The Final Four & Award Winners: The 2020 Harriet Stephenson Business Plan Competition

April 27, 2020

The Harriet Stephenson Business Plan Competition Semi-Finals was such a successful event! We had an incredible turnout, and were thrilled to see so many come and support the teams through these challenging times. Each and every one of them spent tremendous time and energy on their business plans, which made it very difficult to determine these awards. 

Thank you to all of you who participated in the event. We truly could not make this experience extraordinary without you. Based on the scores of our Pitch Competition Judges and Trade Show, we are proud to announce our Grand Prize Winner as well as the teams receiving Special Recognition Awards.

RSVP for the Finals May 29 to see which team will take home the $10k Grand Prize! 

RSVP for the Finals

Finalist Teams

1st Place Sponsored by the Herbert B. Jones Foundation ($10,000), 2nd Place Sponsored by John Meisenbach ($5,000), 3rd Place In Memory of by Don Leuthold ($3,000), 4th Place Sponsored by Friends of the IEC ($2,000)

Delta Bee

David King Traub, LEMBA ‘20

Pail

Kristian Swank, MBA ’20, Siri Angeles, MBA ‘20 

Permanink Produce

Arya Matthew, BS Computer Science ’22, Sophie Ye, Alyssa Mell, Siddhant Jain, Khoi Ha 

Solar Dot

Jacob Zeigler, BA Management & Economics, ’21, Michael Bremer, Benjamin Carlson, JinLee Gunvalson, Alejandro Ramirez, Caleb Dickinson-Cove, Dillon Willend Atsiil, Hanson Liu

Better Makind Inc. (HappyGo) - John Castle Award

Derrick Peters, MBA '11

Sponsored by Jeff Widmyer and Friends of John Castle, in his memory ($2,000)

Up&Up - Swilo Social Innovation Award

Sharon Ideguchi, BA Business Analytics & Marketing '20

Sponsored by Gregory Romein ’14, in honor of the 2012 Swilo Team ($1,000)

One2Cook - Pitch Judges Award

Thomas Martig, LEMBA '20

Sponsored by Kurt Wedgwood ($500)

Modica - Tradeshow Judges Award

William Gibbs, BS Mechanical Engineering '08, Peter Biddle, Max Cerami, Ana Lester

Sponsored by Friends of the IEC ($250)

Votegrity - Audience Choice Award

Tom Thomas, LEMBA '20

Sponsored by Friends of the IEC ($250)

Semi-Finalists

AIRR Ashley Carson, LEMBA ‘20

Anna’s Assisted Living Samuel Mwangi, MS Finance ‘21

Bar Buddy Thomas Neiman, BA Finance ‘19

She Leads Liz Wagner, LEMBA ‘20 

Beans after dark Max Pineda, BA Business Analytics ‘20

Carentific Nasteha Muse, MBA ‘21 

Clarity Bethany Locke, BA Finance & Business Analytics ‘22

Cubizsoft Erin Chiang, LEMBA ‘20

Mini Waves Baby Spa Hilal Aktas, MS Finance ‘21

Navia Alejandro Ramirez, BA Management & BLAW ‘21