Wednesday was the final LIVE round of COBA’s first annual Elevator Pitch competition. Ten business ideas were pitched – by a team of students or an individual. Six prizes were awarded, with the top team taking home $1500 for their pitch. The ten business idea pitches were judged based on the following categories:
- Market
- Business Concept
- Value Proposition
- Presentation Skills
- Would you invest in this venture?
These six prizes were awarded:
- Audience Choice Award – $250
- Social Entrepreneurship Award – $250
- Best Presentation Award – $250
- Third Place – $250
- Second Place – $750
- Grand Prize – $1500
We were honored to have five highly successful businessmen make up our judging panel. Between the five of them, they’ve invested in or helped start over 1000 companies and have a passion for mentoring budding entrepreneurs. The judges were Dr. Jack Griggs, President and Director of Southwest Bancorp and former dean of the College of Business Administration, Mr. Jim Porter, Principal of Porter Capital Partners, Mr. David Bruce, Founder and CEO of Alliance Recruiting Resources, Mr. Matt Booth, VP of Regency Centers, and COBA’s very own, Dr. Rick Lytle.
Here is a list of the ten business pitches and the team members for the 2011 Springboard Elevator Pitch Competition:
- Virtual Exchange Accelerator – Levi Ritchie and Evan Whyte
- Heaven Inspired Hands – Laura Kiminsky
- Campuzon – Karsten Goodman and Courtney Martin
- Red Thread Movement – Brittany Partridge and Samantha Sutherland
- Rock and Trail – Asa Kusuma and Tim Johnston
- Decked Out – Brionna Sherer and Marcy Thorn
- Nascent – Nigel Bosch
- M.Y.O.P – Carlee Finkelstein
- Race Track Tarp – Brian Patterson and Jeremy Harrington
- Double Impact Socks – Eldad Campbell and EJ Johnson
Grand Prize $1,500
Campuzon
Karsten Goodman & Courtney Martin
Second Place $750
Double Impact Socks
Eldad Campbell & EJ Johnson
Third Place $250
Nascent
Nigel Bosch
Best Presentation Award $250
Misfortune Cookies
Robby Wiginton
Social Entrepreneurship Award $250
Red Thread Movement
Brittany Partridge & Samantha Sutherland
Audience Choice Award $250
Double Impact Socks
Eldad Campbell & EJ Johnson
The first annual Springboard Elevator Pitch Competition was a huge success and the packed room during the live final round testifies to the excitement this live competition generated here on campus. You can read more about the competition in this story, from the Abilene Reporter-News.
The Elevator Pitch is part of the slate of events, speakers and competitions in the Griggs Center for Entrepreneurship & Philanthropy. Students in any major can have a concentration in Entrepreneurship, and any student can participate in the competitions or attend any event. The Griggs Center also hosts four Entrepreneurs-In-Residence and is building a network of entrepreneurs that desire to have mentoring relationships with current students. As any entrepreneur will tell you – an essential component of success is building your own network of mentors and advisors. To that end, another component of the Griggs Center is the Springboard Accelerator – an on campus facility that houses student upstarts, where they have access not only to physical office space, but office equipment, phones, mailboxes, conference rooms and the guidance and advice of various business advisors (attorneys, investors, professors, and of course fellow student entrepreneurs).
Congratulations again to all of the finalists in this year’s inaugural competition!
Consider entering our next competition, our Springboard Ideas Challenge next spring. Find out more information here.