Maryland resident Alan Ross and an old school friend, Paola Capocasa won an iPhone, $20,000 U.S., and marketing advice when their winning entry was announced Saturday in McKinsey's Virtual Venture Competition.

Ross, who goes by Pi Mip in Second Life, and Capocasa, who goes by Ecate Yalin, created a FinderBot, an automated sales assistant that helps avatars find their way within a Second Life store or Island.

In May, some savvy young German analysts at McKinsey & Company, one of the world's top management consulting firms, launched the Virtual Venture Competition which drew 300 teams. From these 300, ten were selected for the "virtual semi-finals" conducted inside Second Life. From these ten, six were flown to Kitzbühel, Austria recently to compete in the real world finals.

A few of the finalists' ideas included a three-dimensional dating service, an e-commerce feedback system, and a virtual corporate team building service.

Ross explained the process that led to the victory. "We created a working prototype and a creative business plan that we presented to the panel of judges, including a partner at McKinsey."

Ross said some of the teams had made money from their products already. "FinderBot is a great product, since it creates ROI for our customers. It gives virtual store owners a virtual sales assistant that they can train to help customers when they are away."

He added, "It's one of those super cool ideas that just needs some funding."

Ross was wowed by his international competitors. "The most amazing thing to me was the global nature of the competition. I was the only American there, which drove home the point that these were truly some of the smartest people from all over the globe."

Press officials at McKinsey were not available before press time.

A video about the FinderBot offers more information on how it can be used. Beta testing has been completed on the tool, and a new release is expected. Mip says those interested in seeing how it works may IM him.
more information is available about the finder bot, and viewers can watch a camera phone video of Ross and his partner winning his check in Kitzbühel, Austria.