This time last year UNLV students Josh Beilin, Kyle George and Keeton Little weren’t very sure about their post-gradation plans. That changed Friday when they were handed a check for $20,000.

The three seniors took first place Friday in the NCET Nevada’s Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup competition – an annual contest designed to foster entrepreneurship and give students some serious cash to help jump-start their innovative business plans. Known as Waste Alternatives Transformation Technologies, their team was the sole UNLV undergraduate participant. Read full story:

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From the Reno Gazette-Journal:

Entrepreneurs from Northern Nevada took second- and third-place honors in the 2008 Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition.

In the undergraduate division:
Wolfpack Works of the University of Nevada, Reno won second place and $10,000 for its presentation on a plan to produce a touch-screen speech-enhancing device for people with communication disabilities.
KG BioSolutions of Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village won third place and $5,000 for its plans to develop an on-site generator that provides a restaurant with supplemental electricity from used fryer oil.

In the graduate division:
Go Green Outdoors from UNR won second place and $10,000 for its online resource center for green culture news, information and user forum.
More Water Company, also a venture by UNR students, won third place and $5,000 for its presentation on technology to produce drinking water from the air, helping diminish the impact on lakes and streams.

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Review Journal report:

A team from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas took first place Friday in the state’s Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup collegiate business plan competition, aimed at helping young entrepreneurs launch a startup company.

"We’ve known each other for a long time and had this great idea," said Kyle George, one of the team members for Waste Alternatives Transformation Technologies. "This competition forced us to find the motivation to tie it all together."

The Governor’s Cup is intended to encourage college students to develop commercially viable business models using technology being developed in universities.

The WATTs team, which won a $20,000 prize to help launch their new business, included college students Keeton Little, a business major, and Josh Beilin, a hotel management major.

"We did it the most natural way we could, and this is what came out of it," George said.

George’s team developed a business plan aimed at producing clean energy and energy products from municipal, commercial and industrial wastes. Their business model would also help reduce landfill needs in local municipalities.

The team members plan to pitch their idea to small municipalities in the area and get their idea put into action.

In addition to the first place prize, the WATTs team also won the Nevada Commission on Economic Development Commissioner’s Award, worth $2,500. Co-sponsored by Sierra Pacific Power Co., the NCED award recognizes the business plan that best addresses rural Nevada’s economic development needs.

The Governor’s Cup, presented by Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, awarded more than $100,000 in prizes to the state’s top student entrepreneurs.

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