Wilton student wins $2,500 business contest prize
WILTON, N.Y. >> A Wilton business major studying entrepreneurship at High Point University in North Carolina won the $2,500 first prize in a recent school contest.
Allie Bollman took top honors in the university’s Elevator Pitch Competition for her winning entry, “Eat Safe: The Food Allergy Test Strip.”
The contest was one of many student activities held during the Nov. 12-18 Global Entrepreneurship. Bollman will use the prize money as start-up funds to help launch her business idea.
The strip will test for proteins found in a one’s specific allergen. To start, they will have available the eight most common allergens — milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy and wheat.
This will allow allergy sufferers to test their food when eating out to prevent a reaction sometimes caused by cross-contamination.
During the contest, 25 students were given two minutes each to pitch their business ideas to four judges and compete for cash prizes.
“Each year we are seeing more and more of our students embrace entrepreneurship, and that reinforces the fact that our students are extraordinary and will be future leaders,” said Kathy Elliott, assistant professor and the university’s director of entrepreneurship. “It’s exciting to see how the number of great ideas grow – great ideas that we hope will become companies one day.”
The Business Accelerator Fund and McKee Entrepreneurship Fund were established to support the annual Phillips School of Business Elevator Pitch Competition. The competition gives students an opportunity to pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges who are experienced entrepreneurs, with cash awards going to the top presenters.
The award money allows students to invest in their business ideas and move forward in making the ideas a reality.
This year’s panel of judges included Jeff Drobny from Minneapolis, the founder, CEO and chief investment officer of Garda Capital Partners; Jackie Eastwood, the retired founder and CEO of TissueLink Medical (now Salient Surgical); Kelly McCarthy, the CEO of InfusionCapital LLC and CEO of Medinex Healthcare Solutions; and Nasser Rafiee, the founder and CEO Transmural Systems.
The $1,500 second-place prize went to Caitie Gehlhausen for her business idea, Socket LockIt, an adhesive cardholder for the back of phones that has a receptacle to exchange phone grips to match the owner’s style, mood or outfit.
The third place winner was Jared Brumm, who received $900 for his business idea, Easy Reach Crutch. Manon Zijlmans received the People’s Choice for $100 for her idea, The Sticky Sleep Mask.