“Having a strong business plan for the Governor’s Cup meant that I had to obtain real world information, which was 100 percent applied in action when we started the business.”

Jean Bridges, CFO
TIKI ICE, Inc.

For Jean Bridges, entering NCET’s 2010 Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup wasn’t just about winning a competition. It was about creating the foundation for a business concept that could immediately and successful be launched in today’s business climate.

“The process of actually having a suitable business plan for the competition is how you learn the most,” explains Bridges. “If you are doing it right, creating the business plan is a huge education on what you’ll need to have, know and obtain to launch your business. I’ve heard people say that writing a business plan is unnecessary or does no good. Anyone who says that can’t have been through the process I went through! Just writing the plan was hugely educational.”

According to Bridges, having a strong business plan meant that she had to obtain real world information, which she was able to put into real use when she launched her business, TIKI ICE, Inc., just one month after taking high honors at the competition. TIKI ICE makes frozen fruit ices that are gluten-free, dairy-free and free from artificial colors, flavors or ingredients. Products are made of organic flavor bases, real fruit and real cane sugar. The company’s first sales location is at Town Square Las Vegas.

Bridges says meeting people in the business of building new companies, like angel investors, was a great perk of the Governor’s Cup competition. She credits her instructors and teammates for the team’s success.

“My biggest driver on the business plan – from inception to the point of competing in the Governor’s Cup – was my professor, Dr. Steven Phelan. He heads the New Venture concentration of the MBA program at UNLV. He was a strong source of encouragement, and of course learning, throughout the process. I think he noticed that I was very serious about my business and my business plan, and so he met with me repeatedly about competing in the Governor’s Cup competition. I had collaborators on the plan – three students in my UNLV New Venture Creation class – Spencer Fairbairn, Hector Ibarra and Beck Roghaar. We all learned so much in the process of writing the plan about how to make my type of business ‘go’.”

“The advice I got during the Governor’s Cup competition was invaluable. Without it, I’m sure I would not be operational today.”

James Blood, MJ’s Pizza

MJ’s Pizzeria opened its doors for business just one year after taking first place honors in NCET’s 2009 Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup. President James Blood says if it wasn’t for what he learned during the competition, his business wouldn’t be up and running today.

“When I first heard about the Governor’s Cup in 2007, it sounded like a great way to get a business plan noticed by local experts, and a great way to get details ironed out and suggestions made,” explains Blood. “We got a lot of important feedback. The judges really took the time to read the plans and try to understand them. Our original plan featured a full-house restaurant and bar concept with entertainment, nightly specials, wait-staff, etc.  The judges were concerned that it would be too much of a burden capital-wise for a start-up to handle, and several of our advisors, namely C4Cube, independently came to that conclusion as well.”

According to Blood, the feedback from both the Governor’s Cup judges and advisors from C4Cube, urged the team to scale back to a simple take-out and delivery concept similar to Domino’s, but with a specialty menu still in place. Today, MJ’s Pizzeria offers a high-quality yet convenient pizza with more than 30 toppings, gluten-free crusts and vegetarian meats and cheeses. 

“We were able to open for less than 1/5th of the capital in our original plan,” says Blood. “One major reason restaurants fail in the first six months is people get excited, take out huge loans, and buy a lot of fancy and unnecessary brand-new equipment that they think they need, and then are unable to pay back the massive loan. We hope to avoid that by scaling back and getting our product out in the market first before going for the full-house concept.”

Blood also garnered valuable, real-world feedback on his business concept through Governor’s Cup presentations.

“It’s easy to convince yourself that it will work, but after that you have to be able to convince others,” notes Blood. “I think this was the first time a restaurant was presented in the competition, and restaurants operate very differently on paper from technology, service and even retail companies, and you have to be able to explain those differences to an audience that is probably not familiar with the way restaurants operate.”

Blood also says he learned how to think through all aspects of business operation during the Governor’s Cup, a practice he is sure will serve him well down the road.

“Know your service and know your product,” Blood advises. “Don’t fool yourself into thinking, ‘I designed this from the ground up, I know everything about it.’ On that same note, don’t be afraid to take other people’s advice. The biggest piece of advice I got was the idea to scale back at first, and if I hadn’t done that, I’m sure I would not be operational today.” 

More photos here

GRADUATE WINNERS

Graduate 1^st Place

InnerVision, LLC – University of Arkansas

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Carol Reeves

Team members: Anoop Prasanna, Annelie Reckling, Elizabeth Slape, Jeff Veltkamp, Bryon Western

InnerVision’s Smart Turbine Blade^TM enables power generation facilities to radically change their maintenance programs, saving them millions of dollars each year on interval-based maintenance.  Our Smart Turbine Blade^TM captures real-time diagnostic information from the inside of the turbine and transmits data wirelessly to the outside 

Graduate 2^nd PlaceBiologics MD – University of Arkansas

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Carol Reeves

Team members: Dr. Robyn Goforth, Paul Mlakar, Dr. Misty Stephens, Michael Thomas BiologicsMD is a medication development company started by four University of Arkansas graduate students. The team has relevant experience in drug development, management, marketing, grant writing and regulatory processes. We are commercializing a new patent-pending pre-clinical osteoporosis medication called OsteoFlor. Competitive osteoporosis product classes are limited by side effects and low efficacy at growing new bone. OsteoFlor will increase bone mineral density over twice as much as the leading medication in a single annual dose. Importantly, it has had no observed side effects in preclinical studies. Osteoporosis drug sales reached $2 billion in the U.S. and $9 billion globally in 2008. Based upon industry comparables, we expect OsteoFlor will be valued at $160 after a successful Phase I clinical trial. Given the current pharmaceutical R&D pipeline gap, pending patent expirations, and product advantages, OsteoFlor represents a promising opportunity for acquisition by a large pharmaceutical company.

UNDERGRADUATE WINNERS

Undergraduate 1^st Place

Arkansas Auto-Fluff – University of Arkansas

Faculty Advisor: Mark Zweig

Team members: Ashley Giles, Mason Miller, Greg Savage, Alex Spinks

An Arkansas company that specializes in the recycling of end of life plastics from the waste stream of the automobile industry. The company is able to combine two current problems into one profitable solution.

Undergraduate 2^nd Place

UniPHI – University of Oklahoma, Norman

Faculty Advisor: Lowell Busenitz Team members: Blake Trippet, Hamid Pezeshkian, Lucas Rice, Daniel Parrot

Different standards and software protocols prevent the sharing of healthcare information between providers throughout the United States. UniPHI – the Uniform Platform for Healthcare Information – has developed a technology that will revolutionize the communication of healthcare by standardizing and networking differently formatted medical data stored in databases across the nation.