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É«ÏãÊÓƵ’s first-ever Business Entrepreneurship Competition held its final presentations and award dinner on April 25, 2015. A new venture, sponsored by the Partners in Business student club, the competition was designed to nurture the entrepreneurial spirit of students and teach them the process of starting a business. Students, who were paired with industry mentors, competed for start-up funding by pitching business plans to a panel of judges.

Matthew Scheuer (Marine Science, ’16) took first place with his plan for Electrona Robotics, an underwater robotics business, winning $2,500. Scheuer is eligible to win another $2,500 at the end of the summer. His mentor was Bill Riggs, vice president of Technical Operations at Derm Dx, Inc., a medical device company.

In second place were Raymond Keller (COM, ’17) and William Bushey (Medical Biology, ’16) who collaborated on a plan for Third Kidney, a provider of sauna treatment for chronic/end stage renal disease. They won $1,500 and are eligible for an additional $1,500 at the end of the summer. Skip Irving, vice president of Stemnion, Inc., a regenerative medicine company, served as their mentor.

One of judges, impressed by all of the students’ ventures, anonymously made a donation of $1,000 for each of the other four competitors/teams:

• Anthony Pedersen, Master of Public Health student; Fund Assistive Technology, a crowd funding assistive technology business
• Ian Imbert, Master of Public Health student, and Sarah Kou, Doctor of Physical Therapy student; Early Career Day, a health career head-start program
• Andrew Wuu, College of Osteopathic Medicine student; Telemedicine, a provider of access to health care for rural citizens
• Jesse Dykstra (Marine Science, ’15), Craig Ryan (Business, ’15) and Matthew Scheuer (Marine Science, ’16); Sustainable Aquaponics, a business that raises fresh vegetables and fish

The competition, modeled loosely after highly successful business entrepreneurship contests at other schools, was the brainchild of Partners in Business club member Aidan McParland (Medical Biology and Oceanography, ’15) and faculty. McParland, who ran the competition with fellow club member Shamus Higgenbottom (Sports Management major, Business minor, ’15), expressed his belief in the value of the contest. "Not only are ideas financially supported but, more importantly, students are given mentorship from world-class experts in their respective fields to help make their businesses successful," he stated. "We crafted this program to stimulate an entrepreneurial spirit and innovative drive on campus, which also fosters interprofessional collaboration between students in diverse areas of study."

Mentors included É«ÏãÊÓƵ trustees David L. Anderson, Ph.D., managing director of Supply Chain Ventures, a venture capital fund specializing in software investing, and Karin A. Gregory, J.D., M.P.H., a partner with Furman Gregory Deptula, which specializes in technology commercialization and star-up funding, as well as Alper Caglayan, Ph.D., founder and president of Milcord and former founder and CEO of Peoplestreet; and Don Gooding, executive director of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development and vice chair of the Maine Angels investment group.