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What began as a learning experience ended with a first-place finish for UCLA Anderson School of Management students at the Rice University Business Plan Competition in Houston, Texas, earlier this month.

The event is the “largest intercollegiate business plan competition in the world,” according to an Anderson press release.

UCLA’s team, composed of graduate business students Nicholas Seet and Johanna Wright, entered the competition originally as a means to get feedback on a business plan that they ultimately wanted to enter into the Knapp Venture Competition, Anderson’s business plan contest.

Rice’s three-day competition is intended to simulate the experience everyday entrepreneurs might go through when they try to sell their ideas to venture capitalists or a bank to gain start up funds.

“It was a great networking opportunity,” Wright said. “And then we were announced as finalists.”

The UCLA team received the grand prize of $100,000, to go toward investing in its company, $20,000 in cash, round-trip tickets on Continental Airlines, one year’s worth of office space and services from Houston Technology Center and qualification into the international finals of another corporate business plan competition.

“We’re going to spend (the $20,000 cash prize) on our company,” Wright said.

Furthermore, as a result of the duo’s win in Texas, venture capitalists have asked for private follow-up meetings with Auditude, a company Seet founded prior to the competition.

Auditude, named to imply auditing with attitude, is a digital media technology company that has a patent which allows advertisers and broadcasters to monitor ads on broadcast radio and television.

The technology developed is a way for companies to check if commercials have been played properly.

Currently, there is no proof in broadcast television or radio that the correct commercials are played on air. For example, a commercial for a Christmas Eve Sale may be played after Christmas and neither the advertiser nor the broadcaster may be aware.

“This has been a long-standing problem that’s been around for almost 100 years. The advertisers have always just trusted the broadcasters,” Seet said.

The former chief executive officer of Saatchi & Saatchi, the world’s largest advertising firm, reports that approximately 10 percent of ads are not what the advertisers ask for or are incorrectly played by the broadcaster, Seet said.

Out of 130 teams chosen to attend the competition for the weekend, seven teams were picked to be finalists.

“It was a wonderful experience. The level of competition was so high, we had no idea and were totally shocked that we won. We were blown away by the feedback from the judges,” Seet said.