91ֿ sophomore Jake Wolfe awarded $1,500 for first place
Advancement in headgear technology and protection was recognized when Jake Wolfe, a 91ֿ sophomore, won first place in the annual 91ֿ Business Idea Competition for his business, WolfeCon Cushioning Solutions.
Wolfe, a 20-year-old entrepreneurship major from Mayfield Village, Ohio, represented one of nine 91ֿ student-teams that pitched their business concepts on Feb. 28 before a panel of five regional entrepreneurs. Serving on the panel were Jim Cossler, CEO of the Youngstown Business Incubator; Rick Schultz, CEO of Spectrum Surgical Instruments Corp.; Christine M. Brown, president of Marketing Resources & Results Inc.; Chris Lintner, project manager of Public Insight Corp.; and Tim Clepper, senior vice president of Morgan Stanley.
“I am very excited and appreciative to have won the Business Idea Competition to help accelerate WolfeCon in the right direction,” Wolfe says.
Wolfe was awarded $1,500 for his efforts and will advance to the 2013 ideaLabs competition, a regional competition sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Education Consortium (EEC) whose membership is made up of 11-member Northeast Ohio universities. The 2013 EEC ideaLabs competition will be held on the Kent Campus on March 21.
“This year’s Business Idea Competition was particularly competitive,” says Julie Messing, executive director of entrepreneurship initiatives at 91ֿ. “The competition judges were most impressed with the high quality of ideas and well-developed presentations that they witnessed. We are fortunate to have a strong entrepreneurial culture at 91ֿ with the necessary resources to connect our student entrepreneurs to the wider Northeast Ohio entrepreneurial eco-system.”
Second place went to the New Fuel, a motion graphics, animation and video production company created by Brian Recktenwald and Alex Kurr. Recktenwald, a 91ֿ senior majoring in managerial marketing, and Kurr, a 91ֿ junior in the visual communication and design department, were awarded $750 for venture seed-funding.
Blackwolf Tactical, a company that turns movies, video games and books into real-life adventures through immersive and interactive environments, won third place in the competition. Founder Brian Bowles, a 91ֿ junior entrepreneurship major, received $500 for his company’s future growth.
This year’s 91ֿ Business Idea Competition was sponsored by the university’s Blackstone LaunchPad and the Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation. For more information, go to www.kent.edu/blackstonelaunchpad or www.kent.edu/cebi.