Second Annual Gustie Entrepreneur Cup Set for Saturday

The Gustavus Adolphus College Department of Economics and Management is hosting its second annual Gustie Entrepreneur Cup on Saturday, May 14 in Beck Academic Hall.

The Gustie Entrepreneur Cup is a student competition in which students develop original ventures, write and submit business plans, and pitch their projects to a panel of judges and the broader Gustavus community. The event is a focal point of the effort to create a space at Gustavus where students can experiment with putting innovative ideas into action. Entrepreneurship requires critical thinking, promotes creativity and resilience, teaches how to deal with ambiguity, and allows students to learn what questions to ask and where to find the answers. In this way, the Gustie Entrepreneur Cup serves as a hands-on application of the Gustavus liberal arts education.

This year the competition expanded from being exclusive to taking the Entrepreneurship Seminar (E/M 367) to include the entire student body. “Opening it up to the whole campus has added some creative new ideas,” economics and management professor and Gustie Entrepreneur Cup coordinator Marta Podemska-Mikluch said. “Each year the Cup will be more valuable to the students as ideas get bigger, expectations grow, and alumni involvement and coaching become even stronger.”

Student participants will compete for a winning prize of $5,000 and an invitation to the semifinal round of the Minnesota Cup student division. The second place team in the Gustie Cup will receive $3,000, and the third place team will be awarded $1,000.

The competition will be judged by President Rebecca M. Bergman and a panel of Gustavus alumni.

Schedule:

2 p.m. | Welcome and Introductions

2:30 p.m. | Student Presentations

4:30 p.m. | Reception

5:15 p.m. | Announcement of Winners

5:30 p.m. | Dinner (Three Crowns Room, Jackson Campus Center)

Student Presentations:

Campus Connect (Mitch Horner ‘16, Brady Kelley ‘17, Connor Oak ‘17, Chad Poppen ‘16)

Compete for Community Investment (Carl Ness ‘16)

Digital FLYers (Tenzin Choenyi ‘18, Rotimi Edu ‘17)

FikaFiesta (Joakim Ekfeldt ‘17)

Finished Beer (Charlie Adams ‘16, Jason Schwab ‘16)

FishingResortsandCharters.com (Joncarlo Westerlund ‘17)

Forager Cuisine (Scott Mulder ‘16, Griffin Reed ‘16, James Urquhart ‘16)

Life Changing Foods, LLC. (Jack Anderson ‘16)

Sunsculpture, Inc. (Arslan Berbic ‘19, Dang Le ‘16, Anh Tran ‘16, Lise Arakaza ’18)