Eighteen businesses helmed by undergraduates, graduate students and alumni have been selected as semifinalists to compete in Babson’s College’s Babson Entrepreneurial Thought and Action (BETA) Challenge on April 2, with finalists announced on April 4th and presenting their ventures on April 10 during Founder’s Day activities on campus.
Winners in three categories ─ alumni entrepreneurs, undergraduate and graduate student entrepreneurs ─ will each win a grand prize of $20,000 in cash and “services in kind” donations from corporate sponsors. In addition, $2,500 will be awarded to the two other finalist ventures in each of the three competitions. B.E.T.A. Challenge entrepreneurs must demonstrate success in reaching major milestones achieved through action.
Six of the finalist businesses are from current students at the F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business, and range from apps such as BlueGift (Jad Antouh M’14), which allows users to create social funding campaigns in order to give their birthday gifts to a social cause, HigherMe (Rob Hunter M ’14 and Evan Lodge M’14) both a website and app that gives prospective employees the chance to submit one-minute videos to retail establishments, thus giving prospective employers a glimpse of the interpersonal qualities needed to succeed in retail environments, or micro businesses such as FedWell Pet Foods (Emily Lagasse M’15) which seeks to provide better quality food, made with the highest quality ingredients, to dogs.
Corporate sponsors for the event include Samuel Goldstein & Co., Pepper Hamilton LLP and Pierce Atwood LLP. Prizes will be awarded on April 10th after the finalists’ presentations.
