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After weeks of preparation, 10 groups of University of Missouri students presented their business ventures at the Entrepreneur Quest Pitch Competition on Nov. 18 at the Bond Life Sciences Center. RgentAI, an artificial intelligence coding assistant, took first place and won $15,000.
The competition is part of Mizzou’s Entrepreneur Quest Student Accelerator, a donor-funded program that provides education and seed money to students hoping to get their businesses off the ground.
Winners are selected annually by five judges who have professional experience working with entrepreneurs and startups. Each business was given six minutes for their presentation, which included breakdowns of their research, a proposed timeline and more. They then had a four-minute Q&A panel with the judges to help them make their decisions.
According to Kelly Mattas, senior manager of entrepreneurship programs at Mizzou, judges consider many factors when selecting their top entrepreneurs.
“They want to evaluate the students on their purpose and make sure they’re addressing a pain point,” Mattas said. “Does the business have viability? Have they done their research, like the data and the understanding of their market? And then, are they the right person for the job?”
The entrepreneurs began their journey with an application to the program at the beginning of the semester, where they explained their entrepreneurial venture. Fifteen applications are then selected for a short elevator pitch in September, from which the 10 finalists are selected.
These finalists attended weekly workshops through the Griggs Innovators Nexus, where they learned the business skills to develop their ventures and pitches.
Nathan Bresette, who founded RgentAI, is a doctoral student in bioinformatics. His experience using the coding platform RStudio both academically and professionally inspired him to create the contextually aware AI assistant.
Going into the EQ program, Bresette’s product was already developed, so he used the information he learned in the workshops to refine the fiscal elements of his business and focus on connecting with customers.
“Mostly just learning about financial structure was huge,” Bresette said. “I didn’t realize how much financial logic went into starting a business. We learned a lot about customer acquisition, validation, just always talking about the customers.”
Typically, three businesses are selected to share a $30,000 pot, with second place winning $10,000 and third place winning $5,000. However, this year’s total was bumped up to $35,000 after two businesses tied for third, allowing them to both receive the full prize.
AcreView Analytics, a financial tool for farmers created by junior Noah Graham, won second place.
Sencare Medical Solutions, a line of protective gloves for individuals with skin conditions, was created by sophomore Chinyere Omeife and tied for third place. Also in third place was Vital Track, a software aimed at helping nursing homes track residents’ vitals that was created by senior Dane Bishop and juniors Ted Krause, Harley Whitaker and Brock Schofield. Vital Track was also awarded the audience favorite prize of $2,000 from the elevator pitch competition in September.
Although the program focuses on student businesses, participation is not limited to those in the Trulaske College of Business; this year, 17 students were chosen as finalists from five schools and colleges within the university. Despite their wide range of interests and business ideas, finalists were able to find common ground and support one another throughout the program.
“It was nice to have … other people who were going through the exact same thing I was and bounce ideas off them and (hear) their wins and victories every single week,” Bresette said.
Although the pitch competition is over, the students’ involvement with the EQ program is not. While the winning businesses earn a majority of their money upfront, the program continues to work with entrepreneurs to create milestones. Once those milestones are reached, the businesses will receive their total sum of prize money.
The Griggs Innovators Nexus also provides opportunities and resources for students whose businesses are not chosen, including information about other pitch competitions at Mizzou and in the Columbia area.
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Students vie for seed money through Entrepreneur Quest Pitch Competition – The Maneater
