Venture School Winners | Spring 2015

Nine entrepreneurial teams graduated from Iowa Western’s first Venture School yesterday.

Throughout the six week program, our teams worked tirelessly to accelerate their start-up processes by getting out in the community; talking with potential customers, partners, and competitors; vetting their business ideas with seasoned mentors; and presenting their pitches to one another.

Each team made amazing improvements throughout the program, and we awarded over $5,000 in cash prizes:

• 1st Place– Loess Hills Lavender Farm (Mary & Tim Hamer) • 2nd Place– New View Training (Bethany Clark) • 3rd Place– Bent Right Manufacturing (Adam Wanie)

• Best Customer Discovery– 100 Block Arts Center (Alexander Hiffernan) • Best Pivot– Go Development LLC (Ruben Gomez) • Best Presentation– The Port (Jennifer Coffman & Jill Willard) • Most Improved– Year of the Startup (Jason Feldman, Sabastian Hunt, Jon Oschner, Ishmael Philip, & Adam Sagert)

• Honorable Mention– Tastebuds (Ann Cody & Jody Pendgraft) • Honorable Mention– The Market Place (Jaime England)

Iowa Western plans to host the Venture School program twice per year. If you have a prospective or existing small business idea and would like to participate, contact our SBDC at (712) 325-3376.

(Photo credit: ADoseofShipBoy / Flickr)

#SmallBusiness #ventureschool #event #startup #contest #entrepreneurship