ALBANY — Teams from Mohawk Valley Community College, SUNY Oneonta, and SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) won MWBE awards and prize money in the 7th annual New York Business Plan Competition. Women and minorities made up the majority of students on the winning teams, which secured the Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) Awards, according […]
ALBANY — Teams from Mohawk Valley Community College, SUNY Oneonta, and SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) won MWBE awards and prize money in the 7th annual New York Business Plan Competition.
Women and minorities made up the majority of students on the winning teams, which secured the Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) Awards, according to a SUNY Poly news release.
MWBE is a designation that refers to a business with more than half of its ownership stake belonging to women or minorities.
SUNY Poly honored the MWBE award recipients June 27. The award winners had competed in the event held April 29 at SUNY Poly’s Albany NanoTech Complex.
Dual:Lock, led by student Timothy Oh from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, won the competition’s $100,000 grand prize.
The MWBE award winners will each share a portion of the $10,000 award that competition title sponsor SEFCU “made possible,” according to the SUNY Poly release.
“I saw first-hand the strength of the plans put forth by these MWBE contestants. If our state is going to continue to succeed, we must ensure that companies built on diversity are given the funding and support needed to thrive,” Michael Castellana, president and CEO of SEFCU, said.
MWBE award winners
The MWBE award winners included Underground Greens, which is led by a student from Mohawk Valley Community College. It earned third place in the competition’s NYSERDA energy/sustainability track.
Underground Greens pitched a specialty plant and produce retail operation that will grow fresh, nutritious, chemical free, non-GMO plants and produce.
GMO is short for genetically modified organisms.
The products will be available online for local pickup or delivery, utilizing a soil-based, indoor, subterranean, vertical growing system.
The company also utilizes field and greenhouse crops, with a plan to offer bi-monthly community workshops to promote growing and eating non-GMO, organic produce and plants.
Another MWBE award recipient, Travelsee, is a team of students from SUNY Oneonta.
It pitched a mobile phone app that helps users “find and share experiences” at places such as museums.
The app user can utilize key words combined with their location, which GPS enables, to provide a social space for more “relevant, real-time interaction.”
The third MWBE award recipient, SUNY Poly’s Kid Sentry, shared a business plan for a small, wearable device that a user can place on children’s clothing. It communicates with a parents’ cell phone to alert them if their child has left a designated area.
The technology also allows parents to monitor their children’s sun (UV) exposure.
Kid Sentry won both an MWBE award along with the People’s Choice award in the nanotechnology/advanced technology track during the competition’s final event, according to SUNY Poly.
About the MWBE award
SUNY Poly and SEFCU sought to recognize three MWBE teams that successfully took part in the 2016 New York Business Plan Competition “due to the significant involvement and success of MWBE student-led teams from around New York.”
Judges selected the three teams for the MWBE Awards as they met the criteria as MWBE-eligible; received high scores based on those generated by a panel of judges; and didn’t place first or second in the competition, as those teams had already won cash prizes of $10,000 and $5,000, respectively.
In the final round of competition, 51 of the 82 teams participating (and 27 out of the 36 finalists) were women and minority teams eligible for MWBE status in New York.
SUNY Poly had also previously announced that it plans to assist each interested team with applying for an official New York State Minority and Women’s Business Enterprise designation.
In addition, the New York Business Plan Competition plans to formally introduce MWBE awards beginning next year to “maximize business opportunities for people from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds.”
Student-led teams that competed in the New York Business Plan Competition pitched business plans in a variety of categories related to the state’s 21st Century economy, including nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and clean energy, among others.
A panel of national venture capitalists, angel investors, and investment bankers selected the winning teams and offered feedback for each team that took part in the competition.
SUNY Poly, the University at Albany’s School of Business, and Syracuse University presented the competition.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com