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Ideablob.com awards alum $10,000 for project
by Sarah Bayer
News | 3/4/08
Posted online at 5:34 AM EST on 3/4/08
Ideablob.com, an online entrepreneurial contest sponsored by the small business credit card company Advanta Bank Corporation, awarded Naomi Bar-Yam '79, Ph.D. '97 $10,000 on Feb. 13. The money will go towards funding the Mothers' Milk Bank of New England, which allows women to share their breast milk with others who cannot nurse.
Bar-Yam formed a committee of nurses, midwives and other experts to help flesh out her idea. They then posted a summary on ideablob.com, on which users post their business ideas to receive suggestions and votes of support from other users. Each month, Advanta awards $10,000 to implement the business plan with the most votes. Bar-Yam's plan won the January contest.
Kassar described the event as "so Brandeis: an intersection of do-good and social causes, with a lot of alumni there." Natan Lempert '09, founder and president of the two-month old Brandeis IT and Entrepreneurial club said he received a phone call Feb. 8 from Daniel Stern '07, an Advanta marketing specialist, asking Lempert to organize the award ceremony for less than a week later.
Bar-Yam explained her interest in milk banks after donating her own breast milk to "another baby, who was quite sick, whose mother wasn't nursing her." Later, while researching other reasons for women to share nursing, she found that there had previously been a milk bank in New England, but that it no longer exists.
Bar-Yam said that "it's semi-embarrassing, truthfully" that the resource is unavailable. She added that "We needed to have a milk bank in New England because it's an important health care institution for premature babies."
"We don't pick out the winner," Kassar emphasized. "The users do." Ideablob is part of Advanta's goal "to come up with new things, new models, new ideas," including those which may be "well out of the domain of what we do regularly" as a credit card corporation.
According to Kassar, "a lot of young people are gravitating towards [the network]," with its egalitarian structure and interactive spirit. "It's just happening virally," he marveled.
Bar-Yam formed a committee of nurses, midwives and other experts to help flesh out her idea. They then posted a summary on ideablob.com, on which users post their business ideas to receive suggestions and votes of support from other users. Each month, Advanta awards $10,000 to implement the business plan with the most votes. Bar-Yam's plan won the January contest.
Kassar described the event as "so Brandeis: an intersection of do-good and social causes, with a lot of alumni there." Natan Lempert '09, founder and president of the two-month old Brandeis IT and Entrepreneurial club said he received a phone call Feb. 8 from Daniel Stern '07, an Advanta marketing specialist, asking Lempert to organize the award ceremony for less than a week later.
Bar-Yam explained her interest in milk banks after donating her own breast milk to "another baby, who was quite sick, whose mother wasn't nursing her." Later, while researching other reasons for women to share nursing, she found that there had previously been a milk bank in New England, but that it no longer exists.
Bar-Yam said that "it's semi-embarrassing, truthfully" that the resource is unavailable. She added that "We needed to have a milk bank in New England because it's an important health care institution for premature babies."
"We don't pick out the winner," Kassar emphasized. "The users do." Ideablob is part of Advanta's goal "to come up with new things, new models, new ideas," including those which may be "well out of the domain of what we do regularly" as a credit card corporation.
According to Kassar, "a lot of young people are gravitating towards [the network]," with its egalitarian structure and interactive spirit. "It's just happening virally," he marveled.
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Allison Clark
posted 3/13/08 @ 1:51 PM EST
Aaron Won!
Social entrepreneur student wins $10,000 for best small business idea in national ideablob.com* contest
Penn State student Aaron Fleishman wins for Mashavu, a student project providing networked health solutions for children in third world countries. (Continued…)
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