Business Plan Competitions
- Winner of 2007 UCF Joust Business Plan Competition ($5,000)
- Finalist in the 2007 Sunshine State Venture Challenge in Cocoa Beach
- Finalist in the 2008 National Nacent Business Plan Competition in Indiana
- Winner of UCF 2008 Joust Business Plan Competition ($12,000)
Noteworthy Speaking Engagements
- Featured young entrepreneur on Orlando’s Fox 35 News (2007)
- Social Media Panel discussion participant on Orlando’s Local 6 news program FlashPoint (2008)
- Interviewed on Indianapolis’s Fox59 at the Nascent500 Business Plan Competition (2008)
- Entrepreneurship Speaker at the University of Central Florida (March, 2009)
- Featured in one of the nation’s top selling entrepreneurship textbooks “Successfully Launching New Ventures”
- Interviewed on CBS News Radio Orlando, April 2009
- “Excellence in Entrepreneurship” Course Trainer-Marketing Strategy & Internet Marketing (October 2010)
- Speaker at “Invention to Venture Conference” on Branding, Social Media & SEO (November 2010)
- Interviewed by Channel 9 (ABC News)- Advice for people launching or starting a company in Orlando (January, 2011)
- Speaker at Disney Entrepreneurship Center- Marketing Strategy, SEO, Social Media (February, 2011)
- CO-founder of GroupTable (2008-Present)
- Founder and CEO of Brand Advance (2009-Present)
- Online Marketing Strategist for the Grow Fl program (Current)
Working with the Edward Lowe Foundation, a nationally recognized entrepreneurship development organization, GrowFL will apply lessons learned from the proven art of “economic gardening,” pioneered more than a decade ago in Colorado and now being applied nationwide to help second-stage companies grow. GrowFL will draw on the strength of a unique partnership that includes the Florida Economic Development Council, Enterprise Florida, Workforce Florida, the Florida High Tech Corridor Council and others working to identify and cultivate hundreds of growth companies.My role in the program is to work with the second stage companies ($1 million+ in revenue and 10 or more employees) and advise them on how to grow their business through the use of social media, SEO and other online marketing strategies. - Founder of Apartments UCF (2009- Current)The University of Central Florida is the second largest university in the United States with roughly 60,000 students attending each year. Apartments UCF is the best place online to help prospective and current UCF students find a place fit for a Knight while attending the University of Central Florida. Find, View descriptions, images, maps and videos of UCF Apartments.
- Co-founder of Rent to Own Magazine (2007)
- Marketing/Director of Premium Blogger Relations at IZEA (2008-2009)
- VP of Marketing for Flirt Clothing
- Flirt clothing was founded by James Betterson, my long time friend and roommate at the time in 2005. I worked with Flirt from the beginning negotiating costs of production, setting up distribution channels and working on the overall marketing of the brand.
- Charity
- Helped raise over $5,000 in donations for “A Gift for Teaching” (2007)
The subject of virtual interview was being an entrepreneur in college and participating in business plan competitions and the opportunities that go along with it.
Business Accomplishments & Experience
GroupTable is a collaborative software tailored for student group projects and study groups that was launched in February 2008. GroupTable currently has thousands of students utilizing their software all across the world.
Brand Advance is a Modern Marketing Agency that I started in 2009. Brand Advance is based in Orlando, Fl and also offers web-design, consulting services, search engine optimization, social media, branding and more. We have worked with clients such as Tupperware, UCF, OfficeMax, PBworks, and more.
Rent to Own magazine was started in March, 2007 while I was a Junior at UCF. The first week we started generating revenue from advertisers. Instead of continuing to run the publication while in school we merged our advertisers into a larger Florida home publication and worked out a profit sharing arrangement. 
