The first annual College Fast Track MBA Rocket Pitch at the Babson San Francisco campus kicked off recently.

At stake are cash prizes of $ 5,000 for 1st place, $ 3,000 for 2nd, and $ 1,000 for 3rd – plus business services worth thousands.

Participants were MBA students from Babson’s F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business; University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business; University of San Francisco; Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA; Stanford Graduate School of Business; and Santa Clara University, Leavey School of Business.

Co-hosts of the event were Raghu Tadepalli, Dean, F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson, and Peter Wilson, Executive Director, Babson College Graduate Blended learning Programs.

The panel of judges included Alireza Masrour, VP of Technology Investments, Plug & Play Venture Groups Chris Gill, President & CEO of SVASE, Anna Dvornikova, Angel Investor, Managing Director of The Entrepreneur’s Club Global, Dan Rosen, Principal at Highland Capital Partners,Wayne Chang, Engineering Manager, Facebook and Arun Palakurthy, Investment Analyst, Dodge and Cox

The major sponsors were PlugandPlayTechCenter.com, BrainyPro Inc., SVASE, Virgin America, TEC (The Entrepreneurial Club), Latham & Watkins, *F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business and the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College.

Babson College is a dynamic living and learning laboratory, where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society.

Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., is recognized internationally as a leader in entrepreneurial management education. It grants BS degrees through its innovative undergraduate program, and grants MBA and custom MS and MBA degrees through the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business. Babson Executive Education offers executive development programs to experienced managers worldwide.