Watch Gamecocks Compete for $83,000 in the Proving Ground Nov. 18

November 18, 2014 ~

COLUMBIA, SC – Eight teams of entrepreneurs will pitch their ideas for new businesses in a “Shark Tank” style competition worth $83,000 in cash and startup support Nov. 18 at the University of South Carolina.

The Proving Ground, the university’s annual entrepreneurial challenge, will take place at 6 p.m. in the BlueCross BlueShield Lecture Hall (Room 123) in the Darla Moore School of Business. The final competition, which has drawn capacity crowds in recent years, is free and open to the public.

“The Proving Ground leads to innovation, both on campus and off,” says Dean Kress, associate director of the Darla Moore School of Business’ Faber Entrepreneurship Center. “It’s entrepreneurs who create jobs in our economy. This competition is growing the entrepreneurial spirit needed to benefit the university and create jobs in South Carolina.”

This year, the competition received more than 75 submissions. Teams selected for the finale will compete in one of three prize categories.

The $20,000 Maxient Social Impact Prize will be awarded to the business plan that best contributes to or solves a social or environmental challenge. Faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students and recent alumni (graduates since 2009) are eligible. The finalists are:

“Project Opera,” a two-week day camp designed to promote social, emotional, cognitive and physical development in underserved students through the development of crucial life skills.

“Metta,” a venture to develop a for-profit initiative that utilizes international artisan talent to produce sustainable, handcrafted and free trade apparel and footwear. The majority of the proceeds will fund education for the artisans’ children.

The $20,000 Fluor Innovation Prize will be awarded to the most innovative business concept that addresses an unmet need or solves an existing problem. Undergraduate students are eligible. The finalists are:

“Lux Nova,” whose flagship product is a social smartphone application named Wallfly. Wallfly is able to monitor any event and give live statistics about the event as it happens.

“Tradeversity,” an exclusive, localized, online marketplace for the university community (students, faculty and staff) to buy, sell and trade on their campuses. All users are required to create their account using their “.edu” email address, which ensures that students and faculty only deal with each other.

The $20,000 Avenir Discovery Prize will be awarded to the most innovative business concept that addresses an unmet need or solves an existing problem. Faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students and recent alumni (graduates since 2009) are eligible. The finalists are:

“Conexee,” a venture allowing companies to upload their projects, provide brief videos with company and project details and place other deliverables in their orders. The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) approach allows each company to expose its projects to thousands of students seeking to gain corporate experience.

“Out of Stock Rx,” an online marketplace for medication outsourcing facilities. The service will connect hospitals to outsourcing facilities and provide hospitals with access to medications they previously didn’t have.

Winners also will be awarded an affiliate membership in the USC/Columbia Technology Incubator, with support services valued at $5,000 each.

This year, The Proving Ground also will award one team with the $3,000 SCRA Technology Ventures Fan Favorite Prize. Two teams will compete, with the winner chosen by the audience as a “fan favorite.”

The competing teams will be “Sembro Development,” a software development company that creates solutions to improve the use of Bitcoin for consumers, traders and businesses, and “UTrack,” an app that consolidates college students’ class schedules, community events and organization updates into a single calendar. The two ventures’ business plans scored high but were not selected for the individual prize categories.

Teams in The Proving Ground pitch finale will have five minutes to make a compelling case for their venture to a panel of judges. Then, in “Shark Tank” fashion, the judges will pepper the presenters with questions about their concepts, including consumer and market research, funding and the potential for growth.

This year’s judges will be university alumni Aaron and Candice Hark, founders of Maxient; Todd Lewis, executive director of IT-ology; Peter Barth, CEO of Iron Yard Accelerator; and Jocelyn Paonita, a 2012 Moore School graduate, executive with Siemens and past participant in The Proving Ground for PT Trainer, an online service for personal and athletic trainers.

Bill Kirkland, executive director of the Office of Economic Engagement, says The Proving Ground has become the embodiment of the student entrepreneurial spirit that is abounding at the university.

“The Proving Ground has done a great job building momentum for entrepreneurial student ventures. With more prize money now available, it’s clear that businesses place real value on these ideas,” Kirkland says.

This is the fifth year for the university’s business plan competition, which has grown to $83,000 from $3,000 in cash prizes and startup support. The competition is held during Global Entrepreneurship Week, an annual observance to unleash new ideas to drive economic growth and improve human welfare. This year, tens of thousands of events will take place in 140 countries. In addition to The Proving Ground, Columbia will host an array of events for its own take on Global Entrepreneurship Week, which can be found at www.colagew.org.

Presenting sponsors this year include the Moore School’s Faber Entrepreneurship Center, EngenuitySC and the university’s Office of Economic Engagement.