Filled to the Brim » college students

Business Plan Competition- Sitting on the other side of the Table

David Brim — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:21:08 +0000

Over the last two years I’ve won the Joust Business plan competition for two different ventures. In 2007 my business partner Scott Wall and I presented our niche real estate publication for lease purchase properties and took first place winning $5,000. Then in 2008 I won again presenting GroupTable with another business partner Carl Henderson that time winning $12,000. I was pleasantly surprised when this year they asked me to return as a judge in the finals which took place this past Thursday.

This year’s winner was Helping Hands Healthcare, a service-based firm committed to providing superior consulting and installation of daily living aids to families with in-home healthcare needs.

Other finalists included: Mercury Mobile Software, a firm developing a home screen replacement application for smart phones; Orlando Search Engine Marketing, a search engine optimization (SEO) service provider; and Ski Florida, an indoor snow ski, snowboard and kids’ snow play facility.

It was truly a great experience for me being that I got to sit on the other side of the table with judges much older and more experienced than me.

Just to run through some of the other judges:

Rick Walsh

Mr. Walsh is President of the KnobHill Group, an investment and strategic counseling company. Prior to establishing the KnobHill Group, he served as Senior Vice President Corporate Affairs of Darden Restaurants Inc. (DRI) and was a founding member of the leadership team that took Darden public in 1995.

Mr. Walsh has been recognized as Orlando Business Journal’s “Businessman of the Year”; one of “Florida’s 100 Most influential” by Florida Trend Magazine; “25 Most Powerful People in Central Florida” by the Orlando Sentinel; and “50 Most Powerful People in Orlando” by Orlando Magazine.

Thomas Bland

G. Thomas Bland, Jr., serves as Chairman of the Board,CEO and president of AquaFiber Technologies Corporation.In 2004, Mr. Bland was inducted into the UCF College of Business Administration Hall of Fame. He currently is a member of the UCF College of Business Administration’s Dean’s Executive Council, and serves as a board member for the Florida Hospital Diabetes Foundation. He also established a home healthcare business, TenderCare Professional Assisted Living Services, Inc., for which he concurrently serves as Chairman of the Board.

Charlotte Williams

Charlotte Williams founded SummerHill Homes, a sucessful construction company, and then became a leading local real estate professional. Charlotte is now a top real estate agent and owner of ERA Williams Real Estate Group.

David Pape

Serial entrepreneur and investor with four successful start-ups and over 30 years of experience. Mr. Pape has developed a keen eye for lucrative market niches and an innovative ability to develop opportunities.

The competition was sponsored by Steven Felkowitz, CEO of Atico International. His company, Atico International is a full service sourcing and product development company that provides retailers, wholesalers and distributors with the insight and worldwide relationships to build a successful import program. I heard they generate over $600M a year in revenue…I guess he could afford to sponsor the prize money and event over the last few years.

Getting to know these extremely successful business professionals and investors on a more personal level was a great experience. I was the youngest judge by far and was judging students I went to school with less than a year ago, as well as students currently enrolled in the MBA program. Being a judge gave me a taste of where I want to be eventually (sooner than later), which is an angel investor sitting on the other side of the table listening to entrepreneurs pitch, investing in companies I like and working with them to help them grow.

This was truly a great experience.

GroupTable helps Bentley Student Group win Competition

David Brim — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 15:53:47 +0000

I recently came across a blog post done by Nick Rac, a student from Bentley University. He gave his personal account on how GroupTable helped his group not only eliminate many of the problems they had, but played a part in helping them win a $1,000 contest at his school.

With his permission I have re-posted it below.

Thanks for the great testimonial Nick

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During my junior year of college at Bentley University I was enrolled in a mandatory course entitled GB 301. The course was primarily a project class in which a real world business with a real world problem approached our class and asked for consulting. After being broken into groups of 5 we were given basic information, and a few assignments – from this we were to formulate a 70 page business plan for the client, this was a competition style course with a $1,000 cash prize for the winning team. This course is extremely well-known and feared by Bentley students as it is extremely time intensive is a serious time commitment for ANY student.

After holding my group’s first group meeting it became apparent to me that all 5 of us being able to meet in the same place at the same time would be extremely difficult and I began to search for free group collaboration software. I gave a number of products a good thorough testing and decided on one outstanding product: GroupTable. The next group meeting was introducing the application to my team and explaining how I wanted to implement it into our project – everyone was excited to use GroupTable and we all agreed that it would be essential to our group’s success…little did we know that it would probably save the project.

Over the course of the semester we met on a regular basis of twice per week in person and twice per week via GroupTable. Once the semester got a little busier we were all struggling to make our meetings and began meeting 4 times weekly on GroupTable and only once in person. We were the only group (of 20 total) which had implemented the use of collaboration software, which gave us a true advantage.

Typical college level group projects function in one of two ways: 1. All members of the group meet in a single location and work on each part of the pject one piece at a time. Or 2. All members meet, distribute the work amongst the group, disburse and meet again to review and combine each assignment. A group project using GroupTable functioned very differently. We were able to meet in person, assign out work AND collaborate with one another at any time. GroupTable’s clutch moment for us was when a group member had an unexpected trip home to London. He was able to meet with us, submit his work and share the ideas he had brainstormed during his travel time.

When one of us had a question or idea during the day we would simply post the question/idea to the private GroupBoard discussion board and wait for other’s input. During our online meetings the chat allowed us to talk real-time with one another to discuss issues, ideas and concerns. These two features combined with the “Binder” feature (which allows users to upload documents to share) were essential to the success of the project. At the end of the project we calculated that each group member met for 4 hours on GroupTable for every hour they met in person, impressive considering we averaged 250 hours of work PER PERSON for 14 weeks.

In the end we ended up winning the course competition and the cash prize. Our group was able to finish the project 5 days before the deadline (normally groups are running to Kinkos at midnight the night before to get the plans printed and bound). Our presentation was killer, our plan a huge success and we were able to do an impressive class presentation on how we used the GroupTable software.

In a business school like Bentley the majority of our courses require a large amount of group collaboration, Bentley teaches that in the business world of today you MUST be able to function in the group environment. This can be difficult for many people as it requires commitment, flexibility and pat. GroupTable addresses many issues associated with any type of collaborative work and I continue to use it to this day for large group projects.

GroupTable Makes Top 10 Best Classroom 2.0 Applications List

David Brim — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 15:50:34 +0000

GroupTable has made Huddlemind’s Top 10 Best Classroom 2.0 Applications List. Huddlemind is a specialist social-media education and eventing company. They also own and operates a Social Network of Educators and Organizational Development practitioners at huddlemind.net.

Here’s Dave Duarte (Co-founder of Huddleminds) list:

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1. Udutu: Easily author and publish courses online

2. Engrade: Web-based tools for educators – including tools to keep track of marks and publish assignments

3. Haiku LS: Easy, elegant learning management system

4. Grouptable: GroupTable is a web-based software and success network developed specifically to help student groups improve document management, project planning and communication.

5. Edufire: Learn online with live video

6. Global Classroom: Create elearning centres to train staff or clients.

7. Adobe Connect Pro: Host classes live via the web

8 . Schoolrack: Manage class mailing lists, calendars and assignments in one place for both teachers and students.

9. Studeous: enhance courses with tools like live chat, discussion boards, podcasting, and text messaging.

10. Edmodo: Free private micro-blogging (like Twitter) for teachers and students.

Thanks for including us in your list Dave!