Third annual WSU Business Plan Competition Offers Students Opportunities to Shine

PULLMAN, Wash.— Five Washington State University student teams took home $15,000 in awards during the third annual WSU Business Plan Competition held April 7-8. The competition allowed 27 WSU student teams and 86 students the opportunity to present their business plans to a panel of judges from the business community at large.

Hosted by the WSU Center for Entrepreneurial Studies in the College of Business, the competition was comprised of a five league preliminary round, with the winner of each league advancing to the final round. Each team gave a 15-minute presentation followed by an intense 20-minute question and answer session by the judges. The teams’ written and presented business plans were then evaluated on content, thoroughness and feasibility.

First place honors in the competition were awarded to graduate material science and engineering student Colin Merimann and master of business administration student Alisha Runolfson. They proposed a solution to multi-material welding through explosive bonding, a process by which metals are welded together through explosions. 

“I’m very excited, very overwhelmed,” said Runolfson. “It is nice to show I can take a product from start to finish. It is very important to the industry.”

They were followed by second place winners bioengineering seniors Ahmad Bayomy and Sepideh Zolfaghari, and senior business law student Nick Rapagnani for their manual, seat-elevating wheelchair.

Third place honors were awarded to hospitality business management senior Drew Foulk, senior entrepreneurship major Brian Hall and Bob Cady for their local Thai food restaurant.

Tied for fourth place were senior entrepreneurship major Dwight Summers for his recreational equipment company and senior bioengineering majors Brandon Bucher, Richard Lasher, Sheng Xu and senior management information systems and entrepreneurship major Christopher Jantzen for their bioengineering based educational tools.

Final round competition judge Brooke Randall (’02, Finance) was thrilled to be part of the competition. “As a fairly recent alum, to come back and provide constructive feedback to students who are very passionate about their business program is a great thing.

“The business plan competition gives students a very good sense of real world practical skills. It’s more than putting together a plan, but going out and pitching it to potential investors and experienced executives. It’s a good experience for them to have outside of the classroom.”

Other competition judges were: Scott Carson, vice president, Boeing; Randall Coe, director of product development, Bosch Tool Corporation; Doug Cox, commercial loan officer, America West Bank; Brandi Edgell, Ernst and Young; Lee Gibbs, branch manager, Zions Bank; Joe Herzog, Northwest Venture Associates; Tim Hopkins, executive vice president,  Advantage Sales and Marketing; Carey Jonas, chief marketing officer, Local Escapes; Norm Leatha, professor at Gonzaga University and director at Delta Angel Group; Carly Lister, vice president of Finance, Advanced Hardware Architecture; Peter Mowery, director of Commercialization, SIRTI; Patrick Murphy, vice president, Mosaix Communications; Brooke Randall, analyst, Unitus; Jeff Robinson, director of brand marketing, Boeing; Brett Rogers, state director, Washington Small Business Development Center; Bill Skavdahl, assistant vice president, Washington Mutual Bank; and Rich Smith, commercial loan officer, Bank of Whitman.