New Venture Business Plan Competition Winners Announced
Orchard Street Press took the top prize of $7,500 in the Lubar School’s New Venture Business Plan Competition this spring. Whitney Teska (BA-History ’04) and Julie Lawrence (BA-Journalism and Mass Communications ’03) are the entrepreneurs behind Orchard Street Press. The prize money will allow the start-up company to buy equipment and begin printing eco-friendly, affordable runs of 12 to 1,000 t-shirts for the Milwaukee area’s underground bands.
“Winning first place has provided us with the funds to get our business well underway and opened the door for so many additional opportunities,” said Teska. “This has all turned out to be so much more than we ever could have imagined.”
The New Venture competition is designed to foster entrepreneurial spirit among UWM students and alumni, promote practical business skills, and encourage the creation of new, for-profit ventures. It is made possible by private support from La Macchia Enterprises, the parent company of Mark Travel and Trisept Solutions.
Orchard Street Press earned top honors out of a field of 49 initial entrants.
The second place winner was International Bookworm, headed by Sarah Cleveland (Senior, Management Information Systems), Heather Withington (Senior, Civil Engineering), and Brian DuVall. The company is designed to provide world language resources by selling books, games, movies and music on its website, initially focusing on teachers, students, and parents as its primary customers.
Fresh Start, the third place winner, plans to offer nutritional, fresh, preservative-free meals for delivery. The plan was written by Christina Doyle, Kathy Brengosz, and Allen Uebele – all currently seniors in the Lubar School – as well as recent Lubar School grad Jennifer Globig (BBA-Marketing ‘07).
The competition’s structure – with successive phases of plan development – helped entrants fine-tune their ideas and polish their presentations. Entrants had the opportunity to attend workshops and gain insights and advice provided by Bostrom Entrepreneurs-in-Residence Jim Hunter and John Komives. The competition was open to all current full-time or part-time UWM students and recent alumni.
Dean Kanti Prasad, who is also the Bostrom Professor of Entrepreneurship said, “It is an exciting event – a real first for the Lubar School and UWM. I’d like to thank Bill La Macchia and his wife Sharon for their involvement and support for the competition, which is a key element in our entrepreneurship program and our efforts to nurture entrepreneurial spirit among our students.
Entries for next year’s competition will be accepted in September.
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