Startup Sheboygan Business Idea Workshop & UW-Green Bay | Sheboygan Campus Student Business Idea Contest

As part of Sheboygan’s Startup Wisconsin Week (https://www.startupwi.org/events?community_id=42), the Startup Sheboygan Business Idea Workshop & UW-Green Bay | Sheboygan Campus Student Business Idea Contest is Thursday, November 8, from 4:30pm – 6pm in the Wombat Room at UW-Green Bay | Sheboygan Campus (1 University Drive, Sheboygan).

The 4:30pm Business Idea Workshop is open to our entire community! Learn in less than half an hour how to take your business idea and structure it into a format where you can communicate it. You can also practice pitching it and be awarded up to $100 cash for pitching your idea!

Then, stay for the first annual UW-Green Bay | Sheboygan Campus Student Business Idea Contest from 5pm-6pm. How do UW-Green Bay | Sheboygan Campus students enter? Keep reading!

  • (Again, this part of the event from 5-6pm is for UW-Green Bay | Sheboygan Campus students only.) Students can apply to the contest by sending an email to KauthR@uwgb.edu by 11:59pm, Friday, November 2.
  • You will be instructed how to create a YouTube video link of a draft of your 90-second business idea pitch by 11:59pm, Monday, November 5.

Those students chosen to be contestants in the pitch contest will earn an automatic $50 if they pitch. Contestants will pitch their business idea to judges who will award up to $500 for first prize, $250 for second prize, and $100 for third prize.

Your business idea does not have to be an existing business. It can just be an idea! We want to hear your good ideas and help you further develop them into your dream business! Don’t judge if your idea is “good” or not. We will help you learn how to find the right “judges” of your idea. They are pretty friendly. 🙂

Students who pitch are also eligible for the following:

  • a partial scholarship to a 6-credit travel course, the European Innovation Academy in Portugal or Italy or the Asia Pacific Innovation Academy in China, summer 2019 (www.inacademy.eu);
  • represent UWGB at The Pitch on Thursday, April 11, 2019, from 4-6pm at Titletown Tech in Green Bay (http://www.foxconnection.org);
  • represent UWGB at the Wisconsin Big Idea Tournament on a Saturday in April in Madison (www.wisys.org/events/bigidea); and
  • apply to represent UWGB at e-Fest in Minneapolis in April (http://eiexchange.com/e-fest).

For questions, please contact Ryan Kauth, Lecturer of Entrepreneurship, at UW-Green Bay at KauthR@uwgb.edu or (920) 465-2004.

 

2nd Annual UWGB Student Business Idea Contest

The 2nd Annual UWGB Student Business Idea Competition is Monday, February 26, 2018, from 5pm-8pm in Phoenix Room B in the University Union. Please attend to hear UWGB students pitch their business ideas in 90 seconds, take questions from the panel of judges, and hear 11-year old Alex Hart-Upendo of www.BuildABowByAlex.com tell his entrepreneurship story. Complimentary food and beverages will be served.

To enter the competition, which is open to all UWGB students from all majors, email Ryan Kauth (KauthR@uwgb.edu) for how to prepare your 90-second innovative idea video to apply by 11:59pm, Monday, February 19. Thanks to WiSys and the Cofrin School of Business, the top prize is $500 of the total $1,000 in cash given out to the top finalists. In addition, finalists are eligible to attend the European Innovation Academy (http://uwgb.studioabroad.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=59389) and be eligible for a scholarship to attend EIA in Portugal (July 13 – August 5, 2018) as well as apply to more pitch competitions in

There is an additional large cash prize, the WiSys STEM in Business Award, to the top idea from a student (or team with one student) that is pursuing a major in a STEM discipline and the product solution or technology stems from engineering, math, biological or physical sciences and has potential for intellectual property protection.

 

First Place Awardee Proves Grit + Network = Entrepreneur’s Win

Firefighter Jeff Dykes recently was awarded first place in Wisconsin’s business plan contest. Jeff’s success was due to his grit (passion and perseverance) and his network, which he had to develop. With networking, Jeff sought help from the Wisconsin SBDC at UW-Eau Claire and Merlin Mentors in Madison, among other resources available to entrepreneurs and small business owners in Wisconsin. Jeff bootstrapped his business, based on a life-saving device for firefighters, to this point with his team of one.

It’s not a bad idea to build your network one cup of coffee, phone call, email, or valuable LinkedIn request at a time. It’s rare to find someone who refuses to help you as you build your business, develop your product, or need a question answered about your entrepreneurial endeavor or small business conundrum. You cannot be an expert at everything! However, your approach to people in your network or new to your network should be: How can I help you?

 

 

Intentional Entrepreneurship

I applaud the student entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial teachers especially at Brookfield Academy, Crivitz High School, Longfellow Middle School, West Salem High School, and Whitman Middle School who had multiple entries in the recent Wisconsin YES! contest. Twenty-four entries, ideas submitted by 40 students, were chosen for top honors. This year’s top place finisher also took top honors in 2015 (I claim her as Wisconsin’s first prep serial entrepreneur), and second place went to a middle school entrepreneur competing against 6th through 12th graders. Well done, Wisconsin students, Wisconsin teachers, and Wisconsin schools!

“The Pitch” begins new culture in the region at the University level

In 2016, four universities were invited to pilot a collaboration that would produce a significant annual competition for New North university student entrepreneurs. The result is “The Pitch” on May 3 at Fox Cities Stadium. The collaboration, the Fox Connection for Creative Entrepreneurship, was subtly revealed in a business blog at JS Online, and has continued to push toward its objectives, one of which is to encourage students of New North universities to work with each other in their entrepreneurial endeavors. Current members of the Fox Connection invited each other. UW-Green Bay’s event prior to “The Pitch” was its first student business idea competition. Competitors now head to other entrepreneurship events, such as the Wisconsin Big Idea Tournament and the European Innovation Academy.