Gooseberries won the collegiate competition and Wurld captured top honors in the high school competition of the Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation New Venture Challenge business-plan competition last week at SBCC.
Under the direction of Melissa Moreno, the Scheinfeld Center trains entrepreneurs and assists small businesses through the use of theoretical curriculum, practical application, mentoring, counseling, internships, networking and post-start-up support. Friday’s inaugural New Venture Challenge served as a capstone experience for SBCC students in entrepreneurship and career technical studies as well as area high school students participating in the Virtual Enterprise programs run by the Santa Barbara County Educational Office Regional Occupational Program (ROP) and other organizations.
Gooseberries’ business plan, created by SBCC Ildiko Palmer, won $4,000 to support an entertainment center for children. The proposed facility will provide a place to meet people of a supportive community, a safe play place, healthy snacks, child and parent workshops, toys and clothing.
One of the judges at the Fé Bland Forum supported the idea because “caregivers need a break.”
Tams & Sons won second place and a $2,000 award for its full-service overhead fire-protection sprinkler system. Citing statistics as evidence of the need, CEO Joel Tams said there were 77,000 structure fires nationwide in 2009 and he noted that every new commercial building in the county is required to have sprinkler systems installed. Where the business differs is Tams’ training in design and implementation, he said.
Third place and $1,500 went to Venture Brotherz, a party-planning business that caters to local college students. The business plan calls for providing full security, licensed bartenders and alcohol, dancers, on-call EMTs, lights, DJs and everything else to provide and safe, fun and structured party atmosphere. SBCC students Joe McDonough, Ron Faria, Abel Taylor and BB Barnet presented the business plan.
The winner of the high school competition, Wurld, was the product of Lompoc High School students Diep Chang and Henry Snow. The pair devised a business plan to offer gourmet food at a reasonable price at a sit-down restaurant in Lompoc. It would offer lunch and dinner with meals averaging $13 each.
Dons Net Café came in second. The 14-year-old Santa Barbara High School club tasks students with different roles in various ventures that they create and sell throughout the year. Dons Net Café runs a snack shack selling healthy food to students, performs community service and operates a local tax service that was recently recognized by the IRS as the best volunteer tax site in the nation. Santa Barbara High School students Ana Aquilar, Michelle Trevino, Karina Arroyo, Johny Sanchez and Olivia Alvarado presented the plan.
Other collegiate ventures included Royce Mason’s Bon Appetite, a mobile app that will allow customers to book reservations through mobile technology and give restaurant owners the flexibility to cater to each target demographic.
Healthy Whey looks to mimic the healthy smoothie culture in California and bring smoothies to the untapped Swedish market, with Max Osterman and Gabriella Slabak leading the way.
Lorenum is a Web application that would eliminate machine-based content filtering on search engines, created by Wesam Mikhail. The engine would provide access to worthy content providers and would treat each Web site as an app to create a competitive market.
Toasty’s is a 24-hour bakery and sandwich shop that would cater to late-night scholars and travelers by offering customizable and affordable sandwiches. Carolyn Kope presented the plan.
The Gift, created by Andrea Vezzadini, is a gift basket that would import Italian foods such as wine, cold cuts, cheese and olive oil to reward employees, partners and customers.
Judges included Jeff Carmody, chief operating officer of Agility Capital; Gary Kravetz, small-business consultant with the Santa Barbara chapter of Counselors to America’s Small Business-SCORE and Tech Coast Angels; Christopher Morales, trust associate at Montecito Bank & Trust; Alan Tratner, president of Inventors Workshop International; John Richardson with Ameravant; and Lynda Weinman, co-founder and executive chairwoman of Lynda.com.
Two major sponsors supporting the awards are the Bank of Santa Barbara, which provided $5,000 in scholarships for the high school winners, and Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, which provided $5,000 in cash to the college winners.
Click here for more information on SBCC’s Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Become a fan of the Scheinfeld Center on Facebook. Follow the Scheinfeld Center on Twitter: @sbentrepreneurs
— Noozhawk staff writer Alex Kacik can be reached at akacik@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.