The Jake Jabs Center for Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition (BPC) at the CU Denver Business School has been one of the foremost events for early-stage companies in Colorado, and is now expanding to the Rocky Mountain West. This competition seeks to promote the development of high-caliber business ideas, and recognize the most outstanding plans with more than $50,000 in cash and in-kind awards. Finalists will also be assigned mentors experienced in entrepreneurship, and may even have the opportunity to enter into the Jake Jabs Center for Entrepreneurship Incubator program.

I encourage teams with business plan entries from previous years to re-enter the competition. Take last year’s winner, Allergy Solutions, for example. In 2012, Allergy Solutions entered the competition making their way to the top plans, but not the top finalists. After receiving valuable feedback throughout the 2012 process, Neil Smith reentered Allergy Solutions in 2013 walking away with a $10,000 cash award.

I recently reached out to Neil to see where Allergy Solutions is today, and was delighted with he told me. Here is what Neil has to say about his experience with the BPC, and where his company is right now:

“I entered the business plan competition 2 years in a row. As you know, the first year I didn’t even make the finals. However, the judges’ feedback was very useful. In addition, taking a course taught by Arlen Meyers, MD in the Bio-innovation and entrepreneurship certificate program through the Jabs Center was a great source of inspiration and honest feedback for my business model. Feedback from the competition judges and from Dr. Meyers helped me to refine my business idea and presentation into a winning model.

After winning the competition, I launched Allergy Solutions, Inc. in July 2013. A former classmate in the CU Executive MBA program came on board as the operations director. We quickly secured two early clients and spent the first few months refining our systems using feedback from these early adopters. We’ve added several more clients recently…

While the financial prize from the Jabs Center business plan competition was very helpful in launching Allergy Solutions, the feedback that I received by participating in the competition two years in a row has been even more valuable. I highly recommend both entering the Jabs Center Business Plan Competition and using the Jabs Center resources to anyone who is considering launching a new venture.”

If you have some extra time, go check out the Allergy Solutions website to learn more Neil and their product. Here are some other previous finalists and winners of the competition – Click the links to see where they are now: MetroBoom, Viktorian Guitars, and Olomomo Nut Company.

Are you our next big winner? Check out our website for this year’s BPC Events and Requirements: http://business.ucdenver.edu/competition

Don’t Forget to RSVP for the February 26th Orientation.