Competition honors start-ups for excellence in innovation

• Winners to receive over $600,000 in prizes at Oct. 29 awards gala

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Oct. 15, 2007 -- California Clean Tech Open, the nation's pre-eminent clean technology business competition, will hold its second annual gala awards ceremony at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts on Oct. 29, 2007. A culmination of over six months of hard work and dedication by each of the finalists, the event, hosted by the organization's co-chairs, Marc Gottschalk and Michael Santullo, will reward six clean technology start-ups with over $100,000 worth of cash and prizes.

One winning team will be chosen from each of the competition's six categories: Smart Power, Green Building, Transportation, Air, Water & Waste, Renewables and Energy Efficiency. The prize, a "start-up in a box" package, includes $50,000 cash, and $50,000 in services including legal, accounting, public relations consulting, office space and executive search.

After careful review of business plans and presentations, this year's winners have been selected from nearly fifty finalists by a judging panel of academics, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. A summer-long series of entrepreneur workshops, sponsored by the US Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, has given all of the finalist teams vital preparation and training in business planning, and has included mentoring services from successful entrepreneurs.

"This competition is more than just handing in a business plan," said competition co-chair, Marc Gottschalk. "We want to leverage this experience as an opportunity to mentor these teams and provide a virtual incubator to encourage the continued growth and success of the clean technology industry." Gottschalk, a committed member of the clean technology movement, also chairs Wilson, Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's Clean Technology and Renewable Energy Practice.

The awards gala will be held from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 29, and will include speeches from Jeff Byron, California Energy Commission; Brad Barton, Department of Energy; and Tim Woodward, Nth Power. In addition, all 50 finalists will exhibit their technologies throughout the event, joined by sponsors and other supporters of the California Clean Tech Open.

Registration for the gala awards event is now open at www.cacleantech.com.

The California Clean Tech Open brings together a unique and powerful combination of entrepreneurs, researchers, environmentalists, investors, business professionals and others to create economic growth and environmental sustainability by sparking a clean technology cluster in California.

The California Clean Tech Open is sponsored by Acterra: Action for a Sustainable Earth, a 501(c) (3) nonprofit based in Palo Alto, California.

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