Westmont Entrepreneurs to Battle in Annual Competition

Four teams of Westmont students have been chosen to present their proposed business ventures in the 16th Annual Westmont Collegiate Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition, Thursday, Dec. 8. The free presentation will be in Hieronymus Lounge at Kerrwood Hall at Westmont. Refreshments will be served at 4:45 pm and the program will begin at 5:15 p.m.

Nine start-up business plans involving 30 students were conceived, researched, and developed during the fall-semester course “Entrepreneurship and New Venture Development.” The top two plans will be announced at the close of the evening and will be entered in various national collegiate business plan competitions around the country during the spring semester. The final four student ventures are: Fit For Life LLC; Garden Acquisitions LLC; Living Room Galleries Inc.; Polaris Athletic Training Systems Inc.

Each venture will make a 15-minute presentation followed by 20 minutes of questions and answers with five judges. This year’s judges include: Eli Eisenberg, consultant, StraightLine Management, Agoura Hills; Susan Block, investment banker, Block, Bowman & Assoc., Santa Barbara; Barry Fay, president, Aquaflo, Santa Barbara; Peter Sutherland, consultant, PGSA, Santa Barbara and Rancho Santa Fe; Gregory Tutton, consultant, Walnut Creek and Basel, Switzerland.

Westmont has been listed among the “Best Colleges in America to Study Entrepreneurship” in Entrepreneur magazine each of the last three years and in the top ten nationally among “Limited Curriculum Programs.

In 2003, Westmont student Eric Knopf won first prize for the southwest region in the 2003 Global Students Entrepreneur Awards Program. His non-profit organization, Epic Life, markets extreme sports clothing lines and manages extreme sports teams.

That same year, a Westmont student venture team took first prize in the Midwest Enterprise Creation Competition in Indiana, finishing ahead of teams from University of Arizona and Purdue University. The entry, Solum Monitoring Systems Inc., introduced the world’s first wireless, remote Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems-based water testing instrument for use in commercial water treatment and wastewater treatment facilities.

For directions to campus, please check our Web site at www.westmont.edu. For more information, please call Laura Wilson at 565-6156.