<< BackRedesigned Launch DePaul Rewards Students for Business Progress
Launch DePaul, an annual business contest for student entrepreneurs, crowned its champion this spring in a redesigned competition. Media Revamp, a media conversion and production service headed by a current DePaul University student, took top honors and a prize package including cash and mentoring services.
In past years, the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center has used Launch DePaul to reward teams for the most promising business plan. This year, the center changed the format to be more about progress. “Writing a business plan is a lot of thinking about doing something,” says April Lane (MBA ’06), associate director at the Coleman Center. “When we restructured the competition, it became much more about actually doing something.”
The five finalist teams each established specific milestones for the launch week and were evaluated March 23 on how much they had accomplished. Six DePaul alumni and friends formed the judging panel: Bob Achettu (COM ’02) of Accelerated Growth Advisors; Seth Kravitz of Technori; Al Kutchins (MST ’75) of Kutchins, Robbins & Diamond; Adam Robinson (MBA ’04) of Hireology; Mike Samson of crowdSPRING; and Kevin Turner (MBA ’89) of Model Metrics.
This year’s prize package included less cash than prior years but more experiential rewards. Media Revamp earned $2,000 cash, an individual mentoring session from a prominent local entrepreneur, a company presentation at the monthly entrepreneurial event Technori Pitch, and a chance to represent DePaul with an exhibition table at Tech Week.
The first year of the new format went well, and Lane says students liked the emphasis on progress. She says staff members also enjoyed watching the teams grow: “It was great to see what they were able to accomplish in such a short time and how they significantly impacted their businesses.”
Learn more about Media Revamp from its DePaul founder >>