Top 5 Winners of Washburn University's Business Plan Competition

1st Place:  $4000 Blake Tomasino Business:  A brewery/distillery partnership in Topeka

2nd Place:  $3000 Andrew Foreman, Deon Duncan-Taylor, Jim Henry, Marcus Gay Business:  A drive-in theater for Topeka

3rd Place:  $2000 Matt Spezia, Jacob Struber, Reed Trease Business: Moderno Metros – a smart parking meter system for municipalities

4th Place:  $1000 Emily Lauritsen Business:  Mental, physical & emotional well-being company based in Topeka

5th Place: $500 Brian Brzezicki Business:  API (Application Programming Interface) software company

Another team that entered the competition – Moderno Metros – is also entered into the “Network of International Business Schools (NIBS)” international business plan competition and has reached the finals.  They must interview with a panel of judges next week via Skype to defend their plan against two other schools from Europe.

Thanks to generous alumni, the School of Business has established a “Student Business Accelerator Fund (SBAF)” that supports new student ventures.  The fund allocates up to $50,000 each academic year to promising new student ventures, and some of our business plan winners will be participating in that event.