Lipscomb’s Department of Business presented its Entrepreneurial Pitch contest this week for students to present their business ideas to local entrepreneurs.
Dr. Joe Ivey reported a great turnout at the preliminary Monday night competition, as well as a good showing at the Wednesday night finals.
“The students have some extremely good ideas this year,” said Ivey. “We’re going to give these students some opportunities to win prizes, and we hope they’ll use these prizes to fund their ideas.”
Students presented ideas ranging from a housing development powered by alternative energy to a website called dormads.com, which functions like an on-campus Craigslist. Bethany Hertrick won the non-profit category with her “international doll” idea, and Nate Underwood won the for-profit category with his food truck park.
Each finalist received a cash prize, with both of the first place winners receiving $1,000 to put toward their business endeavors.
“Basically, a food truck park will help solve the problem of connecting the customer to the truck,” Underwood said. “I want to do that through an actual location that food trucks can buy into with a membership fee.”
Underwood said he also wants to have a web service that will allow the customer to preorder food and walk past the line to the front of the truck to pick up their order.
Eight different entrepreneurs and businessmen from around Nashville judged the contests. Jerry Cover, a Lipscomb alumnus and dot com entrepreneur, spoke highly of the participants.
“I was really impressed with not only the quality of the products that were presented, but also the quality of the presentations,” Cover said. “I think there’s a probability for at least a number of the presenters to be able to follow through with their concepts all the way to a business.”
“I think this is sort of the essence of what will build new businesses in America: great young people who have ideas and the ability to see them through.”