So, leading into this year, I’m not sure who the frontrunners are, but I look forward to finding out.  We have some new perks this year.  It appears our winner might have the opportunity to ring the bell at the Nasdaq, and we are working on as new partnership with a VC firm that would bring Seed funding to one of our winners each year.  Talk about excititng news.

Being the entrepreneur that I am, I have several ideas that I want to pass along to students looking to enter the competition and start a company, but do not have ideas.  Feel free to get in touch with me if you are looking for ideas or want to join a team.

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While our task was to narrow the list of plans down to 8 semifinalist, (all very good plans and business concepts by the way), I wanted to send a message to the teams that didn’t make it through to the semifinals.  Many of the plans that didn’t move on were actually very good.  Many of the business concepts were very good.  The competition was tough and just because your plan didn’t make it through certainly doesn’t mean you can’t move forward and build a successful company.

As an entepreneur, I recognized many of the business ideas as potential successful small businesses.  Maybe not the type of business that a Venture Capitalist would be interested in funding, but the type of business I would look to start and build any day of the week.  Most small businesses are what we term “lifestyle” businesses.  They support the owners lifestyle with no intention of growning to be a $100 million company.  Those teams that submitted this type of plan but did not make it to the next round, I look forward to you building your successful small business, creating jobs, and seeing you live the lifestyle any entrepreneur would dream of. 

And, if you learned from this year’s experience, build a new plan and enter next year’s competition.  Let me know if you need any help, I’m always available to help students become successful entrepreneurs.

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