The final round of judging for Brigham Young University's 13th annual Student Entrepreneur of the Year competition will take place Friday, Oct. 1, from 2 to 4 p.m in 151 N. Eldon Tanner Building. Students of all majors are welcome to attend.
Finalists Paul Lowry of The Builders Guide, Kara Forrest of Provo Fro-Yo, Brock Henderson of Osmond Design, Lawton Smith of System Design and Adam Edmunds of SilentWhistle will go head-to head for $60,000 in cash and in-kind services.
"The Student Entrepreneur of the Year contest provides the opportunity for students to network with other students and professionals who are doing the same things: starting and building businesses," says Linda Rich, program director for the Center for Entrepreneurship. "The competition offers participants the benefits of professional mentoring which, once out of school, can cost hundreds of dollars per hour."
Judging in the final round is done by professional entrepreneurs participating in the Fall Entrepreneur Founders' Conference. The competition is the pillar event of the conference, which exposes venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to BYU students and their companies.
Entries from across campus, regardless of academic discipline, go through three rounds of judging. The preliminary round selects the top 10 businesses to be presented before a panel of judges in the second round. The top 10 are then narrowed down to the top five finalists by this panel.
Started in 1992, the competition began as a way for the Center for Entrepreneurship to recognize students who start their own businesses while still in school rather than waiting until after graduation.
The competition is sponsored by the Center for Entrepreneurship (CFE) and hosted by the Association of College Entrepreneurs (ACE). Prize money and services come entirely from contributions to the CFE.
Past winners include the founders of 1-800 CONTACTS, DearElder.com, Nickelcade, The Quarry and DownEast Outfitters.
For further information visit ace.byu.edu.
