These areas were the top-four winners in this month’s preliminary rounds of the second annual WSU Business Plan Competition for students and business partners.
“We had 15 teams competing, and the students and friends in every one of them made excellent presentations on their ideas for prospective new businesses,” said Jerman Rose, director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies in the
“For this year’s competition, it was especially rewarding to watch how they had learned to collaborate with each other to pull together some really excellent business plans,” said Joe Harris, CES business plan specialist who helped organize the competition for its second year.
The student groups were divided into four leagues of 3-4 teams each. Some had worked together since August to hone their business ideas and write detailed business plans.
First place winners from each of the four leagues and recipients of $300 per team include the following:
- “Key-Wi,” with a portable cylindrical keyboard product, by team members Chris Strahl, a graduate student from Medford, Ore.; Chris Bloom and Reshad Kazimee, graduate students from Pullman; and Nina Morton, an animal science student from Gig Harbor;
- “MarbleWood,” with a composite wood flooring and countertop product, by team members and mechanical engineering students Lee Garth Green from Lynnwood and Eli Patten from Long Beach;
- “Adevno Surety Services,” with a plan to issue bonds to cover renters’ damage deposits, by Isaac Wells and Michael King, both finance students from Pullman; and
- “Data Stream Inc.,” with a novel on-board concept aimed at accident prevention, by team members Ralph Williams, a finance student from
Second place winning teams and recipients of $200 per team include the following:
- “J&B Industries,” a canine DNA sequencer product, with team members John M. Williams, a general studies student, and Ben Eastman, a real estate student, both of
- “Sanford Software,” a software product for Internet searches, with team members Ben Ford and Eric Sandall, computer science students from Zillah and
- “Robot-X Inc.,” a hands-on software debugging project, with team members Derek Harris, an entrepreneurship student from Pullman, Han Tran, an electrical engineering student from Bothell, and Ian Ender, a computer engineering student from Billings, Mont.; and
- “Electronic Literary Solutions,” an online book agent product, with team members and entrepreneurship students Kevin Snyder of
Third-place teams and recipients of $100 per team include the following:
- “Infinity Motor Sports,” with services for high performance cars. Team members are mechanical engineering students Jessica Pebles of
- “Artificial Rain,” a sprinkler-system company, by business student Bret Dahmen of
- “Courthouse Coffee,” with plans for a drive-through espresso business. Team members are graduate students Lisa J. Meyer of Cheney and Nathaniel Bowie of
- “Watchers Inc.,” a rear-end auto collision deterrent product, by entrepreneurship student Andres Narvaez of
Other teams to compete included the following:
“Veritux Technologies,” with plans for a computer leasing service, a second entry in the competition by Ford and Sandall; “Securest Systems,” face recognition software, by computer science student Lucas Diaz of Pullman; and “Count On Us,” online electronics retailing, by entrepreneurship student Paul Counts of Prescott.
All teams mentioned and more are eligible to participate in the final round of the WSU Business Plan Competition held in
Judging the presentations at the December preliminary round were panels of regional business people and professors from the
Business community members included Doug Cox, commercial loan officer, AmericanWest Bank, Pullman; Carey Jonas, project manager, Strategic Initiative, Trend West Resorts Inc., Redmond; Gonzaga University Professor Norm Leatha and John Pariseau, directors of Delta Angel Group, Spokane; Bill Skavdahl, assistant vice president, Washington Mutual Bank, Pullman; Rich Smith, commercial loan officer, Bank of Whitman, Pullman; Marla Telin, vice president of finance, World Wide Packets, Spokane Valley; and Liz Wilhite, commercialization director, SIRTI (Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute), Spokane. WSU judges included Susan Barnes, doctoral candidate in management and operations; Val Miskin, management and operations professor; Richard Reed, professor and chair for management and operations; and Brett Rogers, assistant state director,
For the latest information on the event, check the CES Web site at www.cbe.wsu.edu.
