Students pitch new ideas for E-week
First-prize winner for the Entrepreneur Club elevator-pitch competition took home $4,500 to support the sales of a salsa jar with a raising bottom to make the salsa more accessible.
Joshua Lightly, junior majoring in economics, finance and entrepreneurship, said his idea has been in the making since the beginning of this semester when he pitched his idea in a class.
“It’s innovation with practicality,” Lightly said.
Second-prize winners, Brandon Hunt, senior majoring in entrepreneurship, and Josh Taylor walked away with $3,300 for their idea of a newsletter for chiropractors.
The prize money given out to all the winners totaled more than $10,000.
The competition was the culmination of Entrepreneur Week (E-Week) activities that had been taking place all week, said Steve Eaton, director of communications for the College of Business. The price tag for the entire week was about $40,000 with all of the funds coming from private organizations; no money was given by the school, Eaton said.
Elevator-pitch contestants had two minutes to outline their idea for a way to start a business. The ideas varied from floating face cards to a pizza and a movie restaurant and even a digital personal trainer. The elevator competition was judged by 13 business men and women. The contestants were judged on the product, demand, price, resources and legal protection.
E-Week was a great success, said Brad Larkin, Entrepreneur Club president. The tradition will continue and the plans for next year’s E-Week are already being made, he said.
Eaton said it was a great opportunity for Utah State to spread the word about the college of business. The club also sponsored a high school elevator-pitch competition and there were students from several high schools competing, including some from Salt Lake City.
Team Anaconda, a team of 10 members, won the 72-hour business competition, winning $2,000 to share. This competition was akin to the television show “The Apprentice,” where team members were given the assignment to design and sell as many T-shirts as possible in a 72-hour time period. The team that won sold $3,000 worth of T-shirts and also raised $1,800 in donations for the E-Club. The members of the team were Matt Weese, Chris Shipley, Justin Harding, Joshua Light, Mark Watterson, Taylor Edwards and Ryan Griffeth.
–seth.bracken@aggiemail.usu.edu