The College of Business Administration awarded $100,000 in prizes Tuesday for the Springboard Ideas Challenge.
The Springboard Ideas Challenge is a mini-business plan competition across the Big Country region. Students present business proposals and receive cash awards to jump start their plans. The competition is divided into two categories, community and college.
Luke Luttrell, junior marketing major from Irving, won the $7,500 grand prize in the college category for his Right Route Navigation System, a mobile application.
Luttrell said Right Route was inspired by his experience working at Little Panda. He said drivers take on several deliveries at a time.
“On those deliveries, we have to type in our phone individually each route, see all the routes, and guess the best route,” Luttrell said. “It was really inefficient and wasted a lot of gas.”
Luttrell said Right Route would simplify traveling to multiple destinations.
“Right Route Navigation System is a mobile phone app that allows you to type in as many addresses as you want and calculates the fastest route between all those addresses,” he said.
Luttrell said the application was originally called Do-Liveries and was planned to have been marketed exclusively for deliveries.
“The more I thought about it, the more I realized there’s a huge market out there for Right Route Navigation,” he said.
Luttrell said he was happy to win.
“I’m glad that something came out of it, and now I can use this money to launch this business,” Luttrell said.
Dr. Jim Litton, director of the Griggs Center for Entrepreneurship & Philanthropy, served as master of ceremonies for the Springboard Ideas Challenge.
“From a students’ perspective, they really get an idea of what it takes to put together a plan and how to launch a business,” he said.
Other winners in the college category were Casey Duncum and Sam Shelton, who took second place and $3,000 for their BreakBox idea, a piece of furniture designed for dorm rooms.
In third place with $1,000 was Carolle Ranaivoarivelo with RPens, a personalized pen set designed as a graduation gift.
Daniel Gutierrez took a Values Award and $3,000 with his idea of Silver Arrow, a financial web series for Spanish speakers in poverty to learn the basics of personal finance.
The community category prizes were $1,000 for Small Biz Award, $2,500 for Values Award, $12,500 for third place, $20,000 for second place and $50,000 for first place. Marga Yoga, Johanna Weltzin and Patrick Louden won the Small Biz Award.
Ciara Ray won the Values Award for RAIN, which would seek to provide affordable medication to all of Central America.
Juliana Edwards won the third place for Dressentials, the provider of a patented garment designed to keep a brides’ dress and hemline clean.
Thomas Griffin’s Emineo Art Gallery, an online website selling college art, took second place.
Kate Stover and Summer Walters won first place with My Sister’s House, a semi-annual consignment sale promoting affordable shopping.
