Students get real-world experience at annual business competition
Entrepreneurs and innovators from area high schools and USD gathered Saturday for the second Invent to Innovate Business Model Competition.
Seventeen teams presented their business ideas to a panel of judges for a chance to win cash prizes.
Beacom School of Business Dean Venky Venkatachalam said the goal of the event was to create economic prosperity for both Vermillion and the state by creating the next generation of entrepreneurs.
“It’s to double up and sustain grassroots level and cultural entrepreneurship and innovation across the whole USD campus,” Venkatachalam said. “The idea of fostering and facilitating entrepreneurship in the state of South Dakota.”
Venkatachalam also said USD is doing a good job working with area businesses to create a local business hub in Vermillion.
“We are building a very powerful and a very vibrant ecosystem at USD by working with a community of Vermillion and Sioux Falls businesses,” he said.
Nate Welch, executive director of the Vermillion Area Chamber and Development Company and one of the competition’s judges, said the event gives students real-world business experience in pitching ideas.
Welch said some of the questions students were asked included how marketable a product or idea was, the scalability of the product and how profitable it might be.
“What’s really exciting is USD does a fantastic job at preparing those students, so quite honestly sometimes it’s hard to remember that this is an academic project because they’re so good,” Welch said.
Welch said the event isn’t only beneficial to USD, but to the Vermillion community as well.
“What’s exciting is Vermillion as a community — as a business and entrepreneurial community — is really prepping and syncing with the University of South Dakota and the Beacom School of Business in making sure that we as a business community can make sure to be ready for these ideas to come out of the school walls and onto Main Street,” he said.
Bruce Biegler, a junior majoring in finance, was one of the many USD students who competed Saturday. His team’s business plan, named Save Money, centered on giving financial advice to recent college graduates on how to use compound interest in their favor.
“We thought we performed really well today.,” he said. “We got up there and we answered the questions accordingly and we’ll see how it all pans out.”
Biegler said the day’s competition offered him and others a way to gain experience pitching business ideas.
“In reality it’s kind of like a miniature ‘Shark Tank,’ “ he said. “It’s really great if you’re looking to start your own business and you want to get other people’s opinions on it and you want to get practice at pitching before you go out to the real world. You can come here to the USD Business School and they’ll give you a little feedback, a little trial run, and it’s just a great overall experience for business students.”
