Stockfish Family Awards Competition Puts Student Entrepreneurs Skills to the Test
Students from Dr. Glenn Brophey’s ADMN 3306 – Introduction to Small Business Administration course got a unique opportunity to put their skills to the test following the Stockfish Family Startup Award Competition. The competition took place on campus at the start of April.
The competition involves students who present their business plans to a panel of judges made up of community entrepreneurs. The top three presentations received cash prizes as a result of the generous support from our benefactors, the Stockfish family.
The entrepreneurial spirit brought George and Lynne Stockfish to North Bay in 1976. The family recognizes the importance of supporting company founders who set out to develop their ideas into businesses. The award was created to assist budding student entrepreneurs from Nipissing University as they move forward with their business initiatives.
Placing third in the competition, receiving $750 in startup funds, were Jerron Shalland-Rhodes, Cody Cox, and Nicholas Castellan, who presented the idea of Lensly, a peer-to-peer camera lending app aimed at community building among prosumers and professional photographers. In second place, receiving $1500 in startup funds, was Andrew Robertson, with the business case for Robertson Pools Service, conceived as a convenient, economical and commercially accredited pool service delivered to homeowners, with a focus on providing commercial pool quality maintenance that keeps the need for replacement parts and pool chemicals as low as possible.
The winning business case for this year’s competition, receiving the grand prize of $2,750, was AdU, presented by Ian Kenney, Jeremy Jones, and Malcolm McCubbin. AdU’s business case involved the creation of a smartphone app to help brands tap into user generated content and to help consumers that are already posting product and experience pics get some value from the brands for their posts.
"We were so pleased to be part of this event. The students and presentations bring innovative and dynamic ideas forward in a professional manner," said Jayne Stockfish-Irwin, part of the family of benefactors who sponsor the event. "We are already looking forward to next year!"
Nipissing University would like to thank the Stockfish Family for their continued support of the event. Nipissing University would further like to thank Tim Kuntz, Linda Lutecki, Jennifer Twigg and Bailey Puddister for their investment of time and energy as judges for the competition, as well as Mark Sherry for his role as a guest speaker who shared his experience of being a serial entrepreneur.