MORGANTOWN - A business that uses cash as a weight-loss motivator and one that produces inexpensive but high-quality research instruments won the judges' favor April 12 at the 200B Statewide Student Business Plan Competition finals in Morgantown.
Ten teams competed in two categories - lifestyle and innovation/technology for grand-prize bundles of cash and business services valued at more than $10,000.
It was the sixth year of operation and second year statewide for a competition that shows increasing popularity and professionalism.
'Every one of the teams' presentations was spot-on this year,' said Mindy Walls, director of the West Virginia University Entrepreneurship Center, which originated the competition as a WVU-only event six years ago and hosts it each year. 'Many of the judges commented that the quality just continues to improve every year.'
Last September, 66 teams from 11 colleges across the state submitted written proposals in the two categories. Twenty teams advanced to an October second round, and 10 teams representing Concord University, Glenville State College, Marshall University and WVU emerged from that to compete this month as finalists.
Among the 10 was lifestyle category winner BetOnWeightLoss.com, proposed by WVU students John Failing and Jessica Oswald. Failing is pursuing an MBA degree; Oswald a master's in public health.
'We're going to attack America's obesity epidemic in three ways,' Failing explained. 'Financial incentives for losing weight, the most trusted source for weight-loss information, and a strong social support network geared to the weight-loss community.'
A new BetOnWeightLOss.com member will submit a doctor-certified weigh-in and will specify a weight-loss goal and target date.
'Then you put up an amount of money that you feel is sufficient to motivate you, up to $2,000 initially,' Failing said. 'If you're successful in meeting your goal, your initial investment is returned, including a premium. If you're partially successful, you get a partial return.'
BetOnWeightLoss.com will use its prizes to validate its business model and develop its Web site.
Winning in innovation/technology was Advanced Research Instrumentation, a concept developed by WVU electrical engineering student Nicholas Anthony and WVU physics student Andrew Higgins.
'We manufacture laboratory equipment for research facilities.' Anthony explained. 'Our competitive edge is that we have open-source programming for our products. Most companies send you a product with software that performs a specific task; our software can be modified to our customers' liking.'
Anthony found the competition daunting.
'We went second, and I was intimidated to go up after the team that went first,' he said. 'I heard that this was probably the most competitive competition yet.'
Judges recommended that ARI target not only smaller research universities but also larger ones and other possible customers, Anthony said. The partners will put some of the prize money to work in primary market research.
The two winning teams each receive $10,000 in cash, sponsored this year by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and BB&T, Walls said.
They also receive accounting services from Dixon Hughes, legal services from Spilman, Thomas & Battle, and real or virtual office space at the WVU Business Incubator.
Winners are required to establish their businesses in West Virginia.
Last year's winning teams - Arachnovation from Marshall, which proposed an innovative artist's easel, and Navway Records recording company from WVU - both are actively in business, according to Walls.
And with five of last year's 10 finalist teams and a number of the previous years' teams in business, she said, the competition is generating increasingly serious participation.
'Everyone - coaches, judges, teams - from start to finish knew that these students were going to start real businesses and I think that that made the level of commitment and quality of effort and participation from everyone involved go to another level,' Walls said.
'I hope that by now we have established ourselves as a real opportunity for students that are serious about their businesses and want all the help that they can get,' she added.
