College hosts business plan competition
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » For the eighth year, Skidmore College hosted the Kenneth A. Freirich Business Plan Competition on Friday.
Eight finalists pitched their business ideas. Kind Cultures, owned by Graham Gilmore, Class of 2018, won the top prize of $20,000.
“This program really does exemplify some things about the college that are very important. We have an entrepreneurial spirit here. It’s something that’s been true of Skidmore from the moment it was conceived by Lucy Skidmore Scribner,” said Skidmore College President Philip A. Glotzbach before the competition kicked off Friday. “She was a pretty entrepreneurial person herself.”
Freirich, the founder of the event, was one of several judges Friday.
“A general thank you to the entire Skidmore community for embracing the competition, because this really has turned out to be more than I ever envisioned a long
time ago,” said Freirich. “My goal was always to help create an opportunity for students to learn how to start businesses, most importantly finding ways to make things happen, a skill that will change their lives forever, but I didn’t realize the impact it could have both on the college and community.” The second place winner, HOPE created by Philip Caine, won $10,000.
The third place winner, Edutrer created by Naira Abdula, won $5,000.
There was a tie for fourth place as Bridge Education, from Grace Zhu, and Z’s from Izaak Cohen, each won $2,500 for their businesses.
Before the competition began, participants found out even the businesses that didn’t finish in the top four would receive $1,000 towards their business.
AuxNation by Noam Kahn, Dhruv Singh and Zack Jones; LipSTAX by Jacob Livingston; Buddies by Ward Mahoney and Cloud Craft by Jamerly De La Cruz and Taina Cotto, rounded out the field.
More than 325 students and 210 businesses entered the competition, which was established in 2010 by Skidmore alumnus Freirich.