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Gigot Center Announces Business Plan Competition Winners

The Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Mendoza College of Business awarded Christopher Ladd (Mendoza '02), Stephen Colucci (GR '75) and D. Scott Null the $20,000 grand prize during the Inaugural Business Plan Competition held Friday, April 27, 2001.

The winning venture titled, "PartScope" is an online replacement parts ordering system for consumer durables such as lawnmowers and kitchen appliances.

Other finalists celebrated included:

  • The HammerHead Grille, a quick service restaurant chain concept with a Louisiana flair. The plan was submitted by Torbin Fuller (MBA '00) and Peter Woelflein (MBA '00).
  • Columbia Mortgage, a residential mortgage start-up based in the western United States. The plan was submitted by Robert Woods (MBA '01), Marion D. Woods, Elena Doom (MBA '01), Kylee Peters (MBA '01), Jeffrey Rivera (MBA '01), Omar Taher (MBA '01) and R. Brice Waddell (MBA '01).
  • Smart Surfaces, a patented surface coating for ships and power plants that prevents marine organisms (barnacles and zebra mussels) from attaching to underwater surfaces. The plan was submitted by Ashley Misquitta (MBA '01) and Joseph Morris (ND '75, GR '84) UK
  • Independent Day Surgery Centers, development of outpatient surgery centers in England. The plan was submitted by James McCarthy (ND '73).

Special awards were also given to:

  • Seattle Raindrops, LLC, winner of the "Best Bootstrap Venture". Submitted by, Melissa O'Loughlin White (JD '97) and Richard E. White.Seattle Raindrops, LLC sells peppermint breath mints in designer pocket sized souvenir tins that commemorate the rainy Seattle weather.
  • Haiti BedNet, winner of the Best Social Entrepreneurship Venture. Submitted by Keith Smith (MBA '01). Haiti BedNet manufactures and provides insecticide impregnated mosquito bed nets to Haiti's poor.
  • Nativity Prep Academy of San Diego, also a winner of the Best Social Entrepreneurship Venture. Submitted by David Rivera (ND '99). Nativity Prep provides tuition-free college prep education to at-risk children in poverty.

Finalists were chosen from among 75 alumni, graduate and undergraduate teams. Plans submitted include a variety of topics, from grain storage and home hair coloring products to dog biscuits.

Held in the Jordan Auditorium of the Mendoza College of Business, the business-plan awards celebration included a keynote address by Peter Bell, Chairman and CEO of StorageNetworks.

In addition to University students, faculty and alumni, members of the IrishAngels network and representatives from venture capital firms and incubators nationwide attended the competition's final event and were instrumental in competition judging.