The weeks of April 10 and April 17 in 2023 were big competition weeks at The EDGE in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Our first event was Thursday, April 13 and Friday, April 14 when we celebrated the 7th annual Edward K. Aldag, Jr. Student Business Plan competition. Then on Thursday, April 20, the Alabama Launchpad’s Cycle 3 competition was held at The EDGE. Between the two events, we had about 350 attendees taking time out of their days to coach, judge, meet, watch and encourage those teams and to learn from them. Engaging as so many different teams compete helps new entrepreneurs and innovators learn how to frame their own ideas and what strategies and methods work well for them. For our teams in Tuscaloosa, we were so happy to see the ongoing growth of our own programs as well as being able to welcome Alabama Launchpad and all the people associated with that program.
Both the student competition and Launchpad are focused on the same goal: helping entrepreneurs succeed. At least three of our UA student teams have presented in Launchpad in the past, and after seeing the pitches on the 20th, I think many more will be inclined to apply. The cooperation and support happening in the various entrepreneurial programs in Alabama is something to be celebrated. All of this energy lifts everyone in the ecosystem.
The 2023 student business plan competition, that our student competitors have come to call “The Aldag” involved 47 teams participating in the final program. The teams all competed on Thursday, April 13 in a virtual competition. They uploaded a 10-minute video of their presentation on our learning platform, StartupWind, that allowed judges to go in and view each team in their virtual room (up seven teams), and then completed a judge scoring sheet online. Judges also wrote questions during the screening, and then on the 13th, the “live” but virtual sessions were question and answer only. The facilitators in each of the seven rooms led a discussion and then promoted four teams from each room to the second, in-person day.
On April 14, at The EDGE, competitors presented a 10-minute business pitch and then judges, and contestants engaged in 15 minutes of Q&A with the teams that made it to round two. There were two new idea rooms, one established concept room and one grand prize room (seven teams competing in each room). During lunch, Edward K. Aldag, Jr. visited and delivered an inspirational keynote; he told a story of the power of perseverance and going after your goals even when you will stumble a bit on the way. He emphasized what it takes to win, and those big wins involved a lot of work, partners and a trail of “not winning,” that provides powerful learning. We concluded with the awards ceremony the same evening of the competition.
The list of prizes and all winners for these rooms and more are on the Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute website. In total, we awarded 24 different cash prizes; in addition to the room-specific prizes, we also had special awards from:
The Alabama Power Foundation Innovative Technology Awards: $5,000; $3,000 and $2,000.
Best NASA Patent Awards: $2,500, $1,500 and $1,000.
New in 2023, Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative Patient Safety Technology Award: $5,000.
Four additional $500 awards for: Best teamwork; Best new idea; Crowd favorite and social entrepreneurship.
These awards supplement our core awards for each of the Friday competition rooms (new ideas, established concept and grand prize).
Grand Prize Room Awards:
$50,000 grand prize: ecobrew.
$5,000 first place prize: Crimson Charge.
$3,000 second place prize: Hometown Heroes.
$2,000 third place prize: JetStream social.
Ecobrew is a company whose goal is to engineer, design and install systems that help breweries save money and increase sustainability through their own CO2 recycling system. The CEO and founder of the company is Brian Henderson.
Crimson Charge helps patrons of restaurants, sports events and more charge their phones while on the go. Using portable batteries, customers can be mobile while charging their devices, picking them up in one location and dropping them off in another. The CEO and founder of Crimson Charge is Jameson Jonseof.
Hometown Heroes, run by CEO and founder Micah Howell, is a sports agency that helps college athletes with name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities. They represent athletes and partner with collectives.
JetStream Social is a new platform to help businesses improve audience engagement in social media. The event manager product suite is focused on providing a multiplicative impact on social media marketing at events. Its founder, Jet Thevenot, is the CEO of the business.
All four of these winning founders, along with some of their team members, will be part of the 2023 Crimson Entrepreneurship Academy (CEA), which is a pre-accelerator program run by the Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute (AEI), in partnership with the Culverhouse College of Business, at The University of Alabama. Sponsoring partners of CEA in 2023 include Medical Properties Trust and PNC Bank. Participants receive a scholarship to attend the 9-week program, which focuses on getting their businesses to the next level. These four winning companies will be joined by other participants, bringing the total participating companies to about 25.
On April 20, 2023 Alabama Launchpad celebrated its Cycle 3 program and awarded $25,000 to Cahaba Fire Company (concept stage) and $50,000 to Domestique Coffee (seed stage). The AEI team had lots of fun watching their professionals give The EDGE a new look for the competition. We had a packed house for the finale, which ran from 5 to 7 pm.
The Aldag competition provided resources to over 60 different teams (including those who got ready to compete and those who make it to the competition stage). Over 40 judges or coaches were involved. This type of cooperation and commitment to grow startups is a powerful part of our Alabama entrepreneurial ecosystem. If you aren’t involved yet, please consider being part of this movement. We still need speakers, workshop leaders, coaches and judges to help our startups. We also need to move forward on providing startups with funding after they go through our various competitions, pre-accelerator and accelerator programs.
Thank you to everyone who has participated in growing our Alabama entrepreneurial ecosystem. There are a lot of successes to celebrate, and we are creating new opportunities that still need more individuals to help these startups grow.
If you want to get involved, feel free to contact me directly at twelbourne@cba.ua.edu. Also, if you want to look at the winning pitches, reach out to me, and I can provide access to the 10-minute videos, which are on our community platform.
