The UCF LaunchPad always seems to have something cookin! Yesterday I was on campus for a lunch meeting and happened to walk through the Student Union. I decided to stop by the UCF LaunchPad, a center championing entrepreneurship on campus, to say hello and am glad I did. I was informed that John Rivers, the…
This past Friday (2/21/14) I was a judge in UCF’s business model competition. I’ve judged multiple business plan competitions in the past, but the business model competition was very different. Rather than focus on the business opportunity, the unique offering, team and likelihood for success; the business model competition focuses on the journey that the…
Last night I had the opportunity to attend the fifteenth annual UCF Business Hall of Fame Induction event. The event had a “Roaring twenties” theme and having attended the event the last several years… I must say that this Hall of Fame induction event topped them all! The event was held at the Rosen Shingle Creek…
Seven years ago I took a leap of faith and transferred to UCF with the goal of getting my degree and starting my own business. I often get asked…Why UCF? Why not just stay in Pittsburgh, finish school and start a business there? Well, something told me to go to UCF…maybe it was because I…
February 17th I spoke at the University of Central Florida for their “Entrepreneurial Speaker Series” in front of an audience of 50-60 ambitious business students. The topic was on marketing strategies for entrepreneurs….I decided to take a slightly different direction to help students from falling into a very common trap that can severely injure or…
Yesterday GroupTable won the annual UCF Joust Business Plan competition and $12,000. About 40 applicants submitted their business plans for the competition, the top 12 plans were selected to participate. Last week these 12 teams presented in front of several investors & business leaders in the community. The top four were selected as finalists taking…
The competition was awesome. Going around the Indianapolis 500 race track in a limo pitching GroupTable was quite an amazing experience. We didn’t win the competition, but still won $1500 for being finalists. We also met a lot of smart, ambitious young entrepreneurs many of which loved GroupTable (Our online collaborative tool designed for college…