It's a world of pure imagination

Wharton senior Michael Tolkin wants to make Willy Wonka's chocolate factory a reality.

Through this Wharton senior's company, Foodily Chocolate Factory, customers would be able to create personal candy bars using potato chips, marshmallows, pretzels and chocolate at a company store.

Earlier this year, Tolkin submitted this idea in the Wharton Business Plan Competition and, last week, he was named a semi-finalist, along with 24 other students.

Open to all Penn students, the contest is a seven-month process in which participants submit original business plans for self-created companies.

If Tolkin wins the nine-year-old competition, he will bring home $20,000.

But as Tolkin puts the finishing touches on his business plan for the company, it's clear he has some real competition.

Second-year MBA candidate Mat Peyron's business plan, Energetica, is working to reduce America's fossil fuel consumption.

America contains 2,500 landfills, Peyron said, 500 of which currently convert their natural byproducts, biogas, into energy.

"We . clean the dirty gas so you really can use it in an efficient way," he said. "That way, the equipment lasts a lot longer and is much more efficient."

The company that will do so, Seattle-based Applied Filter Technology, already exists, Peyron said, but his business plan will help its services become scalable.

Third-year Law student Paul Jones hopes that his company, Myvideoport.com, will make distributing video over the Internet more efficient.

The site would allow filmmakers to "upload their videos, distribute them to all the major video sites on the web and track their views, ratings and comments from one portal," he said. "It saves them a lot of time."

But despite their different approaches, all the contestants still have one thing in common - they will benefit from judges' help.

"Judges are another big educational piece," said Megan Mitchell, the associate director of Wharton's entrepreneurial programs. Mitchell is overseeing the contest.

The program also offers participants support from faculty mentors and workshops on varied topics like business-plan writing and legal issues.

Contestants hope that taking part in the competition will help them get their businesses off the ground, regardless of whether they ultimately win.

"The resources that the Penn community and Wharton in general provides in terms of faculty support . gave me ideas to different business approaches that I might not have thought of before," Jones said.

"Having the competition gives us a goal," Peyron added. "'I focus more on running my business than on classes."

The contest's eight finalists will be announced on April 2.

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