Georgia Southern at the Georgia Bowl
A team of MBA students from Georgia Southern University led by Erica Sellers just competed at the Georgia Bowl business plan competition. The competition which was held on February 3rd and 4th at Kennesaw State University (Coles College of Business) brought together teams from seven universities including: Georgia Tech; Illinois-Chicago; Kennesaw State; Johns Hopkins; Louisville; Manitoba and Georgia Southern. The team of three postgraduate students (Erica Sellers, Whittni Wright; and, Scott Pittman) presented their business plan on “Roundhouse Railcars” which they completed on the postgraduate entrepreneurship course during the Fall semester 2011. The team did not progress to the final on Saturday 4th February and were knocked out at the league stage by Manitoba (Solvert) and KSU (iSpies). The result in the finals was Manitoba (1st); Kennesaw State (2nd); Georgia Tech’s Cardiam (3rd) and Johns Hopkins’ Rogue Ortthopedics (4th).
Erica the team leader commenting on the Georgia Bowl said, “It was a great chance to test out our business plan and discuss it with a panel of investors and entrepreneurs. We had an interesting, but perhaps challenging proposition to get over. The teams that went through in our league were all worthy winners and are both already in the process of starting the business”. The Roundhouse Railcars team presented an idea to provide refurbished or newly constructed streetcars that utilize a unique propulsion system.
The streetcars would be refurbished at an already existing facility, The Railroad Museum in Savannah, GA. Savannah was a major hub for railroads with numerous streetcars and even though in an abandoned condition, the facility is still there. The proposal was to develop a for-profit business that refurbished streetcars for US cities trying to reintroduce streetcar systems. The coach for the team and Entrepreneurial Fellow of the Center for Entrepreneurial Learning and Leadership Ron Medinger commented, “This business concept has real potential and it is something I can see actually happening in Savannah. The City is keen to explore how it can re-introduce a streetcar system, as are cities across the country, these historic streetcars have to be refurbished somewhere”.
Georgia Southern University competed against three teams. Louisville, who were also knocked out at this stage, presented Lerelen LLC a subscription-based platform for children six and under that provided access to developmentally-appropriate web and mobile applications. The University of Manitoba, presented Solvert, a company that uses geo-polymer to create custom floors and counter-tops and Kennesaw State presented, iSpies a free multi-layer location-based game that can be played using smart phones that have GPS and internet connectivity.
About the Georgia Bowl
The Georgia Bowl is an annual competition among the aspiring future entrepreneurs and business leaders attending the MBA programs of leading colleges and universities throughout the Southeast; and is the oldest Regional Business Plan Competition in the United States. The Georgia Bowl started as a competition among all MBA programs in the State of Georgia and later expanded. Unlike many business plan competitions the Georgia Bowl places more emphasis on the entrepreneurial potential of the proposed businesses and less emphasis on the business plan and/or presentation.
Posted in Teaching and Learning