The Griggs Center at ACU announced the 2014 Springboard Ideas Challenge finalists last week. They will compete for cash prizes in front of a live panel of judges.
The competition, now in its seventh year, has students submit their mini-business plan with the goal of having the opportunity to pursue their entrepreneurial ideas.
Dr. Jim Litton is the director of the Griggs Center for Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy.
Litton was quoted previously on the Griggs Center blog, but was unable to be reached for a comment.
“We are excited for the teams that have advanced to the final round of the competition. Next week they will compete for over $40,000 in cash prizes,” Litton said.
Business plans are classified into Community – Growth Finalists, Community – Small Business Finalists, and College Finalists.
Grand prize winner of the Community – Growth category will get $15,000, the Community – Small Business category will win $5,000 and the College category will win $7,500.
On April 15, the winners of the 2014 challenge will be announced at an awards dinner. Before the announcement and dinner, there will be an exhibit of the business ideas from this year’s competition. Tickets to the event are $15 per person or $150 per table.
Jason McVey, junior business management major from Austin, and Rudy Garza have made it to the finalist round in the College group for their project NovaScore.
“NovaScore is a software, website, and smartphone app to aide in test taking and scoring,” McVey said. “Our app allows students to use their phone to record their answers for a test and our website lets students and professors analyze the information created during test taking.”
Ian Robertson, graduate student in Psychology from Abilene, and Kyle Gainey entered their Crowd Meets Science project into the competition under the Community – Growth groups and have made it to the final round.
“Crowd Meets Science is a business concept I’ve been working on over the last year,” Robertson said. “It is essentially a crowd funding platform for science research and science related expenses such as conference travel and paper presentations. We really want to target and work with students. But in the future we would also really like to expand to career scientists and researchers.”
