Cooking Up a Winning Plan

SOLutions Corporation was voted Best New Venture Opportunity before a crowd of more than 70 at the 20th annual Westmont Collegiate Entrepreneurs Business Plan Competition Dec. 10. The company will sell an inexpensive, innovative parabolic-design solar cooker for Third World homes. Eventually, SOLutions hopes to target the U.S. backpack, beach and camping markets.

Four student ventures presented their start-up business plans in front of a distinguished panel of outside reviewers. The winning student venture includes Sammy Acosta of Saticoy, Calif., Michael Giusti of Sunnyvale, Calif., and Garrett Floyd of Anchorage, Alaska.

TripCurrent, which provides real-time, online referral social-networking for students travelling in Europe, won second place. Third place went to City Farm Center, which will launch an inner-city organic farm and produce market with an emphasis on sustainable education. The competition is part of the Entrepreneurship and New Venture Development course at Westmont, taught by Dr. David Newton, professor of entrepreneurial finance, who founded the college’s entrepreneurship program in 1990.

The four-judge panel, which engaged in detailed critique and analysis with the aspiring entrepreneurs, included: Eli Eisenberg of Straight-Line Management in Agoura Hills; Barry Fay, president of Santa Barbara-based Aqua-Flo; Susan Block, an investment banker with Block-Bowman & Associates; and Jason Spievak, principal in Great Pacific Capital and founder-CEO of RingRevenue.

The ventures will now be further refined and updated based on the judging panel’s feedback and then submitted to collegiate business plan events around the country, including the 7th Annual SEED National Collegiate Venture Forum in Santa Barbara in spring 2010. Since the founding of the entrepreneurship program in 1990, 24 Westmont student ventures have been selected for national business plan competitions and venture forums, including one national first place and seven top-10 finishes.