A BYU-started company walked away from the U $40,000 richer.
A start-up company created by students from Brigham Young University won the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, held on Thursday evening at the Rice-Eccles Tower.
The two runners-up were Veritract, comprised of U students, and Hansen Industries, also from BYU. The U team was the first runner up. Each of these teams were awarded $5,000 and various other services that will help in the development of the businesses.
The competition awards $40,000 annually, in addition to more than $60,000 in services, to a student start-up company to help get the business plan and project off the ground.
In the competition, teams are given seven months to create and develop their respective business plans, during which they are offered educational training, professional mentors and help in the implementation of their business plans.
“We are very fortunate to live in a community where people that are already successful reach out to help those who are just starting out,” said Jim Jenson, one of the founders of KT Tape8212;the winning company.
The company markets a high-performance athletic tape that aims to reduce pain, accelerate the healing process after injury and enhance performance. The product has been used for more than 20 years, according to Jenson, but it was thought of as only a performance product that wasn’t available to the public.
“Nobody has thought of it as an available product,” Jenson said. “We really felt like this could be a great product for everyone from the major leagues to the little leagues.”
Two of the team members were absent from the ceremony because they were competing in the Oregon Business Plan Competition, another elite competition similar to that of the UEC.
“The level of the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge has elevated so much,” said Troy D’Ambrosio, director of the Lassonde New Venture Development Center at the U, a chief sponsor of the competition. “Involving other universities raises the level of competition. The top 10 teams from five years ago wouldn’t have made it this year8212;that’s the caliber of teams that we have.”
The competition, which began in 2001, has helped student businesses from around Utah to develop and has given them resources that otherwise wouldn’t have been available.
“Our company would not have made it were it not for this challenge,” said Jon Butler, president of Mediaport, which won the competition in 2002. “It’s huge to have 13 to 15 judges that say, “We believe in you.'”
KT Tape recently placed second at the BYU Business Plan Competition and won another competition in San Diego.
ElutInc, a company from the U, received the Workman Nydegger Award from a local intellectual property firm by the same name.
Six of the 10 teams selected as finalists hail from the U, with three from BYU and one from Westminster College in Salt Lake City. The competition is open to Utah collegiate, university and graduate students who have tried their hand at entrepreneurship and started companies, real or fictional.
The U’s Lassonde New Venture Development Center, along with the BYU Center for Entrepreneurship, collaborates with Utah businesses such as Zions Bank and KeyBank, as well as the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, to make the competition possible.
Erik DaenitzKT Tape co-founder Jim Jensen accepts the first place award for the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge Friday at Rice-Eccles Stadium tower. The company, which specializes in kinesiology therapeutic tape, was started by BYU students.
Erik Daenitz2001 Utah Entrepreneur Challenge winner Jon Butler congratulates KT Tape co-founders Jim Jensen and Ryan Dewey on their first place award in the challenge. KT Tape will use the $40,000 award to help further start the business.