GU, Whitworth students win business plan awards

Three teams from Gonzaga and Whitworth universities won top prizes in the eighth annual Hogan Business Plan Competition, held in Spokane recently.

The event, sponsored by area companies and by GU’s Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Program, fields student and community teams who vie for cash prizes totaling $42,000 in three categories: social enterprise, community-based and student-generated.

Top teams in the first two groups each won $7,000; the student-generated team took home $10,000. Cash prizes were also given to second- and third-place teams in those categories.

Judges select winning team plans based on overall excellence, presentation and research and business relevance. The competition drew 44 teams this year, according to a press release.

The team that won the social enterprise prize award will use the cash to form Maji Filter Co., which will produce water filters for Kenyans. The goal is to produce the filters in western Kenya and sell them to rural families for roughly $15.

Heather Corker, one of the students on that team, said the idea resulted from a visit by Paul Zimmerman, a Spokane native, to a GU class last fall. Zimmerman has initiated a number of development projects in Kenya in recent years.

The winner of the community-based category is a GU team forming a company called Green Cupboards, a for-profit, online retailer that will sell quality, environmentally friendly home products.

The student-generated plan winner, BuySellFix, is a startup with the goal of refurbishing electronic devices and cell phones.

Area companies donating money for the competition include Avista, Itron and Telect. A grant of $20,000 from the Herbert B. Jones Foundation also provides a large share of the cash prizes.