Topic: Miller College of Business
March 1, 2007
Ball State will give student entrepreneurs 500 seconds in a limousine as it circles the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to present their business idea to a panel of judges as part of the inaugural Nascent 500 Business Plan Challenge.
Ball State's Entrepreneurship Center will bring together 12 entrepreneurship college teams from across the nation March 23 for the competition. The winning team will receive $10,000, a quart of milk and a victory lap around the track.
"Being an entrepreneur means jumping on opportunities no matter when or where they occur," said Larry Cox, director of Ball State's Entrepreneurship Center. "Your shot to make your dream a reality may not come at a desk or over a large PowerPoint presentation. It could be a chance meeting in an elevator or in the back of a limo."
Students from colleges and universities across the nation were asked to submit a business plan. Teams participating in the "limousine pitch round" include Ball State University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Illinois State University, Loyola Marymount University, Purdue University, Taylor University, Texas Christian University, Texas State University, University of Hartford, University of Manitoba, University of Michigan and Vanderbilt University.
After the initial trip around the track, four teams will be selected by the judges to make a full business plan presentation in the "homestretch round."
Cox believes the challenge is the next step for student education in entrepreneurship fostered by Ball State.
Achieving top national rankings since it was founded more than 20 years ago, the program has become well known as the "ultimate entrepreneurial experience" because of the immersive learning opportunities provided to both undergraduate and graduate students, he said.
By Marc Ransford, Senior Communications Strategist