Twenty20 creates HD camcorders for extreme athletes and others to wear while completing their daredevil students. Yes, it was started by skiing students at the University of Washington who then entered the school’s business plan competition and won some seed capital (as quoted in the title). They are currently the Inc 5000 Applicant of the Week. From the piece by Sarah Kessler in Inc Magazine:

The company makes two versions of a tube-shaped, high-definition camcorder called the ContourHD that can be attached to helmets, goggles, handle bars, or cars to capture adventure sports from the perspective of the participants. “There’s been everything from paintballing to cooking,” Barros says. “Anything where you have your hands on the wheel, on the pole, or on the gun, and you want to record video.” Almost 50,000 cameras were sold in more than 50 countries last year, and more than 25,000 videos have been uploaded to the Twenty20 site. But Barros and Green didn’t imagine they would have such success when they began Twenty20 as students at the University of Washington. At the time, they simply liked to ski and wanted to show their friends what they were doing. They won their start-up capital in a business plan competition. “We got third place, and the prize was 20 grand, so it was either a keg party or a company, and we decided company,” Barros says.

Love this and it gives great hope to a group of students of mine who are working on a multimedia/experiential device.

Inc. 5000 Applicant of the Week: Twenty20.