All three winners from the University of Connecticut”™s annual business plan competition held in May have jumped into their projects headfirst.
The contest, through the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, awards students who have the best business proposals and ideas. The grand prize is $25,000 and second- and third-place winners receive $15,000 and $10,000, respectively.
The contest aims to encourage students to create their own businesses and give them the tools and resources they need to enter the marketplace “on the best foot possible,” said Danny Briere, executive in residence of CCEI. “The end goal is that people are introduced to funders and are encouraged to pursue these ideas, not just as an academic exercise, but as a real, ”˜I want to do this for a living”™ exercise.”
The competition is open to all UConn students and more than 130 teams submitted an intent-to-compete. Each team was invited to workshops with experienced entrepreneurs to improve their business plans and 49 entries were submitted.
Greg Kirber, a UConn law and MBA student, along with his teammate Alexander VanderEls, won first place with their idea for an auto parts website, called PartsTech. Previous auto parts catalogs have been inefficient, Kirber said. But by providing a one-stop platform that allows users to compare price and quality, mechanics no longer have to make time-consuming phone calls to shop around.
Currently Kirber”™s team is building a beta platform, which is expected to launch in October with a small collection of shops in New England. By January, the actual site should be up and running.
“Juggling this and law school is tough, but this is what I love,” Kirber said. “It doesn”™t feel like work.”
Adam Boyajian and Mike Parelli, who graduated with bachelor”™s degrees in May, won second place with their business, Buses2. The company arranges bus rides for students looking to go to events off campus. With success at UConn and Rutgers University, the two hope to expand their business to 20 to 40 schools in the upcoming year.
“The party starts and ends with us,” Boyajian said.
Since graduating, the two are working on the project full time and hope to eventually have a website for students to request transportation.
In third place, a team of four students led by Maximilian Lekhtman won for their idea called, ShareLogical, a website that turns everyday purchases from major retailers into philanthropy.
The site allows consumers to shop at major retailers such as Walmart, Best Buy and even Groupon, and earn free money to donate to charities by a proportion of how much they spent. So for every $100 you spend on a retailer”™s website, for instance, that retailer will give you $2 to give to one of 1.8 million charities listed. So far the site is partnered with 20 retailers. By August, Lekhtman said he hopes to launch the beta website with 300 retail partners.
“I”™m fairly confident that we”™re going to stir up the industry,” said Lekhtman, a Canadian who also graduated with his bachelor”™s in May.
The only problem ”“ time is ticking, as Lekhtman”™s visa expires in October.
“We really want to benefit the American economy, but as of now it looks like we”™re on a time crunch,” he said.
Lekhtman has applied to stay in the country as someone with exceptional talent, but if he”™s forced to leave, he says he”™ll be packing his bags and taking his business with him.
“I”™m very hopeful, but I have no idea how likely it is to happen,” Lekhtman said. “It”™s a daily adventure.”
