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Thousands in prizes,
34 world-class judges,
15 MT collegiate teams,
and it was indeed the experience of a lifetime
 
Schuyler Mann and Sarah Fitzgerald
were awarded first place in the high-growth division for
their business plan for Openlink, a mobile marketing
solutions provider targeting small businesses in university
towns.
Students from Great Falls, Helena, Bozeman and Missoula
submitted 25 business plans to this year's competition.
Judges narrowed the field to 15 for the semifinal round,
which took place on
Thursday, May 14th, 2009 on the UM campus.
Two dozen business professionals, mostly from Montana, but
also from California, Washington and Colorado, judged the
business plans on the quality of the idea, the strength of
the management team, and the clarity and persuasiveness of
the written and oral presentations.
The competition consists of two primary categories.
The high-growth division encompasses large-scale businesses
whose goal is to create wealth and good-paying jobs. The
lifestyle category consists of small businesses whose
primary goal is to create jobs for themselves and maybe
several employees.
“We tend to devote more prize money to the high-growth
division because we're interested in having students think
big and launch businesses that will impact the economy and
create good-paying jobs,” said Jeff Shay, director of the
competition and chair of the Department of Marketing and
Management.
Competition this year was tougher than in the past, he said.
It speaks to the quality of the entries.
The competition this year awarded more than $25,000 in prize
money to top-placing students. UM's graduate students swept
the high-growth division, while students from the college of
technologies in both Helena and Great Falls took top honors
in the lifestyles division.
Ninja Software, a technology firm specializing in innovative
resource management software solutions took 2nd place in the
High Growth Division taking home $3,000 toward advancement
of their business. The team of
Kevin O'Reilly,
Blake McWilliams,
Daniel Lande,
and
Jacob Marchi
plan to capitalize on expanding Internet access by producing
high-quality software applications that will be sold,
distributed, and supported by the firm to the rest of the
world over the World Wide Web.
Scott Gray,
another UM graduate student, received third place in the
high-growth division and both the People's Choice award and
the Environmental and Social Responsibility Award for his
businesses plan for Eden Systems. Scott's business uses
enhanced indoor growing technology to supply locally grown
produce to communities. The business would focus on growing
romaine and green-leaf lettuce, tomatoes and basil, and
would cut down on the three major cost drivers to food
distributors: transportation, weather and seasonal food
growth.
In the last two decades, more than 50 businesses have been
launched from UM's competition. Many of the students use the
prize money to live while continuing to fine-tune their
business plans.
Reporter Chelsi Moy, with the Missoulian, contributed to
this webpage
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