Creating Successful Entrepreneurs

Management 8001 is built on the reality that regardless of their original intentions, a great number of MBA students launch their own business ventures within ten years of graduation. The course, Launching a High-Growth Venture – The Business Plan, was designed to create successful entrepreneurs by developing the skills for evaluating, preparing, and presenting business plans to investors.

"Anyone can have an original idea and a dream of his or her own company, but successful entrepreneurs build business plans that explore a venture's potential profitability to attract investors to support their ideas and dreams," says Jake Halliday, adjunct assistant professor of management and CEO of the Missouri Innovation Center. 'This class simulates the real-world process of developing a business plan for a high-growth venture and making a presentation to investors to secure start-up capital."

Students in the class learn about quality plans through featured entrepreneurs and in-depth analysis of award-winning plans from business and venture competitions. But, perhaps the most valuable tool for the Management 8001 students is taking part in a venture competition of their own.

Last fall, the class divided into three teams to design their own original business plans. The teams then went on to compete in the MU Show-Me Business Plan Competition, vying for the $5,000 Eldridge Award.

Judges for the competition included:

• David Mueller, director of the Fortune Group, LLC;
• Gary Eldridge, president and CEO of Sequoia Sciences; and
• Steve Trampe, chairman of Sequoia Sciences.  Trampe is the benefactor of the Eldridge Award, named in honor of Gary Eldridge.

A formal presentation of each team’s new venture was followed by a rigorous question and answer session. The new ventures in the competition were:

• Equinosis, LLC, marketing a high-tech system for diagnosing lameness in horses;
• Rheumatherapy, LLC, promoting a therapy for halting the progression of rheumatoid arthritis in knee joints; and
• This year's winner, VesicaMed, LLC, commercializing a novel treatment for late-stage bladder cancer.

Members of the VesicaMed team, which went on to compete in the Big 12 New Venture Championship in Oklahoma City, were Mike Arrendale, I-Chen Chou, Jong Han Hyun, and Jeff Findley. The competition simulates the process of entrepreneurs soliciting start-up funds from investors.

"At the start of the class, I had introduced myself as an "anti-entrepreneur" because it always seemed so high-risk and difficult to begin," says VesicaMed team member Mike Arrendale. "But I have learned that there are plenty of opportunities out there for a person who is willing to work hard and learn. I think starting a venture of my own is certainly in my future."