Big Ideas. College of Business Thinking.

BY AMANDA DYSLIN

As students, faculty and spectators filed into Ostrander Auditorium for the annual Big Ideas Challenge business pitch competition, one slide on the projector screen summed up the impact of the program in less than a decade: 52 big ideas presented between 2015-2023. That’s a lot of innovative thinking in the College of Business.

As the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Director Shane Bowyer pointed out, this year’s six teams were among the brightest.

Luke Eggebraaten, founder and managing partner at Phaser Marketing and Dirt Work Marketing, teased the “stacked lineup” of student presenters before also introducing the panel of judges who would have the arduous task of de ciding the allotment of the afternoon’s $18,000 in prize money. The coveted $5,000 top prize also came with automatic entry as a semifinalist in the annual Minnesota Cup competition which awards big prizes to help startups.

The panel included Paul Abdo, the CEO of Abdo Consulting Group, Inc.; Tony Frentz, owner of Tandem Bagels; Melissa Bradley, general manager and co-owner of Snell Motors; Mike Hahn, director of the South-Central Min nesota Small Business Development Center; Michael Sowada, founded and runs MS-CCC, an e-retailer that specializes in vintage sports cards, coins and collectibles; Susan Michaletz, president of PoppedCorn.

Then, without further ado, Eggebraaten introduced the teams. “They’ve put so much work into each pitch,” he said, before yielding the stage to the presenters. “It’s like a live ‘Shark Tank’ show every single pitch.”