Aquascape founders and third-place winners of the Smith School's 2005
China Business Plan Competition stand in front of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship
with Asher Epstein, managing director of the Dingman Center, and Scott
Koerwer, associate dean of professional programs and services.

College Park, Md. -  March 23, 2006 -  Just a few months ago, Yajia (Grace) Lu, Cang (Kevin) Zhiyi, and Zongjia Han stood face to face before some of Beijing's leading venture capitalists, hoping to convince them that their business plan was feasible, clear, concise, and most of all - worth investing in.  

They did.

On Feb. 20, 2006 the young business partners paid a first-time visit to the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland's College Park campus as one of the winning finalist teams in the Smith School's China Business Plan Competition, launched last year by the Smith School's Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship to help spur business development and entrepreneurship within China.

There they met with Asher Epstein, managing director of the Dingman Center, and had an opportunity to offer an update on all that has happened since their business, Aquascape, a water system treatment company, won third prize in the contest - US $5,000.  

Cang said that one of the strong points of the competition for him was that it gave entrepreneurs who really needed start-up funds an opportunity to meet with venture capitalists (VC) at a very early stage in business development.  

"For us it was a very good opportunity to face the venture capitalists, especially in the final rounds," Cang said. "As a result of this early experience, we now know how a small entrepreneurial business can be started, which industries are the most promising industries for entrepreneurship, and what kind of business model is essential."  He remembers the judges being very willing to give advice on how to increase their returns, and how to make their business plan more profitable overall.  

The team says the overall experience in the competition was a positive and valuable one.  

Cang says that Aquascape's projections were "quite conservative."  He says that some young entrepreneurs, because they know VC's are looking for businesses that can produce very high returns, often make the mistake of promising more than they can deliver.  Cang views the relationship between the entrepreneur and the VC as a partnership, where both know the possible shortcomings of the business plan up front.  "That should be the basis for communication rather than boasting your ability of creating revenues," he said

While the judges of the competition found Aquascape to have a slower growth projection than others, they were still impressed by the small company. "They think we have a good attitude towards entrepreneurship and I think that also gained us plusses during the competition," Cang said.

Cang believes that their business can create many social returns in addition to the obvious one of treating water to make it cleaner.  He also believes that future competitions would benefit from including social returns as a criterion for the judging process.  

As a result of their experiences in the competition, each of the business partners had some advice to share with other young entrepreneurs who are thinking about starting a business.  "Be very concrete in giving financial statements, the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash flow," advised Zongjia. "You have to consider all these indicators to convince your venture capitalists, to give them a clearer and clearer view of what your business should be like."  He said that the financial statement is really a presentation of your ideas in a tangible format.  It is the bottom line.  

Yajia added, "My suggestion is cooperation.  We each have different areas of expertise. Zongjia is strong at financial things, and I'm good at science research, and so on.  We cooperate together and it makes a perfect statement."  Another suggestion she gave was to talk to friends and even venture capitalists if possible.  That way, she said, "You can get some new ideas for your projects."  Cang believes a good team is the result of finding good partners.  

These three young entrepreneurs may be more conservative than most.  Their prize money has already been invested in their business, and will no doubt help bring them that much closer to realizing their dreams, not only of financial success, but of creating a cleaner environment for themselves and others.