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Business Plan Competition Finalists Are Named

10/19/2016

JONESBORO — Finalists from the first round of Arkansas State University’s ninth annual Fall Business Plan Competition, hosted by the College of Business, were announced Wednesday afternoon live via Facebook. The contenders include eight teams for the oral presentation round and 10 for the live pitch competition.

“This  is one of the best things we do at Arkansas State University,” said Dr. Shane Hunt, dean of the College of Business, prior to the announcement. “I want to say thank you to my friend and colleague, Dr. Erick Chang (associate professor of management), and all of our judges for making this process possible.”

The eight finalists for the oral presentation include APC, Head Tech, JBJ, Lentuseal, Pasture Parent, Polypatch, Stratomind and WTVW.

Ten finalists for the live pitch competition are APC, JBJ, Head Tech, Knallhart, Lentuseal, Pasture Parent, Polypatch, Stratomind, QuikMed and WTVW.

“I would like to thank our distinguished panel of 20 judges who have been very helpful in this process,” Chang said. “They provided the teams with interesting feedback, and the quality of the entries was very good. It is the first time that some entries got perfect scores by several of our repeating judges. We even had one willing to invest already in two!”

Finals of the competition, including the live elevator pitch, are scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 10, at 12 p.m., in the Delta Center for Economic Development, Room 103. The competition may be viewed live on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EntASU/.

To enter the competition, students wrote an innovative business idea and plan and documented it in no more than two pages. Entrants were allowed to work in teams of up to six people. 

Winner of the business plan will be awarded $1,000, second place gets $500, third receives $300 and fourth through eighth places divide $500. In addition, the winner of the most innovative idea will receive $400. The live elevator pitch winner gets $250. Secondary prizes will also be awarded to finalists in the business plan and freshman competition.

Erick Chang
Dr. Erick Chang