West Virginia University students swept all categories in the West Virginia Statewide Collegiate Business Plan Competition, taking three $10,000 first prize awards to help make a business idea come to life.

Emily Wells, Precision Agriculture Sampling Services (PASS), Lifestyle & Innovation category; Jordon Masters, Allegheny Genesis, Hospitality & Tourism Category; and Madelyn Harwell and Joshua Waggoner, Sustainable Dental Products, STEM category (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) took home first place for their respective categories in the competition on April 10.

The West Virginia Statewide Collegiate Business Plan Competition allows students from around the state to pitch a business idea and receive education, skills, contacts and motivation necessary to start a viable start-up company in the state. The winner receives funding, in addition to legal, marketing and accounting services, as well as incubator space.

The surprise of the evening was an additional prize due to a last-minute investment of $10,000 from event sponsor Bodnar Investment Group, which opted to invest in Pubstomper Brewing Company. The business plan idea came from a team in the Hospitality & Tourism category, and included WVU students Cody Cheesebrough and Chris DeFazio.

The statewide business plan competition finals saw participation from five colleges and universities. The event was hosted by the BrickStreet Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, located within the WVU College of Business and Economics.

“Our goal has been to improve the quality of the competition every year, and this year’s competitors truly raised the bar with their final presentations,” said Steven Cutright, director of the BrickStreet Center. “We had 14 judges to identify the final winners, and nine of those judges are CEOs who were incredibly impressed with the professionalism of this year’s finalists. It really goes to show just how hard these students dedicate themselves to get to the final competition.”

PASS is a company created by Emily Wells, a WVU senior from Tyler County majoring in agribusiness management. The company accurately tests soil and helps farmers with the best management practices for their land, while increasing soil and environmental health.

Allegheny Genesis LLC, an entry by WVU horticulture student Jordon Masters, is a diverse agriculture business focused in the selling of “specialty” crops, such as micro greens. The company also supports the local economy by providing year-round fresh produce to school systems while educating students on alternative crops and sustainable agriculture.

“Coming into this competition, I didn’t have much of a business background and I definitely have many words of thanks for the coaches who trained me vigorously along the way,” said Masters. “I have known that I wanted to get this business up and running, and doing this competition not only gave me great experience, but it also gave me a timeline to pull a business plan together and get started working on the product.”

Sustainable Dental Products is a West Virginia Limited Liability Company by WVU students Madelyn Harwell and Joshua Waggoner that designs and patents innovative dental products engineered with American corn plastic. The company’s mission is to offer competitively priced oral health care products such as toothbrushes and flossing devices that are environmentally sustainable and American-made.

Cody Cheesebrough and Chris DeFazio, both engineering students at WVU, created Pubstomper Brewing Company. Pubstomper is a craft beer manufacturer and distributor with bold branding, event-based marketing and a long-term strategy focused on innovation and growth.

“We’ve been planning the business since before the competition, and we’ve looked at the competition as a way to fine-tune what we wanted to do. It has been a much bigger help than we could ever have anticipated,” said Cheesebrough. “We knew that we really wanted to open the company and that winning the competition would really help a lot. But if we didn’t win, then just the experience of doing this – pitching in front of investors and writing a real business plan from beginning to end – would already make us feel like winners.”

In addition to a $10,000 cash prize, winners will also receive a prize package worth more than $5,000, including legal, marketing and accounting services, as well as incubator space.

Each category featured at least four finalists who made their final presentations to the panel of judges April 10 before winners were announced that evening. Glenville State College, University of Charleston, Shepherd University, Wheeling Jesuit University and WVU all had teams participating in the final round.

The West Virginia Statewide Collegiate Business Plan Competition, now in its ninth year, has helped create 35 businesses in eight years – 17 competition winners and 18 competition non-winners. In addition to the BrickStreet Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the College of Business & Economics, the event also received support from BB&T, West Virginia SBDC, the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and the WVU College of Law Entrepreneurship Clinic.

For further information on the West Virginia Statewide Collegiate Business Plan Competition, please visit http://be.wvu.edu/bpc.

-WVU-

mm/04/13/15

CONTACT: Steven Cutright, WVU BrickStreet Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
304.293.7861, Steven.Cutright@mail.wvu.edu

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