The Houston team of Justin, Randy Hannemann, Louis McEneny, Tattiana Reznick and Adam Trojanowski, all students in the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship, impressed the judges with their concept, presentation and business plan for UNlimiters, to win first prize and $15,000 in the Richards Barrentine Values and Ventures Business Plan Competition, April 19-20, hosted by the Neeley School of Business at TCU. The key element that differentiates the Richards Barrentine Values and Ventures Business Plan Competition from other business plan competitions around the world is that each plan must be for a profitable business with social value. Contestants came from the 22 schools around the world for the second year of the competition.
The brainchild of Justin, UNlimiters aims the help the 43 million U.S. citizens with disabilities by providing a centralized marketplace to buy products and services, as well as a mark of approval on products not specifically created for people with disabilities but which add value to their lives, such as automatic toothpaste dispensers or countertop grills.
Second place and $10,000 went to the team from the University of Oklahoma Price College of Business for Bright Sanitation, a cost-effective sanitation solution for India’s urban slums. The team of Tom Spurgat, Megan Walsh, Garrett Pearce and Steve Brachtenbach gave a first-hand overview of the conditions that spurred them to come up with a viable business for self-contained, affordable toilets that preserve sanitation, dignity and safety.
“This competition gave us a much better opportunity to speak to the social value that we are bringing,” Tom said. “Other competitions are more about money and business, so we are not able to communicate the actual impact we could have on the area.”
The team from the University of Arizona McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship won third place and $5,000 for their business plan for Onward Packs, a retailer of premium backpacks that uses a portion of the proceeds to purchase academic and sports equipment for in-need elementary schools. Jacklynn Hall, James Taylor, Amanda Wieland and Zachary Lewis showed a video of the first school to receive equipment from the start-up business, featuring interviews with teachers and students.
“We want to make this our future,” Jacklynn said. “Every action this year has been to make Onward Packs a viable, successful business so we can go out in the world and make a difference for education.”
Fourth place and $2,500 went to the team from Monterrey (Mexico) Institute of Technology and Higher Education for their sustainable plan to build jobs and community in Mexico by matching cactus farming to consumer needs in Japan. The team of Antonio Arjona, Pablo Marin Escobar, Ricardo Moncada Palafox and Jennifer Reyna Portugal opened with a video of the poverty situation throughout Mexico that led them to create a business that matched Mexico’s product with need.
“We made this group because of TCU, and we are now in a real business helping the people of Mexico,” Antonio said.
The team from Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada), Marilyn Ma and Huzaifa Sial, won honorable mention for Fundraid, an online ad management platform that enables consumers to collect donation money via their purcahses. The team from Oklahoma State University was among those cited for Best Values-Based Concept for Eben Group, a backpack business that donates on backpack filled with school supplies for every backpack sold.
Other teams in the competition were from Babson College, Ball State University, Belmont University, Erasmus University, Strossmayer University Osijek, Grand Valley State University, Kansas State University, Loyola Marymount University, New York University, Royal Roads University, Samford University, Syracuse University, Texas Christian University, University of Arkansas, Wake Forest University and Walsh University.
Judging the final competition were Ka Cotter, consultant and retired vice chair of The Staubach Company; Barry Davis, president, CEO and chairman of CrossTex Energy; Randy Eisenman, managing partner of Satori Capital, Ray Rothrock, general partner of Venrock; and Paul Spiegelman, founder and CEO of The Beryl Companies.
“These students are beyond their years in thinking about the rest of the world,” Cotter said. “The plans were well thought out, they showed that they really do care, and they focused on making money, because you have to make money to give money.”