Ӱҵ University’s College of Business Administration recently hosted the Entrepreneurship Education Consortium’s (EEC) ideaLabs 2013 competition where aspiring entrepreneurs from Ӱҵ and nine other Ohio colleges and universities pitched their ideas for new businesses.
IdeaLabs is a business idea competition where undergraduate students pitch their best entrepreneurial ideas to a panel of experts. Ӱҵcompetition encourages students from all disciplines to think about new venture ideas, applying the feasibility study methodology and answering three key questions: Is there a market? Do the financials make sense? and What resources are necessary?
“Startups are the buildings blocks of the new economy,” says Charles Stack, ideaLabs judge and founder/CEO of FlashStarts. “ ӰҵEntrepreneurship Education Consortium’s ideaLabs competition provides a superb first step on the way to creating a successful business. Ӱҵprocess encourages the try, try and try again iterative cycle that is so essential to entrepreneurial success.”
Ӱҵwinners took home cash prizes and high hopes that their big ideas would translate into big money down the road.
Ӱҵwinners were:
First Place-$5,000: “Citrus Icer” – Bryan Nemire, Hiram College
Second Place - $3,000: “Matchstick” – Kevin Met, Cleveland State University
Third Place - $1,000: “Swipe-U-Lock” - Chimadika Okoye and Marie Brosovich, Case Western Reserve University
Ӱҵcompetition’s judges were impressed with the quality of all the ideas and presentations.
" ӰҵideaLabs competition is a great glimpse into the state of student entrepreneurship around the region,” says David Crain, ideaLabs judge and director of entrepreneurial services at MAGNET. “Every year, the competition seems better than before, and this year was no exception. I have no doubt I was looking at some of our region's future success stories.”
Undergraduate students or teams of students from Ashland University, Baldwin-Wallace University, John Carroll University, Ӱҵ University, Lake Erie College, ӰҵUniversity of Akron and University of Mount Union also competed.
Ӱҵcompetition was sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Education Consortium, a consortium of 11 colleges and universities that encourages student exploration of new, innovative ideas in their quest to either create new enterprises or become entrepreneurs within existing organizations. This event rotates among the 11-member institutions, and this was the first time the College of Business Administration and Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation at Ӱҵ hosted the ideaLabs competition.
Judges included Dorothy Baunach, president emeritus at NorTech; David Crain, director for entrepreneurial services at MAGNET; John Dearborn, president of Jumpstart; John Monter, partner at Centre Partners Management; Barbara Morgan, investment associate at North Coast Angel Fund; Elise Saur, manager for transaction advisory service at Ernst & Young; and Charles Stack, founder of FlashStarts.com.
ӰҵEntrepreneurship Education Consortium is grateful to ӰҵBurton D. Morgan Foundation for its generous support of ideaLabs and the consortium’s Entrepreneurship Immersion Week.
For more information about entrepreneurship at Ӱҵ, contact Julie Messing, director for the Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, at jmessing@kent.edu or 330-672-9430, or visit .
For more information about Ӱҵ’s College of Business Administration, visit www.kent.edu/business.