Entrepreneurs Compete for Business Startup Assistance

12/10/2014 1:19 PM

By Brandon Wallace ’17

Bradley entrepreneurs with business aspirations were able to present their ideas to judges in Project Springboard’s New Venture Poster Competition on Tuesday, Dec. 9 in Baker Hall B51.

The students, working either individually or in teams, were required to create a poster describing the essence of their business idea using words, pictures, diagrams, a business model canvas, or any other method used by their field of study. Students then made a five-minute presentation of their posters to the three judges, followed by a five-minute Q&A session. 

The presentation was required to cover the following areas:

■     What is the product or service being sold?

■     Why should customers buy it?

■     Who are the customers?

■     How will the product or service get into the hands of the customers?

■     What key activities will make this a success?

The first, second, and third place winners will receive cash prizes. 

First place went to entrepreneurship student Katie Jousma ‘15 of Peoria for her idea “Greener Pastures,” a program that buys horses from auctions and trains them for shows before reselling.

“Over 100,000 horses in America are bid by kill-buyers, who load them up on a trailer and ship them to Mexico or Canada for slaughter,” Jousma said. “My plan is to rescue these horses, outbidding the kill-buyers, and buying the horses to train them for competition.”

International studies and Spanish major Mikaylynn Katlack ‘15 of Peoria took second place with her idea of BUCI (Bradley University Cultural Immersion), an exchange for Bradley’s international students to become familiar with fellow American students, and vice versa.

“The win-win situation for international students is that they come here and want the full immersion,” Katlack said. “They want the American culture and language experience that we currently aren’t providing.”

Third place went to television arts major Chardeney Mason ‘15 of Chicago for her idea “Rent Me, Rock Me Footwear.” The program allows people to rent or buy various types of shoes for certain events.