Business Expo and Pitch Competition Celebrates Entrepreneurship and Creativity
Over the course of the last 10 semesters, approximately 1,200 students from diverse majors have collaborated to create their own businesses and shared their plans with the University community. The unique experience has fostered innovation while enabling students to grow as leaders and entrepreneurs.
June 1, 2023
By Renee Chmiel, Office of Marketing and Communications
Joshua Hopson â26 and his teammates noticed that during the pandemic, there was a dramatic increase in the use of subscription services. They also knew firsthand that managing these services wasnât always easy.
That inspired them to create 365 Wallet, the company they developed and pitched as part of their âIntroduction to Business and Entrepreneurshipâ class at the University. The company would provide a comprehensive and efficient financial and password management solution to help consumers manage their many subscriptions.
The team presented the idea for their company to the University community as part of the Pompea Business Plan Expo and Pitch Competition, earning honorable mention for their poster.
âMy dad is an investor, and while I knew some things about business, I learned so much from this project,â said Hopson, a business analytics major. âI learned just how much work it takes to start a company.â
âWe are learning to innovate and we got to see the work of other companies out there,â said Madi McDonough â26, Hopsonâs teammate and a fellow business analytics major. âThis was eye-opening. I think this project will help me with my classes later on. It was a great overview.â
âWe worked well togetherâ
The team was one of several that took part in the event held recently at the Universityâs Orange campus. Students presented their posters to the University community, giving an overview of their business, the problem they endeavored to address, and their revenue model. Top finishers included âSmart Park,â a parking service offering an easier way of finding parking on university campuses that captured first place; followed by âSimply Sources,â an alternative to ChatGPT; âYourMindSpace,â a mental health app; and â365 Wallet.â
Students of diverse majors who took âIntroduction to Business and Entrepreneurshipâ collaborated to create and pitch the concept for a company. In the 10 semesters the course has been offered, approximately 1,200 students on more than 200 teams have gained hands-on experience developing their own business plans.
This semester, more than two dozen student teams from a variety of majors and academic colleges and schools presented the projects they developed on the theme of humans/machines and making life better. For Raphael Quezada â26 and his teammates, their goal was to create a company that would make life easier for students with disabilities.
âWe wanted to increase access to buildings and to create an app with access information,â explained Quezada, a business management major. âDeveloping a business depends on others and working together. You need to develop trust. I enjoyed this class, and it was a great way for us to learn from real-life examples.â
As part of the expo, six finalists competed in the pitch competition. âFaceIT,â which endeavored to address credit-card fraud, earned third place. âShop nâ Go,â a company focused on making shopping carts more high-tech and efficient, took the second-place spot, and âGreen Cycle,â a service that collects food waste from grocery stores and turns it into organic fertilizer, captured first place.
âThis took a lot more effort than weâd expected, and we learned to pay a lot of attention to detail,â said Caitlin Daley â26, a marketing major and a member of Team Green Cycle. âThere were lots of things to consider. This was a great group, and we worked well together.â
âThe students get stronger and strongerâ
The teams presented their companies to a panel of judges, who served as âinvestors,â as well as members of the University community. Charles E. Pompea '71, '90 EMBA, '06 Hon., for whom the competition is named in honor of, also joined virtually to watch the studentsâ pitches.
Four instructors taught âIntroduction to Business and Entrepreneurshipâ during the semester, including Brian Marks, J.D., Ph.D., coordinator of the expo and the program. During the event, he announced heâs stepping down from his role overseeing the expo, and he âpassed the bow tieâ to fellow course instructor Vasiliki Kosmidou, Ph.D., an assistant professor of management and the Universityâs inaugural Smerd Family Professor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
âEach year the students get stronger and stronger,â said Dr. Marks, executive director of the Universityâs Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program. âUnderstanding the entrepreneurial mindset and application isnât just important for business but for all aspects of life.â