AUBURN — A business student at Monroe Community College won first prize at the inaugural SUNY Engine Business Competition at Cayuga Community College (CCC).
Waterloo resident Lauren Burdsall won a $1,250 cash prize for her Cloud K9 Doggy Daycare business concept. Clients would be able to drop their dogs off while at work or on vacation and take advantage of services including a live Web feed, airport pick-up and drop-off, overnight care, in-home care, and more.
Burdsall also gets mentoring on her concept with John Liddy, the entrepreneur in residence at the Syracuse Tech Garden and a National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship Fellow. She was among dozens of students from six State University of New York community colleges who submitted ideas to the competition.
CCC won a $5,000 grant to launch the competition from the Coleman Foundation.
“Project this competition out five years, and we’ll have students from all 30 SUNY community colleges across the state presenting their ideas to room full of judges, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists, possibly in New York City,” CCC President Daniel Larson said in a news release. “Entrepreneurship can reinvent New York state. A tremendous amount of innovation and creativity came out of upstate New York 150 years ago. We’re trying to inculcate some of that back into the region. And these students are a part of that.”
Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com