��Vlog��ý Little Rock student entrepreneurs come out on top at Arkansas Governor’s Cup

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 20:44:12 +0000

A dream team of student entrepreneurs from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has won two of the top honors at the Arkansas Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition, a statewide business plan competition for college and graduate students sponsored by Arkansas Capital Corporation. The Vascugenix team won first place in the Winrock Automotive Undergraduate Division and a $25,000 prize. The team also captured first place and a prize of $5,000 in the undergraduate Innovate Arkansas Innovation Division for a total of $30,000 in prize money. Team members include ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students Noah Asher, senior finance and economics major and Donaghey Scholar; Abigail Resendiz, senior international business and management major and Donaghey Scholar; and Zach Cochran, senior economics major. Martial Trigeaud, a ��Vlog��ý Little Rock adjunct professor and business consultant at the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center, serves as the team’s mentor. “I am very proud of the team,” Trigeaud said. “The Arkansas Governor’s Cup is an amazing event with amazing judges, and we are very proud to be the winners of the 2019 undergraduate division and innovation division competitions.” The group collaborated with and Baptist Health Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit Nurse Anna Helm to commercialize a medical device invented by Chrisman. The device, the Speed-Torque, is a medical torque device used by surgeons in minimally invasive heart surgery. In addition to the Arkansas Governor’s Cup awards, the team was named a semifinalist in the Rice Business Plan Competition Aug. 4-6 and plans to launch its medical startup company after raising a significant amount in funding from investors. MBA student Gabriella De Lima also joined Vascugenix for the Rice competition. When Trigeaud first suggested the students enter the prestigious Rice Business Plan Competition, Asher thought it was a waste of time.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Team Vascugenix won first place in the Winrock Automotive Undergraduate Division and first place in the undergraduate Innovate Arkansas Innovation Division at the Arkansas Governor’s Cup.

“This is the largest and richest student startup venture competition in the world,” Asher said. “Only 42 teams from 400 applications from the top universities are chosen. It would take an act of God for an undergraduate team to get selected.” “The hard work in Martial Trigeaud’s business boot camps paid off, and we made it,” Resendiz added. As one of 15 teams to make it to the semifinalist round, the students took home a $2,000 prize. One of the allures of competing in the Rice Business Plan Competition is the ability to pitch and network with hundreds of judges consisting of investors, venture capitalists, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and corporations who are looking to invest in the next big idea. “You’re sitting in a room with a sea of millionaires who are looking to invest in your company,” Cochran said. “That is just from people who came up to us at the competition and saw our pitch. We have a significant amount of people who are interested in investing in our company.” Asher believes their company is appealing to investors because they already have a mature business plan with a viable product that can be launched relatively quickly. “One of the reasons I think we did so well raising money is that we are a mature startup company,” he said. “We have a very simple but needed product that fits in a niche market that we can dominate. It can give investors a quick return on their investment.” The students say the experience they have gained pitching in front of investors is invaluable. “I can now say that I’ve successfully pitched in front of ventures capitalists, and that is a cool thing to say in front of potential employers,” Resendiz said. “Competing at the same level of master’s and Ph.D. students and people who have 15 plus years of experience in their fields and still being able to surpass them is an excellent feeling.” After an eventful week of competitions, Team Vascugenix isn’t resting on its laurels. The students left the Arkansas Governor’s Cup and immediately headed to the airport to compete in the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota April 11-13. Funded by the , the challenge is the largest undergraduate-only venture pitch competition in North America in terms of cash prizes with a top prize of $75,000 and $250,000 in total prizes awarded.

Team Vascugenix competes at the Rice Business Plan Competition at Rice University on April 4. Team members include, from left to right, Abigail Resendiz, Zach Cochran, Martial Trigeaud, Noah Asher, and Gabriella De Lima.

“We wouldn’t have made it into this competition without the help of the university’s photographer, Ben Krain, who shot a seven-minute video we needed to enter this competition,” Resendiz said. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s team is one of 25 finalists selected from more than 100 entries representing 61 colleges and universities across America. Students will participate in a “pitch slam” elevator pitch event and an innovation challenge. Teams also will be awarded for outstanding potential to have social and global impact. Student teams also will be networking with top entrepreneurs from around the country, including Richard M. Schulze, founder of Best Buy. The students would like to thank Trigeaud; Dr. Jane Wayland, Stephen Harrow Smith Dean of Business; Laura Fine, director of the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center; and Dr. Mark Funk, chair of the Department of Economics and Finance, for their assistance in developing their startup company and participating in competitions. Once the competition season is over, Vascugenix will move forward with plans to develop the Speed-Torque for a commercial release. “We’ll look for the investors who fit the best with our company culture and vision for the future,” said Asher. “We want investors with the right networks of contacts who can help us succeed.” They are also in talks with health technology accelerators to conduct pre-market clinical trials through Baptist Health and possibly the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “After our clinical trial, we will be ready to begin selling in the market. We will target the South and Midwest based out of Little Rock,” Asher said. In the upper right photo, a team of business students (Zach Cochran, bottom left, Noah Asher, center, and Abigail Resendiz, bottom right) from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock have won first place in the Winrock Automotive Undergraduate Division and first place in the undergraduate Innovate Arkansas Innovation Division at the Arkansas Governor’s Cup. The students collaborated with Arkansas Cardiology Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Dwight Christman, back left, Baptist Health Cardiovascular Nurse Anna Helm, center left, and Martial Trigeaud, back right, to commercialize a medical device invented by Chrisman to help cardiologists perform heart surgery with greater safety and efficiency. Photo by Ben Krain.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock business students selected to participate in Rice Business Plan Competition

Ajani Oyindamola — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 13:07:13 +0000

A team of business students from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has been selected as one of 42 teams from some of the world’s top universities who will compete for more than $1.5 million in prizes at the April 4-6. The competition has been dubbed as the world’s richest and largest student startup competition with a top prize of a $300,000 investment from the GOOSE Society. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock was the only team from Arkansas selected to compete. The “�ղ��ܲ��Ծ��” team is comprised of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students Noah Asher, senior finance and economics major; Abigail Resendiz, senior international business and management major; and Zach Cochran, senior economics major. Martial Trigeaud, a ��Vlog��ý Little Rock adjunct professor and business consultant at the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center, is mentoring the team. “We are very excited to be competing in this prestigious new venture competition and to be recognized as one of the top startup teams in the world,” Asher said. The group collaborated with and Baptist Health Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit Nurse Anna Helm to commercialize a medical device invented by Chrisman. The device, the “Speed-Torque,” is a medical torque device used by surgeons in minimally invasive heart surgery, also known as interventional cardiology procedures. The teams for this year’s competition were chosen from more than 300 applicants to compete in four categories: life sciences/medical devices/digital health; digital/information technology/mobile; energy/clean technology/sustainability; and other innovations/investment opportunity. More than 210 former competitors have successfully launched their ventures and are still in business today, including 25 startups that have been acquired. Past competitors have raised more than $2.2 billion in capital and created more than 3,000 new jobs. “The true measure of success for the Rice Business Plan Competition is the number of teams that launch, raise funding, and go on to succeed in their business,” said Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship at Rice University, host of the event. “The competition has served as the launch pad for a great number of successful entrepreneurial ventures, and the success rate far exceeds the national average.” Community members can show their support for the team by casting their vote in the People’s Choice Competition via Facebook. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s team has already seen success promoting the speed-torque. They won second place and a $3,000 prize during the Ivey Business Plan Competition in January and will also enter the upcoming Arkansas Governor’s Cup competition. Asher was part of a team of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students who won the undergraduate division of the Arkansas Governor’s Cup and a $25,000 prize last year for their business plan for Spiritum Solutions, a mouth guard designed so that patients undergoing surgery or bronchoscope procedures do not damage their mouths by biting down on the tubes. Additionally, Asher received a $2,000 cash prize for winning the undergraduate elevator pitch competition. He believes that his previous experience, combined with the team’s compelling business strategy, gives them a unique advantage in both competitions and in the marketplace. “While we do have an exciting technology that will greatly benefit both surgeons and patients, we are not trying to change the way minimally invasive heart surgery is done or disrupt the marketplace,” Asher said. “We are instead focused on providing incremental, yet innovative changes that fit within existing surgical techniques, but also drastically improve surgical precision and safety. We believe that this strategy will help to drive our clinical adoption rate and to achieve long-term, sustainable growth that will generate substantial returns for investors. Our acceptance into Rice is a strong validation that investors see value in this strategy and that we are poised for success.” In the upper right photo, a team of business students (Zach Cochran, bottom left, Noah Asher, center, and Abigail Resendiz, bottom right) from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock have been accepted into the Rice Business Plan Competition. The students collaborated with Arkansas Cardiology Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Dwight Christman, back left, Baptist Health Cardiovascular Nurse Anna Helm, center left, and Martial Tregeaud, back right, to commercialize a medical device invented by Chrisman to help cardiologists perform heart surgery with greater safety and efficiency. Photo by Ben Krain.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock student entrepreneurs come out on top at Arkansas Governor’s Cup

����Vlog��ý Little Rock business students selected to participate in Rice Business Plan Competition

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock student entrepreneurs come out on top at Arkansas Governor’s Cup

��Vlog��ý Little Rock business students selected to participate in Rice Business Plan Competition