving society was a common theme throughout the challenge. The first-place finisher Rhea Mobility pitched footwear that would treat senior citizens suffering from lower-extremity joint pain. Second place went to GreenGene, an idea to recycle microarray chips at laboratories.

“You’re living at a great time in history with so many opportunities,” said keynote speaker Drew Senyei, and managing director of Enterprise Partners Venture Capital. “(But) don’t let experts tell you what to do. After all, amateurs built the ark and professionals built the Titanic.”

University President Henry Bienen also addressed the students, praising their entrepreneurial spirit.

“Increasingly, great research universities are realizing that entrepreneurship must be hitched with research,” he said.

Bienen and the organizers said they were pleased that the competition attracted members from each of Northwestern’s nine schools.

“We wanted this to be a competition not dominated by Kellogg, but a cross-school collaboration,” Silverman said.

Still, the tournament attracted mainly Kellogg students, which made members of BeExtraordinary nervous, Cynamon said.

“It was nerve-wracking,” he said. “But it shows that if you have a good idea, the heart and the determination, it doesn’t matter about the credentials.”

Reach Paul Takahashi at [email protected].